LAKERS TAKE FIRST BLOOD IN FINALS

 

(Image taken from NBA.com)

The NBA Finals. Where basketball history is made. Where basketball legends are made. Where the greatest glory in club basketball is achieved. The best team in the East plays the best team in the West and this time around the matchup is between two teams that anyone who knows anything about basketball has heard of. Representing the East are the Celtics. Representing the West are the Lakers. Not only do these two sides have plenty of history but their recent record isn't bad either. They won the last two NBA championships between them and with Game 1 in LA were preparing to write another chapter in their legendary rivalry.

Well the Celtic opened the scoring 2-0 with 11:47 left in the 1st but that initial deficit was easy for the Lakers to turn round. After that the Celtics weren't able to do much more than tread water while the Lakers offence appeared to have the freedom of the court. That situation didn't change much as the Lakers looked like maintaining their lead throughout the opening period with Doc Rivers unhappy about how his team were unable to get it together. The Celtics did manage to tie the game in the closing minutes of the period but there was no question of the Lakers not coming back. Kobe Bryant had 8 points. The Lakers led 26-21.

The early stages of the 2nd quarter saw the Celtics cut the deficit in what was generally a low scoring spell. The Lakers were able to stop the initial rot only for the Celtics to close again, this time to one with just over seven and a half minutes on the clock. Again that wasn't good enough though. The Lakers then stepped up a gear but both sides hit a drought going into the closing minutes of the half, the '08 champions clearly hadn't found the answer yet. The proof of that was the Lakers pulling away in those final minutes. Bryant had 12 points. Pau Gasol was backing him up with 11. The Lakers were leading 50-41 and the Celtics were already running out of ideas.

The early stages of the 3rd quarter saw the men in green try to get back into the game and they cut the gap to eight with just under eleven minutes left in the period. The Lakers looked likely to maintain a double digit lead after that though with the ESPN commentators suggesting that they'd learned what to expect from this Celtics side from their '08 matchup. The Celtics were certainly back in treading water mode with the defence not as good as it had been. This clearly was not the Celtics side that had mugged two of the finer teams in the East. Bottom line, the Lakers led 84-64 at the end of three. Bryant was on 26 points, Gasol on 18 with Ron Artest providing further backup in his first Finals game on 12.

It wasn't quite game over though and the Celtics hit the opening basket of the 4th and went on to start laying the foundations of a comeback. They managed to cut the gap down significantly before the Lakers stepped up a gear to stop the rot. However the Celtics then had another bite at the cherry, cutting the gap down again with left before both sides fell into another long no-scoring period that would have kept Lakers fans happy enough. However the Celtics weren't done and with seconds left they got the gap down to ten. Too little too late though and the Lakers had the last word. Bryant finished with 30 points, Gasol 23, Artest 15 with Andrew Bynum also having a decent game on 10. Lakers won 102-89.

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