Category: NBA Playoffs Blog

The AP reports:

Beating Boston for the first time in a Game 7, the Lakers came up champions again after trailing in the last quarter of the last game of their season.

Kobe Bryant, the finals MVP, scored 23 points despite 6-of-24 shooting and the Lakers won their 16th NBA championship Thursday night, dramatically rallying from a fourth-quarter deficit to beat the Boston Celtics 83-79 in Game 7 of the NBA finals.

Bryant earned his fifth title with the Lakers, who repeated as NBA champions for the first time since winning three straight from 2000-02.

The AP reports:

Ron Artest added 20 points for the Lakers, who shot terribly while trailing for most of the first 3 1/2 quarters. Yet they reclaimed the lead midway through the fourth quarter and hung on with big shots from Pau Gasol and Artest…

Paul Pierce had 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Celtics, who just couldn’t finish the final quarter of a remarkable playoff run after a fourth-place finish in the Eastern Conference. Kevin Garnett added 17 points, but Boston flopped in two chances to clinch the series in Los Angeles after winning Game 5 back home.

After three quarters of mostly terrible offense, the Lakers tied it at 61 on Artest’s three-point play with 7:29 left. Bryant’s free throws 90 seconds later gave the Lakers their first lead of the second half, and the Lakers went up by five points before Bryant and Sasha Vujacic hit free throws in the final seconds to keep Los Angeles ahead.

The AP reports:

The Celtics had much more poise from the opening tip in Game 7, playing vicious defense that forced Los Angeles to miss 21 of its first 27 shots. Bryant and Gasol were a combined 6 for 26 in the first half while the Lakers made just 26.5 percent of their shots, and only Ron Artest’s 12 points and relentless effort kept the Celtics’ halftime lead to six points.

The Lakers are the first team to rally from a 3-2 deficit to win a finals since Houston did it in 1994, beating the New York Knicks.

InsideHoops.com reports:

The Lakers shot just 32.5%, while the Celtics hit 40.8%. The Lakers were only 4-of-20 from three-point range; the Celtics 6-of-16. But the Lakers got 37 free throw attempts (hitting just 25), while the Celtics only got 17 attempts (hitting 15). The Lakers won the rebounding battle 53-40, and had 23 offensive boards (Boston had just 8). The Lakers as a team had only 11 assists, with 11 turnovers.

For Los Angeles, Kobe shot 6-of-24 for 23 points and 15 rebounds. Ron Artest shot 7-of-18 for 20 points, 5 rebounds, 5 steals (but 4 turnovers). Pau Gasol shot 6-of-16 for 19 points, 18 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 blocks. Derek Fisher shot 4-of-6 for 10 points. Lamar Odom hit 3-of-8 off the bench for 7 points and 7 rebounds.

For Boston, Paul Pierce shot 5-of-15 for 18 points and 10 rebounds. Kevin Garnett shot 8-of-13 for 17 points, only 3 rebounds, and 4 blocks. Rajon Rondo shot 6-of-13 for 14 points, 8 rebounds and 10 assists. Ray Allen shot just 3-of-14 for 14 points and 3 steals. And Rasheed Wallace, starting in place of the injured Kendrick Perkins, shot 5-of-11 for 11 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks.

The AP reports:

With an emphatic, historic blowout win in Game 6 Tuesday night, Los Angeles earned the right to host the grand finale to both the NBA season and this scintillating chapter in the league’s most glamorous rivalry.

Kobe Bryant scored 26 points, Pau Gasol added 17 points and 13 rebounds, and the Lakers held Boston to the second lowest-scoring performance in NBA finals history in an 89-67 victory, setting up a winner-take-all Game 7 on Thursday…

“We didn’t get in any rhythm early, and it affects our chemistry,” said Ray Allen, who scored 19 points. “We each tried to make the home run play early. As a starting unit, we take responsibility. We have to do a better job next game.”

