It’s nice the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers have renewed one of the NBA’s more storied rivalries in this year’s league championship series.

Too bad this series has bordered on unwatchable most of the time. Too bad it makes me want to take in more reruns of the superior, Celtics-Lakers clashes of the mid-80s.

If I see Boston forward Paul Pierce or any other Celtic waltz uncontested through the lane for a layup again, I’m begging former L.A. enforcer Kurt Rambis to show these younger Lakers, who obviously can’t deal with the pick-and-roll, how to deposit someone on the hardwood if he ventures deep into the paint. As Bill Walton might scream, “This is the Finals!”

If I see league MVP Kobe Bryant pass the ball prematurely again in crunch time or pout again in that Kobe way of his when the Lakers are beginning to implode once more with a big lead, I’m asking Magic to call timeout and remind these softer Lakers how a real leader behaves.

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If I see the Lakers go through one more quarter without playing any defense, I’m asking Kareem, Magic, James Worthy, A.C. Green and Michael Cooper to get these slackers off the floor and show them what a stop looks like.

Boston, led by Pierce and a defense that has swarmed Kobe effectively and neutralized Los Angeles’ supposedly superior bench, should have closed out this forgettable exercise by now.

These Celtics would not have stood a chance against the 80s vintage of Bird-Parrish-McHale-Johnson-Ainge. But at least Boston has exposed this year’s Western Conference as a deep league with a glaring lack of heavy at the top.

It should all mercifully end tonight in Boston.

DON’T BET ON THE TRIPLE CROWN

It’s been 30 years since the sport of kings has celebrated a Triple Crown winner. But if you think it’s hard to earn that honor in horse racing, look at the Triple Crown droughts baseball has endured.

The last American League hitter to finish a season by leading the league in batting average, home runs and runs batted was Boston’s Carl Yastrzemski in 1967. As for the National League, Joe “Ducky” Medwick last pulled off the unlikely hat trick — 61 years ago.

The best hopes for ending the skid this year are Texas’ Josh Hamilton and Houston’s Lance Berkman.

Hamilton leads the AL in home runs (18) and RBI (72) and is hitting .319, just 11 points off the league lead. Berkman is second in the NL in home runs (19), third in RBI (57) and second in average (.360), merely 49 points behind Chipper Jones, who is trying to become the first .400 hitter since Ted Williams did it in 1941.

Gary Lambrecht writes about the NFL, Major League Baseball and college sports. He can be reached at glambrecht@baltimoreexaminer.com