Sending the Lakers to Boston? It’s a waste of jet fuel

By Ken Berger / Newsday | Tuesday, June 17, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Boston Celtics

Photo by Matt Stone
BOSTON - With the price of fuel these days, what a shame to waste so much of it to fly the Lakers all the way across America simply to suffer their inevitable fate in a different time zone.

Better to have advised both teams to make a pit stop in Las Vegas, the NBA’s adopted home, and complete the remaining business of the Finals in a neutral location with plenty of casinos for the players and referees to stay busy between games.

We have learned something significant about both teams in this series. The Celtics [team stats] play better team basketball than we thought, and their defense is even better than the statistics revealed - especially when matched against a team that, for long stretches of the Finals, has put up a far worse defense than Tim Donaghy’s lawyer.

We have learned that Doc Rivers is a better coach than we thought, and that Tom Thibodeau, architect of the above-referenced defense, should have gotten more consideration for all the head-coaching jobs that passed him by.

We have learned that Pau Gasol is a championship-caliber sidekick for Kobe Bryant only when the team in purple and gold has the ball. No disrespect to Lamar Odom, but the Lakers had better pair Gasol with a defensive-minded power forward or Kobe may never add to his three titles.

Which brings us to Kobe, for whom comparisons to Michael Jordan have proved to be a stretch, to put it kindly. Unfair yes, but since they’re out there and he’s asked about the topic and various pundits weigh in on it, it’s time to put those to rest.

Bryant is the leading scorer in the series at 26.4 points per game, but has needed 21.8 shots per game to get there and is shooting 42 percent from the field, 32 percent from three-point range. To his credit, he did not force the issue in Sunday night’s 103-98 victory in Game 5, recognizing that deferring to his teammates was a better alternative to dribbling into the teeth of a defense designed to turn him into a jump shooter and facilitator.

"Could I force myself to get 40? Yeah," Bryant said. "But is that better for our ballclub? No. We’ve got guys open, I’m going to move the ball and do what I need to do."

Facilitator is a word often used to describe Bryant in this series, and it is notable that such a word never was used in the same sentence with Jordan, even though MJ played in the same triangle offense against defenses specifically designed to stop him. Even as a shadow of his former self in the 1998 Finals against Utah, there was no stopping Jordan or turning him into a glorified traffic cop. Jordan smelled his sixth title and went about getting it, regardless of his surroundings.

I know officiating is a sore subject, but while we’re on it, Jordan easily could’ve been called for two fouls on the critical play that got him his sixth championship - the strip of Karl Malone and resulting jumper from the top of the circle, on which he craftily shoved Bryon Russell to the court with one hand and drained the winning shot with the other.

And on the play that sealed the Lakers’ win Sunday night - Bryant’s poke-check of Paul Pierce [stats] and ensuing breakout dunk - he could’ve been called for a foul, too. Perhaps the officials are so browbeaten into second-guessing themselves that none of them could muster the wind necessary to blow the whistle.

On one hand, the Celtics have been pushed to seven games twice in this postseason, so what’s one more time? But the facts are, no team has come back from a 3-1 Finals deficit, and no team has won Games 6 and 7 on the road under the 2-3-2 format.

The Larry O’Brien Trophy needed a hug Sunday night and didn’t get it. It was all polished up and waiting for the Celtics in a room under the stands at Staples Center. The trophy also had to make the cross-country trip Monday, almost certainly a moot point. Sterling silver and 24-karat gold plating don’t much care what time zone they’re in, especially when it appears they will wind up in the same hands regardless.

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