The Basketball Diaries

Boston Celtics 97 Los Angeles Lakers 91 (Celtics lead series 3-1)

For the first three games of this series, the Lakers we were seeing were not the Lakers we had seen throughout these playoffs. Sure, they won game three on Tuesday night, but it wasn't exactly a pretty effort. Kobe had to do it all by himself (okay, with help from Sasha Vujacic), and even though Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett had off nights themselves, the Lakers were only able to manage a six-point win.

I said in the last Diaries that it wasn't a good sign for the Lakers, but then they came out on Thursday night and told me what I could do with my signs. The Lakers came out on fire, and before I knew what hit me, the score was 89-2 Lakers . Okay, so it wasn't that big as LA led 34-13 after the first, but the Lakers had a 24-point lead in the second quarter, and led by as many as 20 in the third.

Then the Celtics rallied.

Boston outscored Los Angeles 57-33 in the second half to put a choke hold on the NBA crown. Paul Pierce had 20 points and 7 assists, and KG finished with 16 and 11 boards, but it was Ray Allen who had the biggest night for the men in green. Allen finished with 19 points and 9 rebounds, played all 48 minutes, and made two big shots in the final minutes (including a blow by on Vujacic that put the game out of reach) to go along with a solid effort on the defensive end as well.

Still, while the big three had strong nights, it was Boston's bench that made the difference. While benches generally play better on their home court, the Lakers got no support from their reserves, as they only contributed 15 points. Compare that to James Posey and Eddie House who had 18 and 11 respectively for the Celtics.

It's at this point that I should mention that no team has ever come back from being down 3-1 in the NBA Finals, and going off of what we've seen in this series so far, I see no reason to think that the Lakers will be the first team to do it. They may win game six on Sunday (another damn two day break), but there's no chance they're going to go into Boston and win two games.

Beantown is only a few days away from another championship banner. Thank God the Patriots lost the Super Bowl.