Before the NBA Final began, the Boston Herald had the audacity to suggest — in its playoff position-by-position comparisons — that the coaching match-up of Doc Rivers v. Phil Jackson was … wait for it …

Even.

Jackson, who has long been slapped with the ‘pick-a-winner’ label, nonetheless has nine titles to his name and has undertaken a pretty impressive coaching effort to get this L.A. Lakers team into the championship series.

Rivers, on the other hand, once worked for ABC.

And so it seems that anyone considering the coaching match-up (Jackson has coached for 17 seasons, Rivers nine; Jackson has nine titles, Rivers none; Jackson is 976-418-.700 liftime, Rivers is 339-328-.508) as even, can’t possibly be competent enough to cover that particular sport for a living.

Now Rivers has taken some heat for his coaching style — although never in the Boston media it would seem — and the closing moments of Tuesday’s Game 3 should be an indication of why that particular match-up is nowhere near even.

Rivers, after temporarily double-teaming, allowed the NBA’s greatest closer to go one-on-one against arguably Boston’s poorest perimeter defender. So there was Kobe Bryant, with one minute to go in the game and the result still in the balance, allowed to go head-to-head with Ray Allen and he promptly proceeded to hit a deep step-back ‘J’ followed by a pump-fake-up-and-under in the lane that essentially sealed things. Allen was barely noticeable.

But what led to that decision? Rivers had double-teamed Bryant in the fourth to get the ball out of the hands of the MVP and it worked marginally and forced the Lakers to get their points elsewhere (Pau Gasol tipped in a Lamar Odom miss after Odom was the generator of the set play out of a time out). However, with about 1:40 to go in the game and the Lakers up two, that double team was extended well out past the top of the key, almost near halfcourt. Kevin Garnett joined Allen in trapping Bryant. The thought here is likely that Garnett brings some length to make passes out of the double team tougher and the double should take away Bryant’s ability to dribble out of the trap.

So what happens? Bryant merely makes a simple pass to Odom at the top of the key — he’s free because of Garnett doubling — a slight penetration towards the hoop draws the remaining Boston defenders and Odom kicks to a waiting Sasha Vujacic who hits a three in the corner that allowed the Lakers to breathe a sigh of relief with 1:36 to go.

The next time down, the Celtics were going one-up on Bryant and No. 24 assumed his usual role of icing a game.

The Celtics still have to feel fine about their situation. They can look at Garnett’s subpar effort, Paul Pierce being invisible and then check the scoreboard and still know, despite all that, they were right there with a chance to win the game. Plus, it’s still 2-1 with, at the very least, two games in Boston possibly as their fall-back.

The Lakers, meanwhile, got one. It’s nothing more than that. Well, that and they’ve succeeded in injecting at least an ounce of life into a series that, with a Boston win on Tuesday, would have been well on its way to being a corpse.