Ramblings after last night’s epic win:
- Eric Wilbur at boston.com made a great point about how there’s a generation of Celts fans that are too young to have witnessed previous epic Lakers/Celts finals games like “Henderson’s steal in game 2, 1984”, “McHale clotheslines Rambis in game 4, 1984”, “Kareem needing oxygen in game 5, 1984”, or just simply “Game 7, 1984”. Even in the series the Lakers won there some classics like game 4 in 1985 (DJ wins it at the buzzer) and game 4 in 1987 (Magic’s baby skyhook). Wilbur correctly points out that finally, instead of hearing about these games before their time, this younger generation now has a classic to fondly remember in this rivalry.
- Comebacks are great only if the team can finish the job. The Celts and Lakers played a game in February 1988 (I think) in which the Celts were down by 20 at halftime at The Forum. The Celts came out for the 2nd half and blitzed the Lakers 36-12 in the 3rd quarter for an improbable lead heading into the 4th. Unfortunately, the Celts couldn’t sustain the superior play…nor did the Lakers continue their futility…and the Lakers ended up winning going away. Last night it looked like the Celts might have run out of gas after tying the game at 73. For the next few possessions the teams traded baskets and each time the Lakers missed, the Celts just couldn’t break the tie. Then the Lakers went up by 4 on an emphatic dunk by Kobe and the Celts called timeout. This was the moment of truth. Start hitting shots after this timeout or else the comeback will fall by the wayside. When Posey nailed that 3-pointer to bring them within 1, I knew they were going to pull this out.
- Ray Allen might have edged out Paul Pierce for series MVP with his two huge drives to the hoop to secure the tenuous lead the Celts had finally garnered. That up-and-under reverse layup was a poor-man’s “Dr. J in the 1980 Finals” moment. The nail-in-the-coffin drive past Vujavic and the late-arriving Gasol was Jordanesque in how he seized the moment, the aggressiveness of the move, how silly he made the other team look and how only a man with ice in his veins could pull that off. Two memorable plays.
- Phil Jackson appeared to have found a solution to defending the Celts by having Kobe play off Rondo, allowing Kobe to double quickly whoever Rondo passes to and thus dare Rondo to beat them with the jumper. Rondo appears terrified of shooting so the plan appeared to bear fruit. Doc countered by putting in House for Rondo, forcing the Lakers to play him straight up. Great move by Doc. Jackson’s logical counter to that would have been pressuring House, a mediocre ball handler at best, which would have forced turnovers by House or forced Allen or Pierce to bring the ball up, which would have slowed the offense, especially Allen running off screens. That pressure never came. Baffling. And this guy has 9 rings?
- Posey’s 3 to stretch the lead to 5 with a minute to go was reminiscent of Vujavic’s late 3 in game 3 to effectively ice that game. Did the Celts miss any shots down the floor after taking the lead on House’s jumper? Sure didn’t seem like it.
Regards,
Chris