Ron Artest added 15 points for the Lakers, who got their backs off the wall with a dazzling first half and a strong finish built around defense that held Boston to 33 percent shooting. Only Utah’s infamous 54-point performance against Chicago in 1998 was worse.

Bryant grabbed 11 rebounds, and Gasol led the Lakers with nine assists in a remarkable bounce-back game for Los Angeles, which dominated from the opening minutes by vacuuming up rebounds—13 more than Boston—and playing relentless defense…

Paul Pierce scored 13 points and Kevin Garnett added 12, but the Celtics’ offense was a jumbled, stand-around mess. Rajon Rondo, the late-game hero in Boston’s last appearance in Los Angeles, got off to a 1-for-8 shooting start before finishing with 10 points and six assists…

The Celtics lost starting center Kendrick Perkins in the first quarter to a sprained right knee when he landed awkwardly under the hoop, but his absence couldn’t explain the Lakers’ utter domination of the first half—a 30-13 rebounding edge while holding Boston to 34 percent shooting and frustrating Rondo.

The Boston Globe reports:

The Lakers could do no wrong on this night. They won the rebounding war (52-39). They dominated the paint (40-32). And after seemingly taking on the Celtics by himself in Game 6, Kobe Bryant found reinforcements everywhere.

His 38-point Game 5 assault bulged off the stat sheet, but his 26-point, 11-rebound, 3-assist effort last night seemed to blend in. Pau Gasol was an assist shy of a triple-double (17 points, 13 rebounds, 9 assists). Ron Artest, seemingly lost the past two games, beamed himself back into the series with a 15-point, 6-rebound performance. The Lakers bench combined for 25 points and 16 rebounds. All the pieces put together were too much for the Celtics.

“They did everything harder than we did,’’ said Boston’s Tony Allen. “It’s just unusual.’’

The Celtics shot 33 percent from the floor. A sign of how futile their offense was? At the start of the fourth quarter, Ray Allen, Garnett, Pierce, and Rajon Rondo were the only four Celtics in the scoring column.

The Boston Globe reports:

The Lakers’ bench outscored its Celtics’ counterpart, 25-13, in LA’s 89-67 victory, putting up its most productive effort in the series. Sasha Vujacic scored 9 points off the bench and Lamar Odom contributed 8, playing 28:26 while Andrew Bynum (15:53) rested his knee.

They were part of a unit that did most of its damage in the second quarter. The effort was visible early when Lakers guard Jordan Farmar and Rajon Rondo scurried after a loose ball in the second quarter. Farmar used a headfirst slide to sling the ball toward Kobe Bryant, who was chasing along the left side. Bryant picked up the ball and drove to the basket and was fouled with eight minutes to go in the half. Bryant hit both free throws to give the Lakers a 36-23 lead.

Bryant didn’t have to stay in the game for the Lakers to be effective. He came out with 7:46 to go in the first half, and when he returned three minutes later, the Lakers had stretched the lead to 18 points (45-27).

The Los Angeles Times reports:

The Lakers held the Celtics to 28-of-84 shooting (33.3%) and outrebounded Boston, 52-39. Rajon Rondo had a quiet night, scoring only 10 points on five-for-15 shooting. Paul Pierce had 13 points and Kevin Garnett 12.

“Our defense was good,” Jackson said. “Our rebounding was better.”

The Lakers’ reserves were decisively better, with Lamar Odom totaling eight points and 10 rebounds, and Sasha Vujacic scoring nine points in 14 minutes. The Boston bench was scoreless until Nate Robinson’s reverse layup with 9:56 left in the fourth quarter.

Thursday will be a first for Jackson, who has never coached a Game 7 in the Finals. He is 3-1 in Game 7s with the Lakers, most recently a winner in last season’s Western Conference semifinal against Houston.

After the final seconds ticked down Tuesday, longtime Lakers public-address announcer Lawrence Tanter intoned, “There will be a Gaaaame 7.”