The Celtics clinched their 17-Th championship in style yesterday as they made sure the Lake-show does not force a game 7. It was an impressive performance as the Celts blew the Lakers out. I mean, it was a no-contest and they won by 39 points! I never thought a Kobe Bryant team coached by Phil Jackson will ever lose a Finals game by 39. It was a complete dismantling of the Lakers and nobody, including yours truly saw this coming. We were all a little blinded by the supposed superiority of the Western Conference, but Boston is for real. We should have at least realized that when they beat Detroit in the L-Eastern Finals. I don't think any Western team could have beat them either. May be San Antonio because they could have matched Boston punch-for-punch on defense and the match-up would have been significantly different from the Fakers. But I am going to say Boston would have taken that series as well out of respect for what they did to the Lakers - the best team from the West.
To be fair, Boston didn't help their reputation any by going to 7 games against the Atlanta Hawks. Who goes 7 against the Hawks? The Warriors - who didn't even make it to the Western playoffs, probably would have swept the Hawks. NBA playoffs are all about match-ups and that might explain what happened to the Celts against the Hawks. More importantly, thats what happened to the Lakers against the Celtics. It was just a bad match-up. They didn't have enough big wings to deal with Paul Pierce. On the other hand, the Celts were so good defensively that they neutralized Kobe effectively. There lies the story of the Finals. M-Jack had an interesting point on ABC yesterday. Apparently Doc Rivers asked him for his prediction before the Finals and Jackson told him he likes the Lakers to win. Doc replied that even if he was not the Celtics coach and if he was just a neutral observer, he would actually pick the Celtics because of their defense since the Lakers were just a good offensive team. I guess Doc knew what he was talking about.
Thats the part about their defense we all missed. In fact, I thought they had nobody to guard Kobe, when actually they had everybody guarding him plus the other 4 Lakers all at the same time. Kobe had a disastrous series. No MJ references for him for at least another year. In any case, good for the C's as they win their 17-Th when I am sitting here as a Suns fan waiting for my first. Speaking of the Suns, the season is done now. It started with a lot of hope for the Suns, but ends with a stupid boat parade in Boston. Who would have thunk! Thats why we love Sports. Like coach Jim Mora once famously said. you think you know, but you don't and you never will! Now the question on everybody's mind is, can the Celtics repeat? Of course they can. Did anybody watch these 6 games? I am not saying they will, but they sure can. I don't see KG or Paul Pierce dropping off too much. Ray-Ray might, but then again he just might wake up for the Finals like he did this playoffs. The Celtics biggest challenge might actually be the Lakers again, who will close the gap with both maturity and the comeback of Bynum. Hornets may improve as well, but the Lakers might still be the favorites in the West.
But the off-season just started today. We got all summer to see how the NBA landscape changes before the next season.
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