Boston Celtics: Remembering the NBA Finals and the Season that Was

“The Lakers were playing extremely well as a team and everyone was contributing.” said Lakers fan Jeff Little when asked about all of the hype the Lakers received heading into the finals. “Several people felt that the competition in the Western Conference was at a higher level than the Eastern Conference. Due to the majority of teams making late season trades to beef up their teams to make a stretch run, every game in the West became important and took on playoff standing implications.”

The Lakers had an early opportunity to set the tone for the series in game one, which the Celtics ended up winning 98-88. Paul Pierce had sustained what was thought to be a serious leg injury after 280 pound Kendrick Perkins fell on his knee under the basket. After leaving the game in a wheelchair and receiving some cortisone shots, Pierce returned to the game with a brace on his ailing knee and led his team to victory. The game was close. Had Los Angeles managed to steal one in Boston, they would have had a noticeable advantage due to the 2-3-2 format of the NBA finals. The Lakers were undefeated at home in the playoffs, so a sweep of the three games in LA and a five game series win for the Lakers would not have been far out of the realm of possibility.

But alas, that was not to be for Los Angeles. After game one, games two and three were business as usual. Both went to the home team despite a second half Laker comeback in game two that brought what was at one point a double digit Boston lead to a mere two with 38 seconds left. Boston held on for a 108-102 victory, which gave them a commanding 2-0 series lead going to Los Angeles. Game four was where the series got interesting after a ho-hum 87-81 win for the Lakers in game three that went exactly as most people had thought it would.

During the first half of game four, Los Angelesdominated the Celtics to the tune of a 21 point first quarter lead and an 18 point advantage by half-time. During the third quarter, Los Angles would stretch their lead to 24 before the Celtics began to chip away at the seemingly insurmountable deficit. The Laker lead would shrink to only 2 by the end of the third quarter on the heels of an emphatic dunk from PJ Brown, who had been coaxed out of retirement during the all star break by the promise of championship glory.

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