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Your tears sustain me, extremely butt hurt spur fan. Keep cryin'!!!
We have a majority of Laker s on the board celebrating their hollow rigged 4th qtr and buying my products, ie Kobe Sniffin clothing items.
What are the Boston players and Rivers saying? We got any Bostonians with quotes?
Your tears sustain me, extremely butt hurt spur fan. Keep cryin'!!!
Drive ran out of gas
Minutes from completing historic run to le, it fell apart for Celtics
By Bob RyanGlobe Columnist / June 19, 2010
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Six minutes and 29 seconds.
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The Boston Celtics were 6 minutes and 29 seconds away from a championship, 6 minutes and 29 seconds away from completing one of the great runs in Celtics history — NBA history, in fact. They were 6 minutes and 29 seconds away from achieving a satisfaction that they would have carried to their graves.
But this, we must always be reminded, is why we are talking about sport, and not entertainment. In sport, there is no scripted ending. In sport, someone seizes the moment, authoring a script on the fly. On Thursday night at Staples Center, the protagonists turned out to be the Los Angeles Lakers, not the Boston Celtics.
Trailing, 64-61, after a pair of Ray Allen free throws with 6:29 left, the Lakerstook control of the game. It wasn’t flashy. It wasn’t even dramatic. It was workmanlike and it was deadly efficient. Starting with an almost predictable inside-out 3-pointer at the 6:12 mark by the redoubtable Derek Fisher, and ending with a pair of free throws by de facto series MVP Pau Gasol (as opposed to the official one) with 4:38 left, the Lakers ran off 9 straight points to go up, 70-64. In those 94 seconds, the Lakers tipped the seventh game of the 2010 NBA Finals in their direction.
The Lakers eventually won by 4 (83-79), and the confetti came flowing from the ceiling. The Celtics were left with their thoughts, feelings, and shattered dreams, knowing that their unpredicted run for an 18th championship, laudable as it was, would not be successful. They will always believe, at the very least, that they were the Lakers’ equal, that if Game 7 had been on their court, or even on a neutral court, they would have won. But it does not matter. The Lakers had a finishing kick, and they didn’t.
So now it is over for this bunch. “It’s not going to be the same team next year,’’ said Doc Rivers, who could be front and center in a changing-of-the-guard scenario.
Allen is a free agent, and it will be interesting to see what the going rate is from the Celtics or Team X for a soon-to-be 35-year-old shooting guard who had a trick-or-treat offensive series, culminating in a gruesome 3 for 14 from the floor. He represents class, professionalism, and is everything a team would want as a spokesman and role model for younger players, but his primary job is to put the ball in the basket.
Paul Pierce can opt out, although he has said approximately 357 times that he’d like to be a Celtic lifer. But stranger things have happened.
Rasheed Wallace may retire, and even if he doesn’t, can there be any doubt he was a one-time, roll-of-the-dice proposition?Continued...
of a Big, as they say nowadays, is already well underway, I’m sure.
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Anyway, let’s assume the era of Big Three II is over. Do we have a report card?
First of all, was it not a universal assumption in the autumn of 2007 that there would be a three-year window in order to win a championship? At the time, Allen and Kevin Garnett would play the 2007-08 season at 32 and 31, respectively. Pierce would play at 30. Then it was necessary to factor in Garnett’s workload, given that his career had begun at age 19. So three years seemed like a logical working premise.
Now let it be said that some among us — OK, me — were less enthusiastic about instant championship possibilities than others. I looked at the remainder of the roster and declared it to be the worst 4-12 in the league, a judgment that proved to be about as prescient as Dan Duquette’s proclamation that the 1996 Roger Clemens was in the twilight of his career. Please. At times you’ve got to man up and admit you’re wrong. I did like Rajon Rondo, but could never have projected his quick ascent to s om in his second year in the league. I was totally wrong about Perkins, who looked like a career backup to me.
But I will say I made that judgment before Danny Ainge signed Eddie House, James Posey, or, for the stretch drive, P.J. Brown. Absent any of them, the team would not have won.
