Rajon Rondo's #9 jersey ranks as the third-best selling National Basketball Association game shirt. Of course, Miami's LeBron James has the top spot wrapped up, and Kobe Bryant is second.
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Results tagged “lakers”
The Boston Celtics haven't gone Hollywood, but they showed true grit by beating the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday 109-96. With their emotional leader, Kevin Garnett, bloodied and then bandaged from Pau Gasol's elbow, and the Lakers ahead (54-50) at the half, the Celtics responded with a 59-42 second-half rout of the Lakers.
Kevin Garnett is kind of intense. You've noticed his usual verbal stylings on court. He's extending his attitude to his shoes. Shortly, out in L.A., KG will debut a shoe specifically targeted for the Celtics-Lakers rivalry. The shoe prominently features the Celtics all-time record (152-120) against the Lakers. Kobe will love it. Ron Artest will need to visit his shrink.
How did that happen?
How did the Celtics play almost perfect defense and lose? How did they make 2010 Kobe Bryant look like rookie chucker Kobe Bryant for most of the game and lose? How did the strategy of "make Ron Artest beat us" backfire so soundly? How is it that the Lakers are celebrating this morning and we're feeling like this?
The Red Sox won. The media's wondering how Fenway fans will treat Manny when the Dodgers come to town (Why is this up for debate? Stand up and cheer for him and get on with your life. Without him, we'd still be thinking about 1918. End of story.) And the World Cup continues. But we can't keep a thought in our head that isn't about green and gold or Big Baby or whether Scalabrine will be called upon in Perk's absence. Or whether Ray has found his shot again, or whether KG can put the muscle on Gasol again, or whether Rondo can get the offense back to his pace again. Or anything else. Game Seven tonight. Why worry about anything else?
For five games in this series, the team on the losing end could look back and say," if we had just done this {better defense/better shooting/Tonya Harding'ed the refs}, we easily could have won this game." Not last night, brother.
The bad news is, if there's one guy in the NBA who could win a game singlehandedly while his teammates stand around like mopes, it's probably Kobe Bryant (yeah, yeah, LeBron, we know you're a regular reader, but still). And Kobe pretty much had to do it all himself last night. But even as he was going on a legendary run - 19 straight LA points, including some shots that cause MIT physics faculty to stay up all night - the Celtics were matching buckets at the other end. Kobe cooled off, as human beings do. The C's...not so much.
Let's take what we can out of this. Since we knew that the refereeing crew was about as bad as it will ever get (they reviewed three plays in the fourth quarter and learned all of them were wrong, now extrapolate that to the 650 calls they make or don't make over the course of the game and we're going to stop now because we're making the exact same face as Kevin Garnett seen here and we're just going to start this paragraph all over again.)
The Lakers may have played like an Eastern team on Thursday, but Ray Allen played like a record-breaker tonight. Not only were Allen's eight 3-pointers an NBA record for a finals game (breaking a record previously held by himself, Scottie Pippen, and Kenny Smith), but he also broke the record for most threes in a half with seven in the first. Not to be outdone, Rajon Rondo ramped it up with 19 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists. We'll have more tomorrow, but we can go to bed happy tonight. [NYT]
Well. Guess that answers the question of whether the Lakers learned in 2008 that defense is pretty important, and also the question of whether playing in the West softened them up. L.A. came to play last night. The Celtics....sigh.
We're all happy about Daisuke's good start, and outraged about the worst call ever, but baseball takes a back seat today. We've got a basketball game to watch tonight.
We'll start with some shocking news out of Los Angeles: our counterpart at LAist thinks his Lakers won't be able to pull the series off. We wish we could be that gracious and humble. In a rare example of cross-Finals and cross-country camaraderie, we'll be posting the results of a back-and-forth between the sides sometime tomorrow, though we have to admit LAist's pre-concession will take a little of the wind out of our sails.
Everyone did the right thing, and qualified every Finals Preview of the past 48 hours with the technically-correct "well, it might be Phoenix." But come on. As soon as it looked like there was even a chance that the Celtics might be Finals-bound, you had to know that Game One would be in Los Angeles. And so here we go.
