Bryan Albin’s NBA Pick of the Day 6/3/10

Boston Celtics @ Los Angeles Lakers (-5.5) 9:00 EDT

30 NBA franchises began the season in October with the goal of reaching the NBA finals that begin tonight. In the end, the leagues two most storied franchises made it back to meet in the NBA finals for the 12th time. The Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers are no strangers to the NBA finals. This marks the 3rd straight year the Lakers have reached the finals, while this is the 2nd time in 3 years for the Celtics. These two teams met in the finals in 2008, as the Celtics won the series in 6 games, making the score 9-2 in favor of Boston when these teams meet in the finals. This series, the Lakers are prohibitive favorites to win back to back NBA championships.

SEEKING REVENGE

In 2008, the Boston Celtics had the home court advantage for their finals match-up against the Lakers. However, the Lakers were still the favorites to win that particular series. It looked like the series could go either way until the Celtics came back from 24 points down in the 3rd quarter to beat the Lakers in game 4. This gave the Celtics a 3-1 series lead, and the Celtics comfortably won in 6 games. Ever since then, the Lakers have enjoyed more success, including winning last years NBA championship. However, the Lakers have admitted they have wanted another crack at this Celtics team in the finals considering how the finals went in 2008. Nothing would satisfy the Lakers more than getting revenge at the expense of their bitter rivals.

SEASON SERIES

As always, the Celtics and Lakers played two regular season games against each other this year. Both games were incredible games, as the Lakers won the first game in Boston by a score of 90-89, and the Celtics won the second matchup in February in Los Angeles by a score of 86-87. What do these regular season meetings reveal? Well, if anything it shows us that these two teams always seem to play competitive games when they matchup against one another. However, I think what is most interesting is that both of these games were low scoring. This means the games were being played at Boston’s tempo, and the Celtics defense was the dictator of the game.

KEYS TO THE GAME

• Lakers F Pau Gasol has never faced as much criticism as he did after he was pushed around in the finals 2 years ago against the Celtics. If Kevin Garnett and Kendrick Perkins can disturb him again in this series, the Lakers will struggle mightily.
• Kobe Bryant’s 37 point effort stole the show in game 6 against Phoenix, but Ron Artest played a huge role by scoring 25 points in that game. If Artest can simply average double figures scoring in this series, he can prove to be the most important offseason acquisition any team made this past offseason.
• So much has been made of how this might be the Celtics last chance to win a championship with this group of players as Paul Pierce, Garnett and Ray Allen are all closing in on the ends of their illustrious careers. However, it will have to be Rajon Rondo who steps up for the Celtics to win. His quickness should bother Derek Fisher, much like Russell Westbrook took advantage of his speed advantage on Fisher in the first round.

Pick:              Boston 91              Los Angeles 88                Boston covers