Lakers vs. Celtics. Team with best record in the West vs. Team with the best record in the East. Kobe vs. Garnett. That’s what it comes down to.

Before this season began, only one of these teams seemed poised to go deep in the play-offs, while the other was shadowed by trade rumours and uneasiness.

The Los Angeles Lakers, the team many people thought was on the verge of trading their superstar shooting guard, are now heavily favoured to win their 15th NBA championship against the Boston Celtics, the team picked to win it all before the season tipped off.

'The Lakers beat two legitimate title contenders and a 50-win team to reach the NBA Finals, winning 12 out of 15 play-off games to date'


Though Boston played superior basketball during the regular season, which included two wins against LA - 104-97 on November 23 and 110-91 on December 30 - the play-offs tell a different story.

Boston finished the regular season with the league’s best record at 66-16 with the reward of hosting the No. 8 seed Atlanta Hawks in the first round of the play-offs. The Celtics were supposed to sweep the Hawks in four games, but ended up crawling to victory in seven competitive games against the team that had a losing record during the regular season.

In the Eastern Conference semis, the Cleveland Cavaliers, who were heavy underdogs, preceded to take the Celtics to the brink of elimination before Paul Pierce came through with a monster performance, scoring 41 points to lead the Celtics to the Conference Finals.

Though the Celtics proceeded to beat the Detroit Pistons in six games, we learned a lot about this team, and that’s not a good thing.

First, the Celtics took seven games to beat two inferior opponents, and couldn’t muster a single road win during that span. When they played Detroit, they lost at home, proving that they’re no longer invincible at the Boston Garden.

Second, shooting guard Ray Allen, who was clutch during the regular season, had a terrible time in the play-offs against Cleveland, with games of four, nine and zero points, disappearing when the team needed him most.

Third, the Celtics’ crowd was clearly nervous before game five of the Eastern Conference Finals, where the team had gone 5-1 at home up to that point, and the crowd grew eerily quiet as the Celtics fell behind early on. 

The point of having home court advantage is that when the team’s down, the crowd will pick them up and help the players rise against the opposition. The Celtics are going to need momentum if they plan on winning all of their home games, and if the crowd isn’t into the game of picking up the home team, this will be a very short series.

The Lakers are 8-0 at home in the play-offs and have not lost there in two months. The Lakers beat two legitimate title contenders and a 50-win team to reach the NBA Finals, winning 12 out of 15 play-off games to date.

They beat defending champion San Antonio in five games, overcoming deficits of 20 points in game one and 17 points in game five.  The Lakers may not exactly have a rabid, devout fan base, but their fans were confident enough in the team to patiently wait while LA fell behind 28-15 after the first quarter of game five against San Antonio. 

They didn’t have to scream at the players to get them to wake up, because they knew the Lakers have the one guy who can single-handedly change a game – Kobe Bryant. Bryant scored 17 of his 39 points in the fourth quarter, the only quarter that matters. 

Only a handful of teams had a closer as good as Bryant this season, and unfortunately for the Celtics, their “big three” of Allen, Garnett, and Paul Pierce can’t take over a game like Bryant.

The San Antonio Spurs put defensive wiz Bruce Bowen on Bryant, and he still managed to put up 29.2 PPG against them. Ray Allen is no Bruce Bowen on defence, to put it mildly.  Thus, it’ll be hard to stop him from scoring at will.

In order to win this series, Boston must make sure Bryant doesn’t get to the line often, where he’s been most effective during the play-offs.  If the Celtics can keep Bryant away from the foul line and force him to take a lot of shots, they’ll have a chance. 

Boston haven’t shown much more than glimpses of dominance during the play-offs, and it’s unknown which Ray Allen will show up this series – reliable Ray, or washed-up Ray?  Either way, he’s the X-factor. Lakers in six games.