Lakers guard Kobe Bryant tries to dish off as the Celtics’ Kendrick Perkins fouls him during the first half of last night’s Game Three of the NBA Finals at Los Angeles.

AP / Mark J. Terrill

LOS ANGELES – Kobe Bryant calls him a machine. Phil Jackson labels him a rock head. The Boston Celtics can call Sasha Vujacic a killer.

The Celtics let Vujacic slip through their clutches all night and he continually drained back-breaking shots. The final one came with just inside two minutes to play and gave the Los Angeles Lakers just enough of a cushion to pull away for an 87-81 victory in Game Three of the NBA Finals.

Vujacic finished with 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting, including three 3-pointers. That production went directly against one of the Celtics’ cardinal rules in this series. Stopping Kobe Bryant will be next to impossible. Stopping the majority of his teammates, however, must be done.

“Kobe is going to be Kobe. We have to keep everyone else in check,” said Kevin Garnett.

The Celtics’ defense met that challenge in regards to Pau Gasol (9 points), Lamar Odom (2 of 9, 4 points) and Derek Fisher (1 of 6, 2 points). But Vujacic, a third-year pro from Slovenia who averaged 8.8 points this season, did just enough to help Bryant. The NBA’s MVP played like the world’s top player as he poured home 36 points, 10 in the decisive fourth quarter.

“That’s what I love the most. That’s what I live for, those kinds of games,” said Vujacic. “My shot went in and the most important thing was the way we played on defense. We didn’t let them get a big lead.”

If not for the big 3-pointer by Vujacic and two killer jumpers in the final 66 seconds by Bryant, the Celtics may have stolen one. For much of the night, the Celtics seemed to play as if they were wondering just how badly they could perform and still win a huge game. Ultimately, the answer was tough to swallow.

The Celts received poor offensive performances from Paul Pierce (2 of 14, 6 points) and Kevin Garnett (6 of 21, 13 points) yet still somehow had a chance to win. A big shooting night from Ray Allen, who led the way with 25 points, kept the offense alive and the Celtics trailed 78-76 with 2:41 left after a tough bank shot by Garnett.

But after Eddie House missed an open 12-foot jumper, Bryant found Lamar Odom, who looked to the hoop and then shuttled a pass to a wide-open Vujacic in front of the Boston bench. Vujacic calmly drained the open 3-pointer, pushing the lead back up to five. Misses by Pierce and Garnett at the other end led to a foul and two Fisher free throws for an 83-76 lead.

After a Garnett slam, the Celtics chose to play Bryant with only one defender. Allen did his best, but Bryant hit two tough shots to seal the deal.

“It was single coverage. At that point it’s my responsibility to put the ball in the hole,” said Bryant.

The Celtics will look to regroup in time for Thursday night’s Game Four. They lead the series, 2-1.

“As bad as we played, we still had opportunities. That’s, I think, the positive,” said Allen. “I don’t think either side of the floor we were good. We had so much room for improvement.”

Even with their shoddy offensive play (35-percent shooting), the Celtics trailed by just 43-37 at the half. They took a lead in the third quarter and led 62-60 entering the fourth before Los Angeles took the lead inside the seven-minute mark. The Lakers should’ve won easily but kept hurting themselves from the foul line. The Lakers missed 13 free throws, making 21 of 34 tries. Bryant went 12 of 20 from the stripe.

Bryant said he was just happy to see the line. He took only 13 free throws in the first two games of the series but was much more aggressive getting into the teeth of Boston’s defense last night. How did he miss so many free throws? “I felt like I was in a foreign territory because I haven’t been there in so long,” he said. “It’s like someone took me and just dropped me off in the middle of Shanghai with no translator, you know what I’m saying? And no dictionary.”

Some Celtic fans may have been dreaming of a series sweep after their team carried a lead into the fourth quarter, but now the Celts will play at least until Sunday night in a Game Five at Staples. That game will either break a 2-2 deadlock in the series or be Boston’s chance to knock the Lakers out and win their 17th NBA title.

“We’re happy we didn’t play so well and still had a chance, but we have to play better basketball,” said Pierce, whose homecoming game obviously didn’t go well. “For us to go out and shoot 34 percent for the game? They were aggressive, but we have to come back in Game Four and be a little more aggressive, share the ball. I think we’ll be fine.

kmcnamar@projo.com