BOSTON - The Celtics' Ray Allen was at the Garden and shooting jumpers nearly four hours before last night's game. The Celtics were happy to see him.

The Lakers, as it turns out, not so much.

Allen was rushed away from Monday night's game to be with his young son, Walker, at a Los Angeles-area hospital because of an undisclosed illness. Allen stayed with his son Monday while his teammates and their families struggled to get out of town on a chartered flight. He flew home on a red-eye flight Monday night and arrived into Boston at around 10 a.m.

Yesterday, with his son doing better, he showed up at TD Banknorth Garden ready to play.

"I said, 'How you doing?'" said coach Doc Rivers. "I didn't even ask him about basketball, honestly. I just asked him how he was doing. He said he's fine. That's all I needed to know."

"Fine" was an understatement. Allen - despite suffering a scratched nose and a bruised eyeball when he was hit in the face by Lamar Odom during a drive to the basket in the first quarter, forcing him out of the game for a spell - tied a league record for 3-pointers in an NBA Finals game with seven, set a record for most 3-pointers in a Finals series with 22, and tied Kevin Garnett for game-high scoring honors with 26 points in helping the Celtics to a 131-92 rout of the Lakers in the sixth and deciding game of the championship series.

"It seemed like everything we did worked out all year," Allen said after the game.

His shooting touch, which had deserted him in the early rounds of the playoffs, returned with a vengeance in the playoffs.

"I just stayed [consistent] with my preparation," Allen said when asked how he broke his slump. "It wasn't one thing I did."

And last night, he and his teammates finished out their season in dominating fashion.

"Ray played great," said Garnett.

Togetherness

Rivers removed the Big Three - Allen, Garnett and Paul Pierce - at the same time late in the fourth quarter.

"They came in as a group and I thought we should take them out as a group," he said.

Perkins also returns

Also back in last night's game was Kendrick Perkins, who missed Game Five because of a shoulder injury.

"Oh, yeah, I'm starting him," Rivers said with a laugh before the game. "No doubt. Starting Perk, starting Ray and everyone else."

Perkins, who got into early foul trouble, played only 13 minutes and 25 seconds and scored just two points.

Record time

The Celtics set an NBA Finals record with 18 steals last night, and they also set a franchise record for winning margin in a deciding game with their 39-point victory; their previous record was 33. They fell short, however, of setting an NBA Finals record for winning margin in a game, as they didn't match the Bulls' 42-point victory over the Jazz in the 1998 Finals.

The Celts, who had already set a record for most road losses in a playoff season with nine, last night set a record for most home wins in the playoffs. They finished the year with a 13-1 postseason record at the TD Banknorth Garden.

One long journey

A Celtics season that began back in October and journeyed all the way to Rome and London in the preseason is finally on the verge of a conclusion.

The Celtics played their 108th game of the season last night, excluding the preseason. The Celts finished 16-10 in a playoff season that began back on April 20, or 59 days ago.

Short, but not sweet

Lakers coach Phil Jackson stopped by the interview room for the obligatory pregame media availability.

And he didn't dally.

Asked just three questions, Jackson stuck around for about two minutes before splitting. He gave little insight.

Asked about the Celtics injuries, Jackson said he was more concerned about his team. Asked about his team, he alluded to hockey injury reports that are notoriously uninformative, with descriptions like "upper body."

"Upper body is good," Jackson said. "Legs are sustaining."

End of interview.

Positive signs

There were plenty of good omens for the Celtics, even before last night's game:

No road team has won Games Six and Seven in the 2-3-2 format since the NBA went to it for the finals in 1985.

No team has won the championship after facing a 3-1 deficit.

Only three road teams have won a Game Seven in the finals, and none since Washington (at Seattle) in 1978.

Star quality

L.A. doesn't have the market cornered on celebrity fans. Among the famous faces in the crowd: Celtics great Bill Russell, Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler, Patriots coach Bill Belichick and a host of other Pats players and Red Sox executives.

Leonardo DiCaprio was also supposed to have been in the house.

The Associated Press, the New York Times and the Riverside Press-Enterprise contributed to this report.