Less than two weeks ago (Feb. 10), the two-time defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers prepared to hold their own at the Staples Center against the arch rival Boston Celtics. As there always is when these two go head-to-head in the NBA regular season, this game had plenty of hype and storylines before tip-off. Not only was Shaquille O'Neal set to play his first game in L.A. in a Celtics uniform, but the Lakers had really struggled against the best of the best in the league this season and had just recently fallen to the Miami Heat on Christmas Day.
Unfortunately, despite having the lead heading into halftime in L.A. and Kobe Bryant starting to get hot (22 points in the first half), the Lakers were just dominated in the second half and ultimately fell to their arch rivals 109-96.
On Feb. 10, the Lakers were given a shot at redemption as they headed to Boston in their third game of a seven game road trip. Even though the defending champs had an impressive 36-16 record heading into this game, they had lost to some of the best teams in the league like the Boston Celtics, Dallas Mavericks, Chicago Bulls, Miami Heat and the San Antonio Spurs.
There is no question that the Lakers are still playoff bound and would almost certainly clinch a high seed in the Western Conference along with yet another Pacific division title, but if they can't beat the best of the best in the NBA, their three-peat hopes would quickly disappear.
Comg into this game, the biggest headline was Celtics sharpshooter Ray Allen being just two three-pointers away from passing Reggie Miller on the all-time list. Before the first quarter ended, Allen had already put Miller's record behind him after hitting his 2,561 shot from deep.
After Allen had officially become the all-time leader in three-pointers, the Lakers were the topic of discussion as they have been surrounded by trade rumors recently as they have been linked to a trade with the Denver Nuggets for All-Star Carmelo Anthony over the past week or so. The deal was a bit stretch in most people's opinion, but with the Lakers not getting any younger the consensus was that they would pull trigger if given the opportunity.
So even though the defending champs have been bombarded with trade rumors and the pressure of being in a must win situation every single night, Kobe Bryant and company came to play on Thursday night as they gave the Boston Celtics all they could handle. Not only did the Black Mamba put on a show in the fourth quarter with some sweet looking shots that basically sealed the deal, but both Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum stepped it up at just the right time.
Kobe led all scorers with 23 points on nine of 17 shooting, but Bynum (16 points, nine boards) and Gasol (20 points, 10 boards) weren't far off as the two Lakers bigs combined for 36 points and 19 rebounds. Lamar Odom and Shannon Brown also had solid performances off the bench as LO finished with 10 points and 12 boards while high-flying Brown added 12 points of his own.
At times, the Celtics looked like they were on the verge of blowing this game wideopen like they did back in L.A., but the Lakers stayed tough inside and were able to cruise. The Lakers bigs were key to getting this 92-86 win in Boston, but Kobe's 20 points in the second half were huge and in my opinion turned out to be the difference in this game.
Comments