BOSTON — It’s helpful that Justin Timberlake is a regular at Lakers games, because when the series resumes in Los Angeles tonight he can convey an important message to coach Phil Jackson:

Cry me a river, Phil.

Following a 38-10 free-throw disparity in the Lakers’ Game 2 loss to the Celtics, L.A.’s coach went off on the zebras, saying the crew of Bob Delaney, Ken Mauer, and Dan Crawford weren’t giving his squad a fair whistle.

“Leon Powe [got] more foul shots than our whole team does in 14 minutes of play. That’s ridiculous,” Jackson said. “I’ve never seen a game like that in all these years I’ve coached in the finals. Unbelievable.”

And that, mind you, was in response to a question that had nothing to do with foul shots.

The narrative continued in the L.A. locker room, where several players echoed Jackson’s complaints — even to themselves. While I waited with other reporters for the team to dress, two players dressing behind a curtain and presuming themselves out of earshot bellyached about the refs to each other.

The Lakers were particularly incensed with a first half that saw Boston go to the line 19 times compared to just twice for the Lakers, helping the Celtics build a huge lead that a late Lakers rally couldn’t erase.

But instead of looking at the zebras, the Lakers might want to look in the mirror.

There’s an underlying assumption in Jackson’s statement that teams are supposed to shoot roughly equal numbers of foul shots in a given game. That’s not how the system works, Chief Triangle. Free throws are earned by driving aggressively and drawing contact — they’re not allotted systematically to anyone who’s polite and smiles.

And in Game 2, L.A.’s 38-10 deficit at the line was an accurate reflection of which team was doing this better, especially in the first three quarters. While L.A. settled for mid-range jumpers or threw up fadeaways in the paint, Powe was going full-bore toward the rim and forcing the Lakers to hack him to get a stop.

Besides, this isn’t exactly terra incognita for Powe. Jackson mispronounced his name in the postgame press conference and made it seem bewildering that such a little-known player could get such treatment from the zebras. But in reality, the second-year forward has had one of the league’s top free throw rates all season, averaging an impressive 0.72 free throw attempts per field-goal attempt. Among players who averaged at least four field goal attempts per game, only Orlando’s Dwight Howard had a higher rate.

Even though he’s a bit player, therefore, Powe’s free throw parade shouldn’t have come as a shock. Neither should his 21 points, for that matter: Powe has averaged 22.0 points and 11.2 rebounds per 40 minutes, and because of all the free throws, his True Shooting Percentage (which calculates what a player’s shooting percentage would be if we accounted for free throws and 3-pointers) of 62.9 ranked second among power forwards this season.

Indeed, the big mystery from Game 2 is not why Powe got to the line so much, but why the heck Doc Rivers hasn’t been playing him. Powe was one of the league’s most effective power forwards in regular season; and while Kevin Garnett’s presence prevents him from playing long stretches, Powe is far too potent a weapon to be spending entire games on the bench — as he has several times in this postseason.

It wasn’t just Powe, though. It was the entire Celtics team that was more aggressive, more determined, and just flat-out better in these first two games.

Just to hammer that point home, here’s a list of things the refs didn’t do in Game 2:

• The refs didn’t make Jackson sit all his starters at the start of the second quarter and watch Boston go on a game-changing 10-0 run.

• The refs didn’t force Kobe Bryant to spend three quarters avoiding drives to the basket, much as he’d done for all of Game 1, before finally attacking for real once the Lakers were trailing by 24 points with eight minutes left.

• The refs didn’t force Lamar Odom into another hesitating, shaky performance that saw him benched during crunch time for a second straight game.

• The refs didn’t allow Boston point guard Rajon Rondo to get wherever he wanted whenever the mood struck, allowing him to pick apart the Lakers with 16 assists — the second-most in NBA Finals history.

• The refs didn’t allow Powe to shoot 6-for-7 from the floor — more baskets than all but two Lakers made — in his 14-minute-39-second stint. And while Boston’s bench shone (shooting 11-of-16 as a group), L.A.’s vaunted second unit once again floundered.

• The refs didn’t surrender to a team with two gimpy starters in Paul Pierce and Kendrick Perkins, or the ones who played so passively in the first two games that Pau Gasol could only offer, “I thought we were softer in Game 1,” as a defense for his team’s effort in Game 2.

• And early in the fourth quarter, the refs didn’t allow Powe to start dribbling from his own foul line, go straight down the court without being met by a defender, and dunk the ball 60 feet later while three Lakers stood and watched — a play that’s a strong contender for the single-worst defensive “effort” I have ever seen.

In short, the refs were the effect, not the cause. Boston was better, more aggressive, and more physical. Of course they got the calls: Those were the only calls to be made.

Indeed, the disparity in total fouls — 28 to 21 — was far less than the difference in free throws. It wasn’t that the refs were out to screw the Lakers, as that team love to have you believe. It was that the Celtics were the only ones in position to draw shooting fouls that sent them to the line for two shots.

Even Jackson admitted: “The aggressiveness swayed the effective calls. They were aggressive. They went to the basket. We didn’t take charge in situations that we had charges to take, and [so] the contacts subsequently ended up being a foul shot.”

Trailing 2-0, the favored Lakers find themselves in a big hole as a result. They have the talent to turn the tide, but first they have to correct the myriad defensive problems that created Boston’s free throw parade in Game 2.

Maybe Justin can help them get in sync.

jhollinger@nysun.com