But the Celtics did win. They provided fans with one of the great start-to-finish experiences of their lives, going 66-16 in the regular season and then concluding the season with a 131-92 conquest of the hated Lakers. I can tell you for sure that no other Celtics team in my experience ever put the pedal to the metal on Day 1 without ever taking it off until the final buzzer of the final game. In that regard, the 2007-08 Celtics stand apart.
Really. Need we say any more? They delivered. They ended a 22-year championship drought, and they did so by giving their fans the closest thing to a perfect season imaginable. A fandom cannot ask more than to see a team give them a nightly home show in the regular season before doing whatever it takes to get through the two-month grind of the playoffs. That’s the complete package.
OK, so the team had another chance to win in Year 2, but Garnett’s injury ended that. But wait. A 27-2 start. 62 wins. That absolutely riveting first-round series with the eager, athletic Bulls. No complaints.
This year was an entirely different matter. There was the 23-5 start, followed by the injury-related (but not entirely, I grant you) 27-27 snore to the playoffs. They told us they would be compe ive if they were healthy, and they were speaking the gospel truth. They beat Miami and the dynamic Dwyane Wade. They took care of King James. They showed Orlando that man cannot live by 3-point bombardiering alone, albeit ed with a few entry passes to Dwight Howard. And then they engaged in mortal combat with the Lakers and Kobe Bryant, holding him to 40 percent shooting while taking them to the final 6 minutes and 29 seconds of a Game 7 on the road before being unable to close the deal.
In the end, the age mattered. Each of the Big Three proved to be quite mortal. The spirit was willing. Their hearts were in the right place. The other guys were a little bit better. It happens.
Final verdict: One le, one not given a fair chance, one spectacular 62-day, four-series playoff run that comes within 6 minutes and 29 seconds of winning it all. I’d say that’s an A-minus.
Whatever happens henceforth, happens. What fan wouldn’t do it all over again, every second of it?
Nobody I want to know.
ray allen: "im sad". Paul Pierce"i dont know if im opting out"
Doc Rivers" we lost cause we didnt have perkins, but im a hypocrite cause the lakers didnt have bynum for 6 games 2 years ago but i will ommit that fact because i look like an idiot if i say that so our starting lineup still hasnt lost a finals
I hate Bob Ryan
Culby,
Thank you for making a meaningful on topic post. I sincerely mean that.
I'm looking for player and coaches quotes, parts of these articles had them.
Here are some, I'll keep looking for more.
Kevin Garnett acknowledged the impact of the rebounding, but looking at the numbers — the Lakers missed 16 3-pointers and shot 32.5 percent overall — he found it hard to see how it added up to a loss.
“That was pretty bad, but not only that, they went to the line, I think, 20 more times than we did,’’ Garnett said. “When you looked at the numbers and what they shot. They shot 32 percent. They shot 20 [percent] from the 3-point line and their free throw percentage wasn’t all that well. But evidently it was enough to beat us.’’
“If you would have said Kobe shot the way he shot, I would have taken that,’’ Glen Davis said. “Kobe didn’t beat us, it was the rebounding.’’
For the series, the Lakers grabbed 297 rebounds to the Celtics’ 265. They made 153 of 200 free throws, the Celtics made 115 of 149. But those weren’t the numbers the Celtics wanted to look at.
“It came down to the last two minutes, man,’’ Garnett said. “You know it came down to two minutes.’’
Doc Rivers:
“I thought the lack of size at the end of the day was the difference in the game,’’ said Rivers, whose team was outrebounded, 53-40, in Game 7. “I thought our guys battled down there, but 23-8, you know, on offensive rebounds, and then the 37-17 discrepancy in free throws, that makes it almost impossible to overcome.’’
lol Doc and his hypocrite ass.
Even this series we were missing Bynum for the 2nd half of like 4 this series. 4 second halves>1 game
You asked for what Bostonians were saying and 4 Lakers posters reply?
Where's the link to your products? Put it out there so we can buy.
That comment wasn't meant to be disrespectful to LA at all, it's just how narcissistic LA fans interpret it. All he was saying is that the starting lineup of Perk, KG, Pierce Allen and Rondo hasn't lost a playoff series, and although I think LA still wins if Perkins plays, he's technically right.
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