Thursday, February 5, 2009

Living up to the Hype...

The Lakers and Celtics didn't disappoint last night, as they battled for what could be home-court supremacy in a Finals rematch. Kobe and the Lakers needed all 48 minutes and more to outlast the Celtics. The game was as back-and-forth as a ping-pong ball in China. The Lakers largest lead was nine, the Celtics, seven. But for the most part, it never seemed the teams were apart by more than a basket.

For the men in green, Eddie House led all bench scorers with 16, knocking down threes from left and right. Allen and Pierce added 22 and 21 a piece, respectively. And KG put up a quiet 16. The Lakers put up a solid effort across the board. Gasol decided not to play as soft as Bounty's double-quilted paper towels (like he had in last year's Finals), and put up 24 and 14. Kobe did his best impersonation of himself, hitting clutch shots throughout the fourth, en route to a 26 point, 10 rebound performance. And Lamar Odom played solid (aside from some poor free throw shooting), dropping 20 points of his own.

So what did this game teach us? It pretty much reiterated the fact that this was a good matchup, and a blooming rivalry. Well a re-blooming rivalry, if that makes any sense. The game last night had star-power, excitement, and championship-caliber play. It's safe to say basketball fans could be in store for a few more Boston-L.A. Finals matchups again. Will that actually happen?? Who knows. The road wasn't easy last year for Boston and the Lakers (except for the first round matchup with the Nuggets), and it's only going to get harder. Regardless, the NBA is back. And I'd like to personally thank Kobe, Lebron, the Boston Three Party, Dwight Howard, Chris Paul, and not the Spurs, for making it happen.

Image taken from Yahoo! Sports

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I bet if the Celtics put in Brian Scalabrine they would've pulled this one out. haha! But I'm hoping the lakers still go all the way again like last year with a win this time!

Anonymous said...

It's great to see a rivalry develop in all sports... and basketball has its share. Looking forward to future games between the Lakers and the Celtics. Can only hope the Knicks can get back to their early 70s form and become exciting again when they'll compete with the Lakers and Celtics. Still waiting...

Wingman said...

As a Knicks fan, I'd like to see that too. I think we'll have to wait for the big free-agent market in 2010 though, before we see anything like that.