Jun 18, 2008 - 1:06 PM
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Defense and toughness wins championships. It's a lesson the Los Angeles Lakers - who lacked both in the NBA Finals - learned in a painful way Tuesday night amid the sea of green at the TD Banknorth Garden.
While the Boston Celtics were celebrating their 17th NBA championship, the Lakers were humiliated following one of the most embarrassing defeats in their history. They seemed to quit in the second quarter, when they were outscored, 34-15, and the Celtics continued to pour it on, never letting up while chants of "Beat L.A" ... "Beat L.A." rained down from the crowd.
"The last two minutes of the second period buried the team emotionally," said Lakers coach Phil Jackson, who was denied a 10th championship, keeping him tied with former Celtics patriarch Red Auerbach. "We went into the locker room at halftime and tried to get our guys back on bearing and really couldn't turn the momentum around."
Boston's 131-92 romp - the most lopsided score ever in the deciding game of a Finals series - was every bit as one-sided as the score suggested. It was reminiscent of Boston's 148-114 win over the Lakers in the 1985 Finals, a contest that became known as the "Memorial Day Massacre."
However, that was only the first game of the Final. That year, the Lakers were able to rebound to beat the Celtics in six games. They never had a chance on Tuesday. Boston improved to 9-2 in the Finals against Los Angeles.
"I think if we're going to learn anything from this series, we can't expect to win a championship by focusing on the offensive end," Lakers guard Kobe Bryant said. "We have to be able to hold people down. We're pretty good at it, but I think we can be much better."
Repeatedly, the Celtics exposed the Lakers' interior defense in the series. The Lakers clearly missed center Andrew Bynum, who sat out the second half of the season and all of the playoffs with a knee injury.
The acquisition of forward Pau Gasol from the Memphis Grizzlies helped make Los Angeles the best team in the Western Conference, but the Lakers simply could not solve the Celtics' defense. Los Angeles was forced to play Boston's game. Except for their 31-9 burst late in the Game Two and their first quarters in Game Three (35 points) and Game Four (39 points), the Lakers struggled in a halfcourt offense.
"There were times when I thought their defense was exceptional, and there were times when I thought we didn't play very smart basketball in execution," Jackson added. "I think one of the things they did is they really focused on (Bryant) and made sure he wasn't going to be the guy that hurt them."
Heading into the series, the Lakers were seen by many as the favorite because of Bryant, the reigning Most Valuable Player, but his reputation took a hit in the series. He has now lost his last two appearances in the Finals after winning three championships earlier in his career.
There were times when Bryant carried the Lakers in the series, like early in Game Six, when he made three 3-pointers and scored 11 points in the first six minutes. But there also were extended stretches when he seemed to disappear, when he was a non-factor. He looked confused, and his frustration showed.
"They definitely were the best defense I've seen in the entire playoffs," Bryant said. "The goal was to win a championship. From that aspect, we failed."
Jackson, now 9-2 in the Finals, acknowledged that the Lakers didn't match the Celtics' physical play throughout the series - even though his was the healthier of the teams. Boston played with more energy, more passion and more desire.
"They overran us," Jackson said. "(Kevin) Garnett knocked Pau down in the lane and scored an easy basket in the first four or five minutes and set kind of a tone that they were going to establish an aggressive form. We never met that energy all night.
"We have to get some players if we're going to come back and repeat, to have that kind of aggressiveness that we need."
While it's difficult to see a silver lining in the wake of 39-point loss, the Lakers did enjoy a successful year. At the start of the season, when Bryant was begging out of Los Angeles, this was not considered a team that could reach the Finals.
"We suffered injuries and survived a season and rebuilt our team and came back and had a great run until the Celtics were able to extinguish that hope," Jackson said. "But whenever you get this opportunity, you don't want it to slip away, and we did."
Still, the Lakers were stomped on by their historic nemesis, and they will have all summer to hear the comments about how they are too soft.
