Just got back from LA. Obviously the game didn't end the way I wanted (massive understatement) and I can't convey to you how soul-killing it has been to be in LA for the last week. I've avoided all TV (not even Sportscenter), but the amount of Lakers love everywhere has been over the top anyway.
That said.
Going to the game was awesome. It started from the morning when my son (19 months) and I got on a plane in North Carolina, each of us wearing #5 Garnett jerseys. Everyone from the airport security to the sky caps to random folks on the plane were jawing with us, weighing in on which side they were on. We got some ribbing, but a lot of love as well. Even after we landed in LA, though the heckling went up we still got a lot of well-wishing. A full day of trash-talk, got me primed for the game.
Traffic was crazy. It took me more than an hour to drive across the city, so I actually missed tip-off. But when I got there it was 4- 2, so I saw almost everything.
My son and I stepped up to our seats wearing out Celtics gear, and when we got to the row we were supposed to sit on it was literally purple-and-gold in every direction. And our seat was in the exact middle. When the folks on the row realized that we would be sitting with them, everyone threw up their hands and groaned. It was fun.
I was sitting next to a chatty little guy with a smoking girlfriend who wanted to trash-talk me the whole game but couldn't because the Celtics kept winning. We went back and forth the whole first half, but he kept getting quiet whenever the Cs went on a run. Whenever the Lakers would score 2 buckets in a row he'd start getting cocky again, yelling "time out Doc Rivers!" which got kind of annoying. They left in the 2nd quarter and came back in the 3rd, and when they came back the Cs were in control and they reversed seats so that the girlfriend was sitting next to me and the guy on the other side. I ribbed him about trying to get away from me until they switched back.
I was actually sitting 3 rows behind Scal's parents and his cousin. They were the only other folks in our entire section wearing green, so we talked and bonded a bit in the game. They were very nice people, and after the game they found me outside and shook my hand. I was hoping, if the team won, they might take me and my son down to the court with them to celebrate, but alas it didn't happen.
When the game ended I was so sickened that I didn't stay for the celebration, which apparently was a good thing because I later found out that people were acting up outside. I missed all of that, though, because once the game ended I (and the few Cs fans that were there) all filed out immediately.
There were so few people leaving that it was easy to see folks. One of the Celtics owners (I don't know which one, but he was shorter and olive skinned and he identified himself to me as 'one of the Celtics' owners') came up to me and thanked me for coming out, said that the team would make a few changes this offseason and planned to be back next year.
Since the game ended, I still have yet to look at a single box score or watch a single highlight. I do some sportswriting as part of my job and the draft is tonight so I guess I'll have to end my NBA hiatus soon, but for now my impressions are purely from what I saw. Here are my bullet-points from my thoughts:
1) Those were 2 incredibly even-matched teams and both were extremely tight for most of the game. If that series would have been a best 9-of-17, it would have gone 17 games.
2) The Lakers had every physical advantage, and in the end that told. The Celtics were more skilled and executed better, but they just couldn't keep the taller, more athletic Lakers away from the ball and eventually that wore the team down.
3) The Home Court absolutely played a huge part in the Lakers win. In the 4th quarter, when the Cs started missing shots, there was a several minutes span where the crowd went nuts and you could feel the Lakers (particularly Gasol and Kobe) drawing strength from it during what was a horrific shooting night for them.
4) Perk being out killed our ultra-big depth, which killed us. KG could neutralize one of the Lakers bigs, but Baby couldn't take the other and Sheed's foul trouble left Baby on Gasol way too often at important times late.
5) I don't know if it was because he was too tired, or whether the other perimeter players just thought they needed to try to take over, but it was a HUGE mistake for the Cs to go away from KG in the 4th. He was the one player on the team that the Lakers just had no answer for. Whenever he got it in iso against Gasol, he was taking it to the rim for good shots. But for some reason many of the big-man isos were going to Sheed and Baby early, then in the 4th when the Cs went on their scoring drought the vast majority of the possessions involved Rondo, Pierce or Allen initiating and shooting without KG even touching it. By the time they came back to him for an easy dunk late we had gone from a 4-point lead to a 6-point deficit, and it was too late.
6) I don't know how it's been portrayed in the media, but by-FAR the 2 biggest shots of the game were not made by either Kobe or Gasol. In the 4th, the Cs had lost the lead but battled back to go back up by 3 when the Lakers called time-out. After the time-out Fisher knocked down an ice-cold 3-pointer to tie the game. You could feel the life flow out of the Cs and into the Lakers on that shot.
Then, at the end when the teams were scrambling, the Cs had just hit a huge 3-pointer to cut the lead to 3 when Artest got the ball beyond the arc. When he shot, literally all of the fans on my row yelled 'NO!!!' at the same time, but when he knocked it down that was the killer. That was the shot that sealed the game.
Bottom line: Going to the game will be a life-long memory. I wouldn't trade it. But MAN, it would have been nice to come out of that one with a win.
Topic: Going to Game 7! (Greatest Father's Day Gift EVER) (Read 4357 times)