Nate Robinson hops on Glen Davis' back after he scored a layup in the fourth quarter that gave the Boston Celtics a six-point lead. (NBAE/GETTY IMAGES)

Game 4 of the 2010 NBA Finals turned into the Nate Robinson & Glen Davis Show.

Little Nate and Big Baby were a huge hit on Thursday night both during the game and afterward, pumping a different vibe into this hotly contested series that is now tied at 2-2 with still one game left to play in Boston.

The defining moment of the game occurred early in the fourth quarter, and Big Baby had a big part in it with a supporting role from Little Nate.

There was a loose ball on the Lakers’ end and Davis beat Jordan Farmar to the ball and flipped it to Ray Allen to start a Celtics fastbreak. Allen penetrated and fed Tony Allen near the basket, but he missed the easy layup. Fortunately for Boston, Davis followed the play and was able to grab the offensive rebound and scored, plus a foul, to put Boston ahead, 70-64, with 8:22 remaining in the game.

It was a sequence events that summarized Boston’s night and may have injected some new life into the dragging Celtics, who were struggling mightily against the Lakers’ set defense until the final quarter when the bench gave them a big boost.

Davis was so jacked up after his basket he screamed at the top of his lungs. Then Robinson jumped on Davis’ back and both men proceeded to perform some serious primal yells, and that’s when Davis did something that all big babies do – drool.

During the postgame news conference, ESPN’s Rachel Nichols asked Davis if he was aware of his slobbering moment, and he said he was aware of it but defended his action.

“Let me tell you something, when you’re in the moment you’re in the moment. So if I slobber, snot, spit … please excuse me. Kids don’t do that. Have manners,” Davis joked.

“Sorry about that. Did I catch you with something?” Davis told Nichols.

Celtics coach Doc Rivers claims he has seen the Davis Drool before, and it usually occurred after a long run in practice.

What began as a nightly presser turned into a comedy routine between Chris Rock and Eddie Murphy … oops, I mean Glen Davis and Nate Robinson. When asked if he knew that Robinson was riding his back as he was slobbering his way to midcourt to celebrate, Davis turned to his bench buddy and joked: “You were on my back? I didn’t feel that.”

And Robinson’s response was, “Yeah. We’re like Shrek and Donkey.”

Davis and Robinson – aka Shrek and Donkey – spearheaded an energetic Boston bench that scored 21 of Boston’s 36 points in the fourth quarter that enabled the Celtics to win Game 4, 96-89.

“They really stepped on in in the fourth quarter,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. “Their bench outplayed us. But even with all that, at the end of the game, we had our shot.”

When Jackson was pressed on the Lakers’ defensive strategy on Robinson and Davis, the Lakers coach replied: “Nah, I’m not going to talk about that.”

Jackson’s refusal to answer a reporter’s question regarding Boston’s new dynamic duo was brought up during Davis’ and Robinson’s time at the podium, and Davis was quick to submit a witty reply.

“I don’t have no comment either. If Phil Jackson don’t have no comment then I don’t have no comment,” said the Celtics forward, who scored nine of his 18 points in the fourth quarter and made seven of 10 shots from the field in 22 minutes.

Davis took advantage of a Lakers interior defense that only got 12 minutes from 7-foot center Andrew Bynum, who started the game but did not start the second half. Bynum had just two points and three rebounds, and was clearly bothered by his ailing right knee, which swelled up after Game 3.

Bynum’s injury forced Lamar Odom to play heavy minutes and the Lakers’ 6-10 forward struggled to contain the 6-6 Davis.

“I just felt like a beast. Really, I’m just being honest,” Davis said. “I feel like I couldn’t be denied.”

Davis added: “I don’t think that what we did today was really on the scouting report. A lot of things that we did was just will and determination, and seizing the moment.”

If Davis brought the muscle then Robinson brought the speed to the game. When the game got stagnant and starter Rajon Rondo needed a break, Rivers turned to Robinson for a spark and the former New York Knick provided the Celtics with some much needed outside punch.

“I just want to bring energy. The more energy I bring, I get the crowd involved and my teammates,” said the 5-8 guard, who scored 12 points in 17 minutes. “You can’t scout energy, no matter what. Something my college coach used to say that the more energy you bring you’d be surprised what the outcome of the game would be. Play as hard as you can for as long as you can. That’s what we try to do. Play through the calls, play through everything.”

Robinson added: “When you’re playing like that you just want to play as hard as you can and as long as you can, and then you want the starters to go back in so they can carry us home.”

Trailing by two at the end of the third quarter, Rivers went to his bench mob to start the fourth quarter and he didn’t go back to his starters until with about three minutes left. Davis, Robinson, Tony Allen and Rasheed Wallace joined starter Ray Allen on the court and the unit turned a two-point Lakers lead into a seven-point Celtics advantage in four minutes.

