LOS ANGELES — They didn't choke.

By definition, when one chokes, there is noise, movement, desperation.

The Lakers didn't choke.

They blew the NBA Finals without making a sound.

They botched their entire season while standing still.

They suffered the biggest blown lead by a losing team in the NBA Finals in at least 37 years by staring dreamily into the hardened eyes of a Boston Celtic team that angrily shoved them into next fall.

Choke? On Thursday night in front of a Staples Center crowd whose early cheers lapsed into a stunned and horrified silence, the Celtics' 97-91 victory was more like a smote.

The Lakers led by 21 points after the first quarter, the biggest first-quarter lead in NBA Finals history.

The Lakers led by 20 points midway through the third quarter, an insurmountable margin for a team playing at home and possessing the MVP.

And, yeah, they lost by six.

They gave the game away, but not before one of them walked away.

You know how Los Angeles fans are famously criticized for leaving games early.

Add Kobe Bryant to their list.

He walked off the court with three seconds remaining as the Lakers were bringing up the ball for a final shot.

It was a most egregious act for a most valuable player.

Meltdowns everywhere.

Even the NBA stat folks melted down, as they have no detailed records of Finals games before 1971, thus this can only officially be the biggest collapse in 38 years.

Unofficially, though, it also probably gives the Celtics the championship, as the Lakers now trail three-games-to-one, a historically insurmountable Finals deficit.

When asked afterward how his team was going to recover from this loss, Bryant said, "Lot of wine, lot of beer, lot of shots, like 20 of them."

That quote would have been a lot funnier if Bryant hadn't actually taken 19 shots in the game, and made just six of them.

"Some turnaround in that ballgame," said Coach Phil Jackson. "The air went out of that building."

No air, no understanding, all the gasps from all the blank-faced fans wandering to their cars contained the same word.

Why?

It was a question posed in a quiet Lakers locker room to Vladimir Radmanovic, who sat in a chair rubbing his eyes.

"I'm sorry, I have no explanation for what happened tonight," he said.

Why?

It was a question posed to Sasha Vujacic, standing across the room in a white T-shirt with his wet hair hanging in his ashen face.

In a play that typified the Celtics' comeback, he was beaten one-on-one to the basket by aging Ray Allen.

The play occurred with 16 seconds remaining and the Celtics leading by three.

Allen simply ran past Vujacic and, untouched, laid the ball in the basket to clinch the victory.

While Vujacic sat on the bench during the ensuing timeout, a Laker employee attempted to comfort him, but Vujacic angrily knocked the employee's hand off his shoulder.

Then he buried his head into a towel and looked — like many Staples Center fans looked — as if he wanted to cry.

Why?

"He got me," Vujacic said. "He just beat me to the basket. I was afraid to foul him. He just got me."

In the final quarter-and-a-half, the Lakers seemed afraid of plenty of things, mostly success.

Lamar Odom, who scored 13 first-quarter points to lead them to that huge lead, scored just two in the fourth quarter, and was beaten badly by the Celtics' Kevin Garnett.

Pau Gasol, who also started fast, scored just four fourth-quarter points, and combined with Odom on just two fourth-quarter rebounds.

The Lakers essentially ran to a big lead amid the glitter of a dancing Justin Timberlake and preening Will Smith, then stood around in hopes that their own leading man would save them.

But Bryant, who had stood around while the Lakers garnered that lead, tried to turn it on too late.

The Celtics, meanwhile, never stopped pushing.

"We just said, `Just fight,' " Allen said. "No matter what's going to happen, just fight, do what you can do, play as hard as you can play, and we'll see how we end up. But nobody is ever going to quit."

They outscored the Lakers 21-3 to end the third quarter, then simply overwhelmed them in the fourth.

The Lakers forgot how to pass; the Celtics knew exactly where to pass.

The Lakers forgot how to drive; the Celtics wouldn't stop driving.

Vujacic and Jordan Farmer, the Lakers two young guards, were a combined two for 15.

Gasol missed a third-quarter dunk. Odom took a couple of wild fourth-quarter shots.

In the end, the building was silent, the Lakers' faces were blank, and Bryant was gone.

Sort of how this season started, no?