LAKERS GIVEN LIFELINE
(Image taken from NBA.com)
Well, what happens if you reboot one of basketball's biggest rivalries of all time for the 2008 NBA Finals? Wel if Games 1 and 2 in Boston are anything to go by then the team with home court advantage will start out the stronger, fired up by a crowd that hasn't seen their team in the Finals for a generation! That left the Lakers 2-0 down and taking the Celtics to LA for Game 3 with their backs against the wall. This was a do or die game for Phil Jackson's side. If the Celtics won then they were on course for a sweep! If the Lakers won it then they would still have a reasonable chance of claiming the title. This was going to be a pivotal game in the series.
The Celtics opened the scoring but after that it turned out to be a low scoring affair. The Lakers were the more succsessfull team on defense, shutting the Celts out for nearly five minutes while building up a 9-2 lead before the Eastern team ended their drought with a three pointer. It turned out to be a tight, fairly slow opening period though with the US commentators wondering if both teams were knackered from the opening games! As it was, the Lakers kept their edge untill there was a minute left on the clock at which point Sam Cassell hit a fadeaway to give the Celts a 20-18 lead. The Lakers replied with two Sasha Vujacic free throws to leave the game tied at 20 at the end of one.
The opening seconds when the game was still level was as good as it got for the Celtics in the second quarter. The Lakers hit the ground running with a 4-0 run and built up another solid lead. After that it became slow going with both sides suffering from a 1:15 drought after which the Lakers extended their lead before mid-quarter. This was definately their show and with less than five minutes on the clock the gap was in double figures. The Celtics were barely keeping things ticking over and though the ended the half on a run, it was still Kobe Bryant that was proving the game's dominant force with 19 points. It was proving a low scoring game but the Lakers were still leading 43-37.
The lack of points continued into the third with the first points of the period now being scored for 1:45. Those were Lakers points though and the home side held a lead of 47-39 early on. The Celtics came back though despite both sides doing their best to shut each other down. Eventually the Celtics defence got the upper hand or rather the Lakers just forgot how to shoot, allowing Doc Rivers team to turn the game round mid-quarter, scaring the Laker fans into near silence! From there on in it was the Lakers that were struggling to catch up and though they had the last score of the quarter, they had no answer for Ray Allen who had picked up 22 points with one quarter remaining. Celtics lead 62-60.
The Lakers opened the fourth quarter with a three pointer to take back the lead but the Celts replied likewise to lead 65-63. And then came a drought of over three minutes, broken by the Celts. The Lakers came back to tie the game but it still looked like the Celts would hold the edge untill a well timed Kobe three pointer triggered a 7-0 Laker run. After that the Lakers lead seemingly looked unassailable but the Celts had other ideas and sliced the deficit down only for another three pointer from the Lakers to effectively seal the Celtics fate as far as this game was concerned at least. Doc Rivers will file this one down as "the one that got away". It was Kobe's night, he grabbed 36 points. Vujacic takes a lot of credit as well for hitting 20 points with Pau Gasol leading the rest of the Lakers with a very weak 9 points. Despite everything, the Lakers survived to win 87-81.
The series is definately still on.
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