LOS ANGELES — The Celtics' highlight reel from their Game 1 loss to the Lakers, which lacked ample material anyway, was missing a player who's usually good for a few neck-turning clips: Rajon Rondo.

That's not to say the wiry point guard didn't have decent numbers in the Celtics' 102-89 loss. He had 13 points, eight assists and six rebounds.

But he wasn't able to coordinate the Celtics' offense in his usual ways, in part because of the Lakers' — and especially Kobe Bryant's — defense.

Three times in the first half, Rondo had shots swatted, twice when he drove inside among Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol and threw up acrobatic layup attempts.

Bryant guarded Rondo in the 2008 NBA Finals and has several times since.

"You try to stay in front of him as much as you can," Bryant said. "I'm not saying anything that teams haven't tried to do in the past. He's obviously turned into a phenomenal player, and I'll just try to control his speed as much as possible."

At the Celtics' practice Friday, Rondo conceded that Bryant "did a great job on me" but admitted that the Celtics' problems in Game 1 hindered their transition game, where he thrives. Boston failed to get stops on defense, didn't grab offensive rebounds and struggled with high foul totals.

"It seemed like they didn't miss a shot or we couldn't get a stop," Rondo said.

Still, the Lakers' game plan worked when Rondo penetrated. When Rondo gets in deep, he likes to draw post defenders and dump off passes to the Celtics' big men for easy dunks. Aware of this, Bynum and Gasol let him drive but forced him to shoot instead.

"We were trying to make him finish over (a 7-footer), whether it would be Pau or me, (and) wait until he goes to shoot the ball instead of committing to him early," Bynum said.

Regardless of the Lakers' defense, Rondo said he needs to get loose balls, steals and rebounds.

"And when I get on the break," he added, "just try to be aggressive."

•Bynum, playing with torn cartilage in his right knee for more than a month, had 10 points and six rebounds in 28 minutes.

"I'm not feeling too much more pain," he said. "I'm just going to keep playing as hard as I can."

Bynum hasn't been able to practice much since he was injured.

"I'm a little gassed every now and then," he said. "But it's the Finals, and I just fight through that."

bholmes@tribune.com