NBA FINALS: Back to the Future

[AndyC0803]

No way do the Lakers recover from that. Celtics in 5. Start the parade.

[ssigmanstinks]

Originally Posted by BtownBeers

Believe me I am not Boston supporter by any means and don't like their success. I am only arguing for the sake of well arguing.

Being that I live in the general "northeast" area I don't mind the media attention that it receives, however I do see that the rest of the country is over looked...sucks to be those people.

There is a reason behind overlooking the rest of the county though, for the most part the teams from the northeast are consistantly winning, this past year should shape up to an NFL title in the northeast, runner up also from the northeast, MLB title in the northeast, NBA title in the northeast.... so there is justification for the bias, and other than the teams beers likes there are a lot of championship rings to go around in the area.

[BtownBeers]

Sorry Andy, gotta love your classless boy Kobe leaving the court with 3 seconds left in the game...classy MVP.

Stinks...F YOU haha well played sir.

[AndyC0803]

Originally Posted by BtownBeers

Sorry Andy, gotta love your classless boy Kobe leaving the court with 3 seconds left in the game...classy MVP.

Kobe has never been known to be a good teammate or a good sport. But I can't blame him leaving early, he had to have been disgusted. Of course, it would mean more if Kobe had actually showed up at all last night.

[AndyC0803]

Is it just me or was last night's game kind of crappy? Neither team seemed to be playing all that well.

[BaldBil]

Boston came out cold and stupid again. The Lakers had spurts offensively that were formidable but did not maintain it. their defense was weak overall but did have some good moments. The Celtic's team defense is what kept them in the game.

[AndyC0803]

Here is a pretty strong indictment of the Celtics...

[AndyC0803]

From the Daily Fix at the Wall Street Journal:

This time, the Los Angeles Lakers withstood the Boston Celtics’ furious comeback. But it was a near thing: Paul Pierce made two free throws with 1:14 left to bring Boston within 97-95, then wound up with the ball after the Lakers’ Derek Fisher missed a jumper. But as Mr. Pierce headed up the court with 50 ticks left, Kobe Bryant knocked the ball away. It wound up in the hands of Lamar Odom, who fired it back for a Bryant slam dunk. The Lakers survived, 103-98, and will try to tie the series at 3-3 in Boston on Tuesday to force a winner-take-all finale on Thursday.
Even if the Lakers win both games (and no NBA Finals has ever seen a team come back from a 3-1 deficit), the season is over at the Staples Center.
“After this surprising year, this year in which the franchise re-established itself and Kobe Bryant re-engaged himself, the Lakers should have gone out this way,” Jeff Miller writes in the Orange County Register. “Growling, fighting and, in the case of one Pau Gasol moment, screaming from the bottom of his high-tops. … This is how the Lakers wanted to be remembered, not as the team that gagged itself right into the NBA record books. You might be able to make only one first impression, but the Lakers seized their chance to make a better final one in front of their fans.”
That said, Mr. Miller knows the odds are against them, warning readers that in Boston “a much colder conclusion likely awaits.” In the Los Angeles Times, Mark Heisler is also thinking along those lines, but he’s less kind: “This just in: Laker Chances Go From Non-Existent to Minimal! With the media employing the usual sophisticated analytical tools . . . like numerology . . . the Lakers, who had no chance going into Sunday night’s Game 5 — since no team has ever come from 3-1 down in the NBA Finals — were heartened to find they’re now up to 18%! Yes, five of the 28 teams that have trailed 3-2 actually came back to win. Of course, two of those five were Celtics teams against the Lakers in 1962 and 1969.”
(Ouch. I mean, that last sentence is just mean.)
In the Boston Globe, Bob Ryan isn’t particularly impressed by the Lakers’ effort: “Yes, they pulled out a home-court victory. But once again they squandered leads that should have made life simple. This was no demonstration of Laker grit, courage, determination, or anything else. This was a home-court escape, nothing more. … So take a good look at the three LA performances at home. Game 3 was a mutual horror show. Game 4 yielded the biggest Finals comeback ever. In Game 5, they relinquished leads of 19 and 14, but staggered home. Trouble is, the next two games are in Boston.”
Still, the Washington Post’s Michael Wilbon looks how at the absence of Kendrick Perkins hurt the Celtics (he could be out for the duration), and at the Kobe Factor.
“You let Kobe extend a series the way he did here Sunday night, and he’ll open up a can of danger on you,” Mr. Wilbon writes. “No team has overcome a 3-1 series deficit to win the NBA Finals. But that’s only because the team with the lead has killed off the challenger as soon as humanly possible. Championship teams don’t let ordinary pros hang around, much less players as skilled as Kobe. Before you know it, you’re a sprained ankle and a dislocated shoulder away from Game 7 and more drama than you want to have hanging around, even if you think the ghost of Red Auerbach is sitting up there on the back rim waiting to assist his old team.”

[BaldBil]

#17. The trophy comes home to Boston.

That is all.

[Rusty27]

Way to go Celtics!
#17

[BtownBeers]

Poor Andy.