The setting and the scene were so familiar. The Celtics and Lakers were in yet another meat-grinder of a game. Possessions were tight, fast breaks were rare and always there was the threat of a Lakers offensive rebound.

They battled for 53 minutes at the Garden on Thursday, through nine ties and just as many lead changes. Neither team led by double digits. It’s always great theater when these ancient rivals play, but the quality of play left much to be desired.

The Celtics lost, 88-87, because they couldn’t keep Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum off the boards -- the duo had 11 offensive rebounds between them -- and with chances to win at the end of regulation and overtime, they couldn’t get it done.

“One of them I didn’t make the pass,” Paul Pierce said. “The second one I just missed the shot.”

At the end of regulation, Pierce had Ray Allen flaring to the corner but he hesitated just a second too long and picked up his dribble, leaving Mickael Pietrus to fling a 30-footer at the buzzer. In overtime, Pierce got pushed just a little too far outside his sweet spot and had to force a contested shot. The Celtics didn’t lose because of Pierce, but those plays were emblematic of the difficulty they had running any kind of an offense that got them near the basket.

“I thought our execution the whole game was terrible,” a weary-looking Doc Rivers said. “I thought this was an awful game, except they won. If we had won, it would’ve been an awful game that we won. That’s how I felt.”

The Lakers weren’t much better. They kept firing up corner 3’s and kept clanging their shots off the rim. Steve Blake, Matt Barnes, Troy Murphy and Andrew Goudelock make up the Lakers bench these days and they shot a combined 1-for-10 from 3-point range, which was one more make than Derek Fisher managed in his seven shot attempts.

Pierce and Kevin Garnett took 41 shots between them and made just 13 as both teams shot less than 40 percent. “I was more than hype,” Garnett said after shooting 6-for-23. “I should have calmed down, should have took a more meditative state, done some yoga on the side or something.”

The names on the periphery change, but it’s always the same central cast of characters. The Lakers played their Kobe-zone on Rajon Rondo. The Celtics trapped Bryant, something they rarely do against any player but him. Of course, all that trapping left the rest of the floor open for Gasol and Bynum to do their thing.

“Rebounding, they’re big, man,” Garnett said. “Bynum’s come into his own. It’s good to see a big guy like that just kind of reestablish the big man back in our league. He and Pau have a great chemistry. They work really well together. The second-chance points hurt us, but we knew that coming into the game.”

These two teams know everything there is to know about each other, and maybe we know everything about them, as well. The Celtics are 14-11 and stuck in the seventh spot in the East. The Lakers are 15-11 and mired in an also-ran logjam in the West. They are the proverbial teams no one wants to face in the playoffs, but they’re also no one’s idea of a true contender. 

“Both teams shot 39 percent, so someone had to win,” Rivers said. “The game looked in slow motion, at times. So, I’m sure all the jokes, two old teams, Jurassic Park.”

Well, yeah. There are seven players still active from the 1996 draft now that Erick Dampier signed with the Hawks and four of them were in the starting lineup Thursday night. There was an almost surreal lack of athleticism on the court.

“It wasn’t typical,” Garnett said. “Usually when you see the Celtics and Lakers play, it’s up and down, forehead to forehead, it’s a battle. A little bit of a bar fight sometimes when you play. But you know that intensity is going to be there and both teams are going to give everything they have.”

Of course they will, but the question that never goes away for both teams is simple: How much more do they have to give? Pierce played 48 minutes with a postgame flight to Toronto looming. Gasol, Bynum and Bryant all worked over 40 minutes and they have a date with the Knicks in New York Friday night. Both teams have to lean heavily on their stars, and even they have been diminished.

The reserves for the All-Star teams were announced before the game and the Celtics will send just one representative to Orlando for the game in Pierce. Since Garnett and Ray Allen joined the team, they have always had at least three All-Stars, and last year they had four. The Lakers will have two in Bryant and Bynum, who were voted in as starters. Gasol isn’t going for the first time since he joined the Lakers.

For only the third time in his 16-year career, Garnett will not be among them, either. The only other times he didn’t make the All-Star team were his rookie season and 1998-99 when an injury kept him out until February. He anticipated his non-selection and took it in stride.

“All the first-timers, I’m always proud for them to get the opportunity to go and experience the All-Star festivities. Lord knows I’ve had enough,” Garnett said. “So, I get to take a little vacation and see what that’s like and actually rest these bones a little bit.”