Ogre and Under: Davis and Robinson help Celtics reserves tie NBA finals vs. L.A. 2-2

‘Shrek and Donkey’ are boffo box office in Boston

BOSTON — Celtics supersub Glen “Big Baby” Davis already had a catchy nickname. Now he even has a sidekick on a Boston bench that is proving its importance in the NBA finals.

“We’re like Shrek and Donkey,” fellow backup Nate Robinson said. “You can’t separate us.”

Davis has been an ogre against Los Angeles in the finals this year, coming off the bench on Thursday night to score 18 points in 23 minutes in Game 4 when Boston won 96-89 to tie the series 2-all. He scored nine points in the fourth quarter, when the reserves pulled away from the Lakers and forced Celtics coach Doc Rivers to leave the starters on the sideline.

“I was really looking at the clock like, when is he going to come get me?” the 300-pound forward said in a rollicking postgame press conference with the 5-foot-9 Robinson by his side.

“I was thinking the same thing,” said Robinson, who scored 12 points in 17 minutes.

“We’re playing, but (the) timeout goes by, he doesn’t sub. I was like, ‘Man, he’s letting us roll,’” Davis said. “I want to give Doc a hug, man. I love Doc.”

“Tell him ‘Thank you,’” Robinson piped in.

“I sure appreciate it,” Davis added.

The ogre-and-under show may have cracked up reporters after the game, but the Lakers weren’t laughing in the fourth quarter when the Boston bench, along with starter Ray Allen, took a two-point deficit and turned it into an 11-point lead. At one point, Rivers sent his starters to the scorer’s table to check in, only to call them back after the bench held back a Lakers charge.

Davis made it a three-possession game — Boston’s biggest lead to that point — when he dove to the floor to gather a loose ball, then followed the play to the other end and scored on a putback, drawing a foul in the process. He stomped away in exultation, letting loose a primal scream and a bit of drool, while Robinson jumped on his back.

“Let me tell you something right quick,” he said. “When you’re in the moment, you’re in the moment. If I slobber, snot, spit, please excuse me. Kids, don’t do that. Have manners and things like that.”

By the time Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Rajon Rondo came back into the game, there was only 2:51 left and the Celtics still led by six with the ball.

“I don’t think that what we did today was really on the scouting report. It was a lot of just will and determination and seizing the moment,” Davis said. “We’ve both had success in the NBA so far. I think the world knows that we can play the game. But to play it at this level and the way we played it, I don’t think they knew that.”

The Celtics have been using a nine-man rotation in the playoffs this year, with a starting five identical to the group that beat the Lakers in the 2008 finals for Boston’s unprecedented 17th NBA title.

But the bench has been overhauled.

Robinson and Rasheed Wallace are now part of the energetic (and emotional — both picked up fourth quarter technical fouls on Thursday) second unit that outscored L.A.’s bench 36-18. Davis and Tony Allen were members of the ‘08 champs, but Davis was a rookie who didn’t play in the first five games of the finals and scored a total of three points in the series.

“This is new to me, playing in the finals and being a part of the team,” Davis said. “My first year I was a part, but I really didn’t play a huge part in winning.”

Last year, Davis was biding his time on the bench as usual before inheriting a spot in the starting lineup when Garnett was injured down the stretch. Davis started every game in the ‘09 playoffs, averaging 16 points and 5.5 rebounds, and tried to cash in on the free agent market before re-signing with the Celtics for two years and about $6 million.

Davis’ 2009-10 season debut was delayed 28 games after he broke his right thumb when he punched a childhood friend during an early morning argument. The team admonished him, he apologized, and when he returned he went back to the backup role in which he occasionally provided the Celtics with a spark of energy.

“He’s still maturing. He still has a ways to go,” Rivers said. “You know, this incident that happened at the beginning of the year was not the best thing for him or our team. … But in some ways it may have helped him understand that he had to mature now, and I think he also understood that the team was not going to wait for him. We were going to move on. And when he came back, he didn’t immediately play, and I thought that all that probably in some way helped him.

“He still has his days, and I think we laugh, but he did earn the name ‘Big Baby,’ and it wasn’t from his size. But he’s growing, he’s growing up as a guy in front of our eyes, and it’s nice. That’s one of the things we said when he got injured, that he is young, and all the young players in our league, they don’t have the comfort of growing up in private. They have to grow up in public, and that’s not the easiest thing for some guys.”