LOS ANGELES, Calif. – It wasn’t as high of a scoring game as people expected, but the 4th quarter was just as entertaining as an NBA Finals Game 7 should be. The Boston Celtics came in to this game never losing a Game 7 in the Finals and the Los Angeles Lakers were champions in four of the previous 10 seasons. In conclusion something had to give, and this time it finally went the Lakers way.
Beating Boston for the first time in a Game 7, the LA Lakers repeated as champions for the first time since the 2000-2001 season after beating the Celtics in a well-fought Game 7 of the NBA Finals, 83-79, in the Staples Center on Thursday night. The Lakers were able to win the game despite a poor shooting performance from Kobe Bryant (6-24, 23 points) and trailing at the start of the 4th quarter.
After seeming to be outplayed by the Boston offense for all of the first three quarters, the Lakers were able to hang around and actually tie it at 61 with a little over seven minutes left after Ron Artest made a three pointer. Artest finished with 20 points for the Lakers. Bryant would add a couple of free throws 90 seconds later to give the Lakers their first lead of the second half. The Lakers never looked back after that, even holding back a late charge of threes from the Celtics.
Pau Gasol finally came alive for LA as well as he added 19 points of his own with 18 rebounds. The championship win for the Lakers moves the organization to only one behind the Celtics for most titles all-time.
As for the Celtics stars, Paul Pierce finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds and Kevin Garnett added 17 points. Boston, after winning a crucial Game 5 back home, the Celtics just couldn’t push the team over the edge to clinch the series in the final two games. This brings to an end a season for the Celtics that was very up and down which concluded in a 4th place finish in the Eastern Conference and probably the final season for Boston’s big three, Garnett, Pierce, and Ray Allen.
Kobe Bryant said the rivalry between the Celtics and Lakers was a huge motivation for him in this series, even if he had to downplay it. Being denied a championship by this same Boston team just two seasons ago, Bryant made the shots when they counted in the fourth quarter and now has the same number of championships as Laker great Magic Johnson and puts him one behind hall of famer Michael Jordan. Even though he wasn’t at his best, Bryant was still able to win the Finals MVP.
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