The closest thing to any of this was Game 1, an affair that included seven ties and 12 lead changes through the third quarter. But there were no real sparks. The Celtics took a 77-73 lead into the fourth period and they were able to nurse it. There was no real tension. It was an OK NBA playoff game, nothing more.
In Game 2 the Celtics stretched the lead to 24 midway through the fourth quarter before LA launched a comeback. OK, fine. The Lakers got it down to 2 with plenty of time to win. But the ending was pretty flat. Paul Pierce put the Celtics back ahead by 4 on a call that probably didn't have to be made. Sasha Vujacic had that shot blocked, and that was it.
Great game? Nah. It was my turn/your turn; that's all.
Game 3 was a bad, bad, bad game. It was poorly played, and not even all that suspenseful. There were three ties and seven lead changes, the last with 6:53 to go. This was Kobe Bryant's best game, coming up with 36 on 12-for-20 shooting. But this was the game in which Pierce and Kevin Garnett shot that abominable combined 8 for 35, despite which the Celtics were in the game till very late. The whole mess was pretty much an insult to the idea of NBA Finals basketball.
We all know what happened in Game 4. The Lakers are now sitting around saying, "If only we could play the way we did in the first 18 minutes all the time." And the Celtics are sitting around saying, "If only we could play the way we did in the final 18 minutes all the time." Those respective 18-minute stretches were definitely something each side should be proud of. But the rest of the game? Yuck.
Game 5. The Celtics laid another stegosaurus egg in the first quarter. The Lakers laid two more brontosaurus eggs, the first in the second quarter, when they lost most of a 19-point lead, and the second when they watched a 14-point fourth-quarter lead disappear in fewer than five minutes.
