BOSTON – Ray Allen was playing with a heavy heart last night.

He was playing for his teammates, the Boston fans, and to cement his Hall of Fame career by winning his first NBA title.

But more important to him, he was playing for his toddler son, Walker, who was diagnosed with diabetes in Los Angeles on Sunday after being rushed to an area hospital when he became sick on Sunday morning.

These last three days have been an emotional rollercoaster ride for Allen, but he was all smiles last night after he helped the Celtics win their first NBA title in 22 years with a convincing 131-92 Game Six triumph over the Lakers.

Allen scored 26 points and tied an NBA Finals record with seven 3-pointers.

“He was feeling ill, and we kind of – we just thought maybe he had some type of virus that was passing,” Allen said of Walker. “And Sunday morning we had to admit him to the hospital and just had to deal with that. Found out he was diagnosed with diabetes and just had to play the game that Sunday, and then wonder whether he was OK.

"He wasn't doing well that day, so I got to his hospital bed after the game on Sunday and he started coming alive and everything was great. I just knew that that's where I needed to be.”

Allen rushed to the hospital to be with his son after Boston lost Game Five to Los Angeles.

When his teammates left for Boston on Monday, he remained in Los Angeles with several members of his family who made the trip to Los Angeles to watch him play.

Allen arrived in Boston early Tuesday morning. He missed the Celtics' morning shootaround because he had checked his son into another hospital.

“We got in [Tuesday] morning and we took him to the hospital, and he was lively, so I was relieved to see that he was moving around,” Allen said. “This is something that is going to be a lifestyle change for all of us, but we made it through those first couple of days, and being educated on what exactly he has to go through. Just sitting in the hospital this morning, I hadn't slept really, and just now thinking how I'm going to sleep, get rest and how my body is going to respond to getting out here tonight and just – the team was great, and I just told myself that I wasn't going to come in and just do – I was going to focus on just trying to make plays for this team, whatever that meant.

“The team played great, and I was able to focus in, and the family took care of everything else from the hospital perspective, and I was able to come out here and just play basketball. It's such a wonderful feeling to be able to do this on this night with all the stuff that has taken place over the weekend, and to be able to share this with the fans in Boston has been great.”

Allen was Boston’s second-best player in the Finals. He averaged 20.3 points, 5.0 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game.

It seemed as if nothing could stop him.

But on Sunday, when he got the news of his sick son, he was heartbroken.

Suddenly, his dream of winning an NBA title didn’t seem that big anymore. When the life of a loved one is hanging in the balance, it puts a lot of things in perspective.

But Allen was able to play in the biggest game of his life last night: Game Six of the NBA Finals.

For three hours, Allen was able to put all of the troubles of the world aside, focus solely on basketball, and help the Celtics make history by winning their NBA-best 17th NBA championship.

At the Larry O’Brien trophy presentation, Allen brought Walker out on the stage with him.

“He was very happy to be in my arms,” Allen said. “He was very content, and just knowing him, in the years to come he'll realize how big of a moment and he was able to share this moment with me, both my sons and my daughter. All of us are pretty speechless. We talked about this at the beginning of the year.

“We spotlighted the wall in our practice facility. We talked about it in Rome. We talked about it in September when the trades went down. This truly to me was a team coming together where everybody put individual agendas aside, and we just stepped up to the plate and we did what it was to do the team thing.”

roblee@projo.com