“All I kept thinking about was ‘Let’s win.’ I’m not thinking about anything else,” Davis said. “I’m not even thinking about how Kobe was making all these shots, or worry about this or worry about that, I’m just worried about winning. Whatever it takes to win and make sure that I give my teammates positive energy to finish out the game.”

Video courtesy of NBA.com

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Doc Rivers has maintained since April that, at some point during the postseason, Nate Robinson was going to win a playoff game for the Boston Celtics.

Throughout the 2010 NBA playoffs, Rivers made it a point after almost every Celtics practice to remind Robinson to stay focused, be ready and told him to “stay engaged.” “At some point, you’re going to win a game for us,” Rivers said to the little-used point guard. “I can’t tell you when you’re gonna play, I can’t tell you if you’re gonna play.”

The Celtics coach proved to be prophetic as Robinson got his opportunity in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals and delivered a superlative game off the bench that catapulted the Celtics to a series-clinching 96-84 victory and a trip to the NBA Finals.

Robinson – the 5-foot-9 three-time slam dunk champion who was acquired by the Celtics from the New York Knicks during the trade deadline – led a Boston second unit in the second quarter that pushed the Boston lead from 11 to 21 points. He scored 13 points in nine minutes and made two huge 3-point shots that not only got the crowd excited but inspired his teammates.

Nate Robinson provides a big lift for the Celtics in the second quarter of Game 6 in the Eastern Conference finals. He scored 13 points, including two crushing 3-point shots. (NBAE/GETTY IMAGES)

“They actually made their big run with Rondo sitting on the bench,” said Magic coach Stan Van Gundy. “That’s not a knock on Rajon Rondo. I’m not sitting up here saying they’re a better team without Rajon Rondo. But tonight they were.

“Nate Robinson was great. He’s a real talented guy,” Van Gundy added. “He scored a lot of points in New York, and what he did tonight was probably what they had in mind when they made the deal. I guess, for whatever reason, he hadn’t played much for them. But in an absolutely huge game he stepped up and played great.”

Paul Pierce, who led the Celtics with 31 points and had 13 rebounds, credited Robinson for sticking to the script and staying sharp despite the limited action.

“He kinda fell off the rotation, but my hats off to him because usually young players mentally fall out of it when they don’t play, just go through the motions in practice and really not into it because they’re worried about their time. That’s normal for a young player,” Pierce said of Robinson, who turns 26 this month. He had averaged just five minutes of court time in this year’s playoffs.

“But he kept his poise. He went to practice and got his work in, shot the ball, and did what he had to do to stay ready. Tonight his number was called and that just shows his true professionalism,” Pierce continued. “The game could have went either way at that point. We were only up by six or eight [points] and Rondo gets hurt, and he comes in and was a huge sparkplug, and really pushed the game for us.”

Rivers noted that he had already decided to give Robinson more playing time for Game 6 after he played well during the Game 5 loss in Orlando, and it became absolutely necessary when Rondo hurt his hip during the first quarter. “Even though we had played awful, [Robinson] came in and had bought into our defensive system and he was able to run a couple of sets in our system,” Rivers said.

Robinson carried over his solid Game 5 performance with an ever better one in Game 6. He was aggressive on offense and, more importantly, applied heavy pressure on Magic point guard Jameer Nelson, who struggled to a 5-for-14 evening and had just 11 points.

Orlando fought valiantly in this series and Rivers credited Van Gundy for keeping his team together even when most people had already counted them out when they fell behind 0-3.

“We got away from our game when we got behind. Unfortunately, it happens to every team. When we missed shots early, we didn’t stick with our game,” said Van Gundy, who pointed out that the first quarter was the key to the whole series.

“There’s this thing that people try to perpetuate that the NBA is fourth-quarter league, and you don’t even need to watch the first three quarters. That’s for people who don’t study at all and don’t follow NBA basketball. Go back through the years, two thirds or three quarters of the games are won by the team that wins the first quarter. It’s a first-quarter league. You gotta be ready at the start.”

The Magic fell behind 30-19 in the first quarter and played uphill the rest of the game.

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The 2010 Sprite Slam Dunk Contest in Dallas didn’t quite live up to the hype, but there was history made Saturday night as Nate Robinson became the first three-time dunk champion.

Robinson, the defending champion, didn’t have to bring his “A” game because the competition failed miserably. Shakira and Alicia Keys had better performances than the slam dunk competitors. Nate “The Great” outlasted rookie DeMar DeRozan in the finals to claim his third dunk trophy. DeRozan had one real good dunk, but seem to run out of ideas once he got to the finals.

Shannon Brown and Gerald Wallace, two guys who were thought to be contenders, both fizzled in the first round and their vanilla dunks didn’t impress the judges. I think Brown and Wallace were saving their best dunks in the finals. The problem was, they didn’t make it past the first round.

For highlights of the 2010 Sprite Slam Dunk Contest, click on the video link courtesy of NBA.com:

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