The NBA Finals are now over, after being pushed to a game 6 in which the Boston Celtics beat the Los Angeles Lakers in Boston.
“Beat” is an understatement in this situation though, considering the final score came to be 131-92. The Boston Celtics have come a long way since a year ago, when Paul Pierce was questioning his presence and continuity with the team, as well as if Danny Ainge spent his company time playing Gears of War and Halo all day instead of keeping tabs on scouting reports, cap space, future draft considerations, and the latest gossip on how Phil Jackson and Jeanie Buss are using the dog whisperer to train their dogs. Well, Danny Ainge came out and pulled off not one, but two blockbuster deals for two future Hall of Fame candidates in Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett. Among other additions, the teams newly found leaders coerced two 3-point specialists in James Posey and Eddie House(Former Sun) to join their team.
The Celtics at the end of the day had a stacked team of players that seem only likely to be on the same team if one were to do so in NBA 2k8. Though they are a talented bunch, I do have some issues with a lot of sports guys in the media world and the hype they’re giving this team.
This Boston Celtic “powerhouse” set an NBA record of their own…They are the first team to ever play the most post-season games at 26 games. The Celtics opened up in the 1st round of the playoffs barely surviving the onslaught of the Atlanta Hawks(barely made playoffs) as Ray Allen pulled a Casper disappearing act in the anti-clutch, forcing the series to 7. Next up on the radar is the Cavaliers led by LeBron James, which again, like before….the Celtics have to go 7 games to beat a Cavalier team that was 8 games above .500. Now…onto the Eastern Conference Finals against the media deemed “Mighty Mighty” Pistons(Sounds a lot like a movie starring Denzel Washington..) Now keep in mind that the Celtics up to this point had yet to win a road playoff game against the previous two teams. The Pistons series went 6 games, as the Celtics pulled out two wins against the Pistons on their home court.
As funny as all of the above sounds, I’m not making any of this stuff up, though I wish I could make up a plot line like this and send it in to the NBA Commissioner David Stern to come up with a new storyline for next season, and then focus every single possible NBA commercial on that team’s most famous star(Carmina Burana themed KG commercials).
The Celtics vs. Lakers NBA Finals was an interesting one that had several 20+ point leads decimated to nail-biting heroics that either saved the game or didn’t by both sides. The Celtics were able to pull out a defense of triple and quadruple teams on Kobe Bryant, forcing another Laker to step up…which did not happen at any point in this series except game 5 with Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol playing up to the standards they did which got them to the Finals.
Before I get to the Lakers, I want to make something perfectly clear. There are a lot of people, especially in the media that are saying that this Boston Celtic team is the absolute best team the NBA has ever seen. Here’s the deal….Larry Bird’s Celtics of the ’80′s were from top to bottom, far superior to the entire 2008 team, in every way, shape, and form known to man. Not only were they better players, but they were also great people and competitors, not wanting to celebrate too soon, and always wanting to stay humble in congratulating the enemy, even with as much competitive hate as they had toward Magic Johnson, still would go up to each player and congratulate them. Now I won’t go into what I saw from the 2008 Celtics team with 6 minutes left in the game, but all I will say is that stuff would not fly under Red Auerbach’s watch.
Needless to say, it seems that a lot of these media types seem to forget two 3-peat teams during the ’90′s, against a much tougher eastern conference let alone a much tougher league, and it was led by a guy named Michael Jordan, and they seemed to put down the hammer pretty well.
The Lakers had a strong run at the title with a 57-25 record, especially with being able to pull off a hijack of a deal getting All-Star PF Pau Gasol from the Memphis Grizzlies in wake of an unforseen injury to up and rising Center Andrew Bynum. After the Gasol trade, the Lakers went 27-9 to finish out with the top seed in the Western Conference. According to Phil Jackson, there will be some players let go from the Lakers this offseason, and it’s pretty obvious to anyone who watched the series who those guys are going to be. Laker legend Jerry West(guy in the NBA logo) has concerns with the frontcourt possibilities of Andrew Bynum joining Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom, though he believes if those three are used at the same time around the post, that will be the best and most powerful frontcourt in all of pro-basketball….and in the words of NBATV’s Rick Kamla they will then be the “3-headed monster”.
A lot of NBA analysts made the point clear at the beginning of the Western Conference playoffs that teams need to attack the Lakers this postseason, because next season they will add what is thought to be the next Shaq to their already great team, making them the favorite by a 7-2 margin to win the title next year.
Keys to the Boston victory: a. Getting away with illegal screens as KG constantly shoved players out of the way. b. PJ Brown illegally holding Pau Gasol in the post. c. Constant hacks on any Laker that drove it into the paint. d. Great three point shooting. e. Paul Pierce shooting lights out
Keys to the Lakers loss: a. Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom having a case of amnesia in forgetting how to play physical ball. b. Kobe Bryant having an awful NBA Finals shooting performance with exception to game 3, largely due to triple and quadruple teams. c. Sasha Vujacic disappearing for the entire series with exception to game 3′s 20 point performance. d. Vladimir Rodmanovic jacking up rainbow 3-point shots that had no chance of making it in the hoop anyway, as well as vital mental mistakes down the stretch. e. Derek Fisher still hasn’t gotten over the 2004 NBA Finals loss according to him.
Kobe Bryant will have to put his wishes for a title on hold until he gets an unstoppable force in the middle that can draw the same kind of attention as he does. So unless Andrew Bynum becomes what they think he will, Lakers will not win another NBA title.
One picture really sums this whole thing up:
