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Celtics-Lakers: Exactly how it should be
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The Celtics have won 19 games in a row. They're the defending champions. They're in LA, on Christmas day.
Everything is right in the world.
Celtics fans know it. They're the ones who were chanting "Beat LA" with 10 minutes to go in last night's game against the 76ers.
The Lakers know it. They're the ones so obsessed with the Celtics, that Boston games are on in the locker room and Sasha Vujacic refuses to wear green.
Tomorrow night's game promises to be the game 7 of the NBA Finals that LA never got to; the exception to the "December games are meaningless" rule.
And, of course, this game has plenty of Lakers-Celtics history to it. With their 20th straight win, we'll be able to start entertaining thoughts of catching the Lakers 33-game winning streak. And the coach of that record-setting Lakers team? Celtics legend Bill Sharman. It's almost as if these two teams can't make history without the other being involved.
But there is one key difference between these two teams.
The Lakers are in this to see how they compare to the Celtics. The Celtics are in this to win the game. That's a major difference in attitude. When you're out there to win the game, you execute the plays needed to do so. When you're out there to see how you match up with a team, there is a tendency for too much one-on-one. And for the Lakers, a team predisposed to a lot of one-on-one play, this could be an especially bad habit.
And let's not forget the pressure on Andrew Bynum.
Lakers fans have spent almost all of the offseason bemoaning the fact that Bynum wasn't available for the playoffs. Bynum is a good player, and he's got the potential to be great. But he's not the difference-maker Lakers fans make him out to be. Fans are going to be looking to him to be that physical force that was missing against the Celtics last year. When he's not (and he's not really that kind of player), he faces the possibility of fickle Lakers fans turning on him. He's at a critical point in his development. A bad performance in this game could be a turning point in his young career.
Yes, I expect the Celtics to win. The Celtics are the best defensive team in the world, and they're near the top offensively. The Lakers are a great offensive team, but mediocre defensively. And the Celtics proved last year that you win with defense. When the emotions are at their highest tomorrow night, and both teams are just slugging it out, the Celtics will be clamping down on defense while the Lakers will be trying to launch their offense.
We've seen this movie before. And it ended with a parade in Boston.
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