Lakers, Celtics Find Paths Connected Again in Fight to Recapture Glory Days

If you had a time machine and were to choose any moment to drop in on the Celtics-Lakers rivalry, it'd have to be in the 1960s or '80s, when larger-than-life championship showdowns between the teams were the norm.

NBA Finals matchups between the teams in 2008 and '10 revived the fascination for a new generation. And the Celtics even tried to bounce back from their 2010 Game 7 loss to Kobe Bryant, if you recall, by signing Shaquille O'Neal.

But since Bryant chased down that long pass at Staples Center as time expired, neither the Lakers nor the Celtics have returned to the championship round. And the moment in time you'd choose to take the temperature between the heated rivals certainly would not be today, when both are just floating around at a depth lower than mediocrity.

The 5-14 Lakers play at the 5-11 Celtics on Friday night, but the outcome of the game won't even register a blip compared to the Thursday breakfast between Bryant and Celtics star Rajon Rondo captured and posted to Reddit.

This is an era of what-will-happen-next speculation for both franchises, particularly because Rondo, 28, will be a free agent next summer—and the Lakers will have the salary-cap space to pursue him or another top player alongside Bryant.

Rondo, an openly prideful Celtic, bolting to join the Lakers would be quite a twist in the saga of the rivalry, and it'd be interesting not just for the Benedict Arnold intrigue of it.

Both the Lakers and the Celtics need a major plot development to occur as soon as possible.

Mitch Kupchak in L.A. and Danny Ainge in Boston have been going about the small steps of rebuilding as best they can, still competing as if they were playing for their respective franchises in their title-contending days of the mid-1980s.

LM Otero/Associated Press

These days, Kupchak has been swinging and missing on top free agents, while Ainge has been focusing on the draft. While Kupchak continues to save future cap space for recruiting, Ainge keeps hoarding picks in hopes of recreating the 2007 deal of youthful promise in exchange for Kevin Garnett.

Both teams this season have been trying to overcome obvious roster deficiencies with their coach-specific styles of play. Brad Stevens' Celtics have upped the pace. Byron Scott's Lakers have stayed old school with close-range attacks and physical defense. And though both teams have been competitive in most games, they also often have faded in second halves, the result of their unfortunately tough schedules—at least according to them.

That's what can happen when the talent isn't on your team but on other clubs.

That's where both stand, ultimately—needing more top talent than Bryant and Rondo, neither of whom has been at his best this season anyway after recent major injuries.

But it's interesting how differently the Lakers and Celtics have been going about their business of rebuilding.

Despite both franchises having such historic distinction, Boston knows it is not a destination team. Consider what Ainge told The Boston Globe's Gary Washburn before the season:

"

There are going to be players that prefer the sunshine or prefer the glitter of New York or Los Angeles, and that will always be the case.

But we're not one of those teams, so we have to do it in a different way: prove we can help them in their careers and have a great tradition and a winning team, play a style that fits free-agents-to-be and have players around them that they'll want to enjoy playing with.

"

Buried in the backstory of the successful Garnett trade was how Garnett initially refused to sign a contract extension to play in Boston if he was sent there—relenting only after the Celtics first traded the fifth overall pick for Ray Allen to join Paul Pierce, bringing a ring within Garnett's immediate reach.   

Ainge's decision to surrender both Pierce and Garnett to the Brooklyn Nets in a trade last year to pile up the picks (2014, '16 and '18 first-rounders) was done with that reality in mind. The Celtics, despite their grand old name, aren't necessarily all that different from the Cavaliers or Thunder in knowing they need multiple victories to go their way at the right time.

One of those wins needs to be Marcus Smart, the guard whom the Celtics drafted at No. 6 overall—one spot ahead of the Lakers choosing forward Julius Randle. Even before the draft, it was generally known in NBA circles that the Celtics preferred Smart's competitive fire, while the Lakers preferred Randle's physical gifts. How the two play out will likely prove to be among the newest measuring sticks to compare the rival clubs as the years go by.

But not yet, as Smart has missed most of this season with an ankle injury, and Randle is out for the season with a broken leg.

Still, even Smart understands the legacy the two teams share less than two months into his NBA career:

Brian Babineau/Getty Images

"It's the rivalry," Smart said, per WEEI.com's Ben Rohrbach. "We've got 17 (championships); they've got 16. Everybody knows that. I'm excited."

Yes, the glory days.

Indeed, that time machine would be useful to reach into the not-so-distant past. Oh, to be a fly on the wall to find out if Ainge said anything privately about pushing the early July trade with Cleveland—the one that cleared the cap space for the Cavs to sign LeBron James away from Miami—because he was sticking it to Heat president and Lakers legend Pat Riley.

The mere existence of that premise just goes to show you that the Celtics-Lakers rivalry is ready to roll, whenever it can again.

But for now, the grass isn't greener with the Celtics' draft picks, and the globe isn't more golden with the Lakers' cap space.

They're both stuck in this netherworld, where the fantasy of Kevin Love coming to town has been as compelling as anything that has actually happened.

Kevin Ding is an NBA senior writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @KevinDing.