Despite Kobe Bryant's heroic 38-point performance for the Lakers Sunday night, the Celtics won Game 5, 92-86, and the media would not let Bryant hear the end of it. (AP)

Fueled by a raucous TD Garden crowd, a bench that wouldn’t quit and an apparent lack of serious competition, the Celtics took a 3-2 series lead over the Lakers Sunday night with their 92-86 win. The storylines have stayed the same throughout the series. The C’s have stepped up and played as a team with a new leader emerging every game, while the Lakers have been inconsistent and led by one strong player, usually Kobe Bryant. Game 5 was just more of the same, and the national headlines the day after have told the same tale.

Los Angeles:

• Most of the criticism against Kobe and the Lakers originates from LA:
  –  T.J. Simers of the LA Times writes the harshest criticism by refusing to call him by name, opting for Our Ball Hog ^[3] instead.
  – Mark Medina from the Times’ Lakers Blog places the blame on the rest of the Lakers ^[4] for not supporting their leader.
  – The LA Daily News’ Vincent Bonsignore discusses how calm and quiet ^[5] Kobe was during the postgame press conference. Alongside that, Bonsignore says that the captain “really isn’t interested in prodding his teammates along with some fiery speech over the next few days.”
• Bill Plaschke believes that this 2010 series is starting to resemble the 2008 series and it seems as though the Lakers are throwing in the towel ^[6].
• The Lakers’ big men – Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum – have been largely ineffective ^[7] and just taking up space on the court, writes Mike Bresnahan.
• Meanwhile, the Daily News’ Elliot Teaford reports that Lamar Odom hasn’t been acting like his normal, bubbly self ^[8] in and around the Lakers’ clubhouse this series because of his poor play.

National:

• Jeff Zilgitt of USA Today chalks up the C’s Game 5 victory to their big four starters ^[9]: Pierce, Rondo, Allen and Garnett.
• Also from USA Today, Michael Falgoust noticed that Bryant’s shooting ^[10] percentage for the series is down to 42.5 percent, his lowest since the first round against Oklahoma City when he had swollen knee problems.
• Pau Gasol has been nothing more than a “spectator to the Kobe Bryant show. ^[11]” According to The Associated Press, Gasol wouldn’t “get himself involved or the Lakers wouldn’t involve him” in Game 5.
• Kevin Garnett is noncommittal about his immediate future, ^[12] but he is definitely glad he decided to leave Minnesota and come to Boston, writes Bill Lee of the Providence Journal.
• ESPN’s Daily Dime covers topics ^[13] such as “the better team won Game 5,” Kobe Bryant needing some serious help on the court and Boston’s bench keeping the energy up every game.
• And finally, the ratings for Game 5 are slowly trickling in and it appears that it was the most watched game of the series so far ^[14] and the most watched event of the night again. The 2010 finals have been the highest watched finals since the 2004 matchup between the Lakers and the Pistons.