Was anyone sweating the Lakers run at the end?

[GWVan]

Oddly enough I never sweated the "miracle" comeback.  I realized that our team had quit at about 7 minutes to go and I was glad for the comeback.  I was a little concerned about a finals blowout.  Historically the blown out team rebounds very well, and the team on top of the blow out comes out complacent.  It looks to me like we can get anything we want offensively, and the Lakers are incapable of putting together a defensive stand when they need one.  As long as we stay in the games in LA we have a good chance to sweep this series, BUT if they come out fired up and we come out lazy in game 3 we will be down by 25 in a heartbeat and out of the game early.

The comeback is the best thing that could have happened.

[Bahku]

I don't think the Celtics themselves were too worried about it either, which was exactly the problem. Luckily, they finally became concerned and dug-in long enough to hang on. Sorry, but I just don't relate to not "sweating it" when a team like the Lakers goes from down by 24 points to down by 2 in a matter of minutes. LA came back from huge three-quarter defecits in two games in their series with the Spurs alone, and Kobe lives for this stuff. Thank God our coach and team were sensible enough to take it seriously, or this one would have gone down the tubes!

[hpantazo]

I don't think the Celtics themselves were too worried about it either, which was exactly the problem. Luckily, they finally became concerned and dug-in long enough to hang on. Sorry, but I just don't relate to not "sweating it" when a team like the Lakers goes from down by 24 points to down by 2 in a matter of minutes. LA came back from huge three-quarter defecits in two games in their series with the Spurs alone. Thank God our coach and team were sensible enough to take it seriously, or this one would have gone down the tubes!

that's exactly it, the celtics themselves weren't worried about it either, and that was the problem. Pierce actually smiled and told the ref it was a good call after he got called for traveling, like he was playing in a charity game.

[Yakmanev]

I had to leave for work midway through the 3rd quarter. I listened on the radio and it was a 20 point lead when I went inside. With the big lead I was able to work ok without my mind wandering.

I snuck out to the truck after about an hour and turned on the radio to hear "The Lakers miraculous comeback...." My heart stopped and sank into my stomach before they finished with ...."falls short and the Celtics hang on to win."

Had I watched this live I'm sure I probably would have died. That being said I'm calling and telling them Im going to be an hour late tonight.
(Like they won't figure out what for) Oh well it's just a job the C's in the Finals don't happen all that often these days.

[TrueGreen]

When you're up 24 points mid-3rd quarter you probably thought about turning off the TV right there.

Anyone have any thoughts on the game getting down to 4 pts in the late 4th?

I did not think the game was over when we were up by 24. All season the Celtics have stopped playing their game when they have had big leads. I'd much rather they be playing in the 4th quarter with a 10 point lead. I think what happened last game is that the C's wanted it so bad and they put so much effort and intensity into getting that lead that the adrenaline or "gas", as KG says, just let out with 8 minutes left. They did have enough left to make some big plays to hold the Laker's off.

[Discoflux]

No

I have no faith in those types of runs that LA had just made.

Like I said if it had happened a few minutes earlier and they had a firm foot in the game (say down to four with 2:30 to play and a little to-ing and fro-ing until the final 40 seconds, that would be different). That they'd shown they were able to play halfcourt, get some stops and score againt our defense then I'd be concerned. That didn't happen. They were just playing desperate, Celtics were playing too loose with the ball. That wasn't going to continue and I didn't think they'd adapt quickly enough. The whole game was going to change in an instant and suddenly everything LA had done for 5 minutes wasn't going to work. Celtics had too many matchup advantages and LA still needed to score in the halfcourt.

I just no faith in LA's ability to close it out and had full faith in the Celtics' ability to close out 40 seconds of basketball with the lead and possession.

I agree with Who.  The last 7 minutes of the game were almost surreal, in that I was so confident that the Cs would win that it never even occurred to me to be stressed.  When they cut it to 2, I actually told my wife "you know, I feel like I should be more worried than this, but I'm not".  There was just never any part of me that thought the Lakers would REALLY come all the way back to win.  In fact, I don't even really see where they could claim any momentum for making it close, since it was so obvious that the Celts dominated the 40 minutes of the game where both teams were actually playing.

As a Lakers fan i had that feeling too.  I wasn't trying to be a wet blanket, but I was telling my friends not to get too excited about the lead trimming.  Enjoy the run, but i knew it was not going to be enough.