Another exciting week in sports, as a full week of Euro 2008 led to plenty of additional opportunities for drama. Gianluigi Buffon’s save against Romania had to be the play of the week.
But, when you put yourself in a commanding position in the NBA Finals while recording the largest comeback in Finals history, all in the same game, it’s pretty hard not to earn the top spot.
5. NBA Finals Game 5: Lakers 103, Celtics 98 (6/15).
Once again, the Lakers found themselves on the verge of blowing a huge lead in front of their home crowd. This time, a second straight devastating loss would have meant the end of their season.
But L.A. lived to fight another day, in no small part due to the performances of Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom. The Lakers’ much maligned complimentary stars finally played up to expectations, putting up 19 points and 13 rebounds and 20 points and 11 boards respectively.
The play of Gasol and Odom was critical, as league MVP Kobe Bryant had a poor day by his standards. After scoring 15 points in the first quarter, Bryant was extremely quiet throughout the rest of the game, often deferring to Gasol. Aside from his game-winning strip of Paul Pierce late, Kobe was a relative non-factor in the fourth quarter, and he finished the game with only 25 points.
Also notable was the poor play of Kevin Garnett. Not only did the Big Ticket find himself in foul trouble early, playing only 11 minutes in the second half, but KG missed two free throws that would have tied the game at 95 and later missed an easy tip-in that would have cut the L.A. lead to two. Garnett’s energy has been crucial to the Celtics’ success, but at times it seems as though the moment is getting to him.
The moment, however, is not getting to Paul Pierce, who had 38 points and eight assists in the loss. There is no reason to believe Pierce’s stellar play will end anytime soon. He hardly received any support tonight (Sam Cassell’s three-minute aberration hot streak in the fourth quarter notwithstanding) and Boston still almost won the game.
1 comments Last one added about 1 year ago — Leave a Comment
Zachary Cole about 1 year ago
nice picks! go celtics
Edit Comment Cancel
Leave a Comment
You must register to post a comment.