Lakers = Losers?

The Celtics are up 3-2 in the NBA finals series, and they just failed to wrap this entire thing up roughly 12 hours ago at the Staples Center when the Lakers somehow managed to cling on in the final few minutes. Not to mention this is after the Lakers actually lost the 19 point lead they had at the beginning of the second quarter. In my opinion, Bryant’s just lucky he got a hand on the ball in the dying minutes of the last quarter which lead to that dagger two-handed dunk of his.

I’m no expert by any measure of the word, but it’s quite obvious the Lakers just aren’t pushing hard enough, and they obviously can’t rely much on Bryant, seeing as how he can be on fire one moment but be as cold as ice the next: 15 points in the first quarter and 10 in the remaining 2 quarters, without scoring at all in almost the entire third quarter. Gasol sure was getting things moving while he was inside the paint, but he really should have drawn fouls from KG in the last few minutes of the fourth when KG was on 5 fouls.

Not to mention the Laker bench hardly got up to do any work except act as cheerleaders from the bench and throw up their towels to distract Celtics free-throwers. Luke Walton eventually came in but got subbed out in the 4th with 4 fouls under his belt. Things were different on the Celtics side, with so many players coming on I couldn’t even keep track of who was who.

On the Celtics side they were just relying on Pierce, but rightfully so, ending the game with 38 points, getting things done on both the offensive and defensive end. But yet, it’s Bryant’s 25 points that gets a video to itself on Youtube while no one will realise how significant Pierce was in the game. Working off the pick and roll with KG as the screen, the Lakers couldn’t even deal with a simple offensive strategy like that. He just drove his way into the paint countless times from a pick and roll and they couldn’t stop him at all except by fouling him.

From the looks of it, I highly doubt the lakers have any chance at all of winning the series. The remaining 2 games are going to be in Boston, and seeing as how they can lose a 24 point lead at halftime in the 4th game in Staples Center, who knows what could happen in Boston. I’m expecting the Celtics to wrap things up in Game 6, seeing as how they only need one more win.

However, despite my speculation, I’m hoping that I’m wrong, the Lakers really do deserve to win the championship title this year, and plenty of fans are rooting for them as well, all thanks to MVP Kobe Bryant. Seeing as how his jersey is the most popular one being bid on online, with prices approaching 10K for the jersey he wore in the Finals. Not to say the Celtics don’t deserve it, they’re definitely working better as a team than the Lakers now, but the thing is, the Lakers have the potential to be a much better team, we’ll just have to wait and see when that side of them will finally surface.