Lakers survive clash of heavyweight titans

Friday, June 18, 2010

Mike Parente, GoLocalProv Sports Editor

The comparison to the aging, heavyweight slugger holding on for dear life in the final round with heavy hands and wobbly legs never seemed more fitting than it did last night in Los Angeles.

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We’ve heard the analogy a thousand times. Every see-saw sporting event is inevitably compared to a back-and-forth boxing match. Some are valid. Others aren’t. This one was right on the money.

Not only did the Boston Celtics lead the NBA Finals three games to two when their flight landed in Los Angeles on Monday, they led last night’s winner-take-all seventh game by as many as nine points in the first half and 13 in the third quarter, but – like champions do – the Lakers fought back.

They kept landing blows, each one more damaging than the last, until the Celtics could no longer defend themselves. Slowly, but surely, Boston’s lead dwindled to seven, then five and then one, until the Lakers finally pulled ahead for good on a pair of Kobe Bryant free throws with 5:56 remaining – not quite the knockout blow, but by all means the beginning of the end for the weary, undermanned Celtics.

Though time hadn’t abandoned Boston just yet, the writing was clearly visible on the wall as the Lakers hit every big free throw and field goal they needed to down the stretch and held on for an 83-79 win to complete an improbable fourth-quarter comeback for their second consecutive NBA title.

In the pantheon of great Game 7s, this one will rank among the best we’ve ever seen. This was Gatti-Ward III. Balboa-Creed II with the double knockdown. This was Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon at WrestleMania X in a ladder match for the WWF Intercontinental Title, complete with two bloodied bodies writhing in pain on the canvas.

No lead was safe and no deficit was too large to overcome. The plot twists from start to finish left us with an alternating list of potential goats and heroes. The fact the Celtics nearly won this game with Ray Allen, their best shooter, missing 11 of 14 shots and the Lakers dominating the boards with 23 offensive rebounds is remarkable, and yet Los Angeles won despite Bryant shooting 6-for-24 from the field and missing all six of his 3-point attempts.

That’s your typical Game 7 in a nutshell – expecting the unexpected. The problems the Celtics nearly dodged en route to a second title in three years are now considered the pitfalls in their collapse Thursday night. The Celtics actually outshot Los Angeles (40.8 percent to 32.5 percent), but their inability to rebound gave the Lakers too many second-chance opportunities and took more time off the clock – time the Celtics could’ve used on the offensive end to pad their lead.

Likewise, Allen’s precipitous fall from grace will go down as one of the most unexplainable storylines in NBA Finals history. After setting a Finals’ record with eight 3-pointers in Boston’s Game 3 victory, Allen missed his next 18 3-point attempts over the next four games before slightly regaining his shooting touch in Game 6. Last night, Allen played just a shade over 45 minutes, but shot just 2-of-7 from 3-point range and turned the ball over four times – more than anyone else on the team.

You can play the “what-if” game as well. Kendrick Perkins’ absence following a knee injury in Game 6 clearly had an impact on Boston’s interior play. Perhaps a healthy Perkins could’ve grabbed a few defensive rebounds to keep Los Angeles from dominating in the paint. Perkins not playing also thinned out Boston’s bench, leaving head coach Doc Rivers with a six-man rotation. Outside of Glen Davis’ six points, the Celtics got nothing from their reserves, which forced Rivers to ride his starters until the end, perhaps a reason why the team appeared so fatigued in the closing minutes.

Yet regardless of all these factors, the bottom line is if Boston was good enough to build a 13-point lead in the third quarter with so much working against them, they should’ve been good enough to hang on – especially with so many veterans who’ve been down this road before. Did Los Angeles want it more? I think that’s a stale cliché, but there are times when teams simply out-work the opposition and exert their will both physically and mentally.

You could see it with Ron Artest playing the game of his life in the undisputed biggest game of his career, scoring 20 points and nailing a critical 3-pointer with 1:01 remaining that stemmed a potential Boston rally. Even Bryant, who struggled mightily through the first three and a half quarters, reverted to his MVP form in the closing minutes, saving him the embarrassment of losing to the rival Celtics for the second time in three years.

The Lakers didn’t want this more than Boston; both teams wanted nothing more than to wrap their arms around that Larry O’Brien Trophy. The Lakers just had a little bit more behind their punches when it mattered most. With their backs against the ropes, the Celtics’ defense betrayed them. Fatigue set in and only team stood tall in the end.

Rooting interests aside, we got the kind of game we all wanted – a hardwood slugfest complete with a knockout finish. And if this is the last we see of Boston for quite some time, we’ll remember these heavyweight warriors not for the punches they couldn’t withstand, but for the blows they exchanged along the way.