- Fixing the Weston water main break has cost $572,000 so far, the MWRA said. Expect that number to grow. [Boston Globe]
- Remember the absurd amount of rain Mother Nature dropped on us in March? Well, the Mass. Department of Conservation and Recreation said that's the reason access to Walden Pond State Reservation's trails and swimming areas will be restricted this summer. [Boston Globe]
- A total of 13 MBTA employees are getting canned for participating in a scam to falsify inspection bus records. [Boston Herald]
- A driver of an MBTA bus was caught reading a newspaper while driving. A motorist, presumably driving, took a picture of it. [WBZ>]
Sure, the Lakers were shorthanded, missing a future Hall-of-Famer whose basket beat the Celtics in Boston back in January. But the Celtics were shorthanded, too, with one backup PG en route to the Knicks and the new one on his way to join the team out West. So the C's sympathize.
Something strange is happening this season. The Red Sox, despite all of the hiccups and difficulties experienced this season, are in first place in the American League East. They're riding that magical 8-0 season record against the Yankees. And now, in a turn of events the like of which this Bostonist has never before seen, the Boston Red Sox have more talented pitchers than they know what to do with.
This was just about as sweet as anything could ever be.
Objectively, the Celtics are right where we want them. They did their job and took one in LA, and have two chances to finish the Lakers off at home. Realistically, though, the C's had a golden opportunity - just waiting there - to snatch another game, and thus the series, away from the Lakers last night, but just couldn't finish it off.
All right, fess up. Who went to bed at halftime?
We, to be honest, had the exact opposite of high hopes for last night's game. The Lakers were going to be in front of their home crowd, energized, with the referees desperate to be on their side to avoid another four-hankie Phil Jackson press conference. And if you'd told us before the game that Paul Pierce would be a train wreck, KG would be way off his shot, and Rondo would get hurt, we'd assume about a 114-91 blowout.
It was night of rest for the hometown teams. The Celtics are leading the NBA Finals 2 – 0 and they’ll be live from The Staple Center tonight for Game 3. If the Celtics were looking for another reason to beat the Lakers, they can look no further than Lamar Odem.
Bostonist is dedicated to bringing you the best of Boston-based viral videos every week. Whether it's glam rock tea parties, awkward teen rappers, or pee-pee dances for the Bruins, Bostonist is here to bring you the best.
Over the last few years, Boston sports fans have grown accustomed to hearing about the bets waged between mayors and governors whenever their teams are duking it out for a title. The stakes? Typically, it comes down to food - lots of food reflecting some of the finest culinary tastes each team's hometown has to offer. In other words, food that the fans would love to be able to eat. The victorious fans are left puffing out their chests with pride while, we imagine, their municipal counterparts are leaning back in their chairs and unbuckling their suddenly-tight belts.
One quarter of the way there. And in the matchup of the MVP versus the defensive team of the year, the Celtics shook off some first-half shakiness to put the defensive hammer down on LA, flummoxing Kobe Bryant and company and taking Game One of the Finals 98-88.
Does this game really have to start at 9? The fretting, the pacing, the worrying, the shot after shot of tequila - can't the NBA string this brutal and glorious anticipation out for three more hours? How about midnight basketball?
A June battle with Tampa Bay for first place? Is that what we've got tonight? Really? Well...yeah. And the Sox had to scramble yesterday to put first on the line tonight. Down 4-3 in the sixth (three runs on homers by Lowell and Drew), the Sox hit the Rays for four game-winning runs. The Sox loaded the bases unconventionally (HBP, error, walk), then got an RBI single from Varitek and a 2-run double from the ghost of Coco Crisp. Ellsbury hit a sac-fly to make the final score 7-4. Justin Masterson got his second win, Papelbon his 17th save.
It won’t be a series; it’s going to be a spectacle. Last night, the Celtics beat then Pistons and will move on to face the Los Angeles Lakers. It will be the C’s first time at the finals since 1987; the Celtics faced off against the Lakers and came up short in the series 4 - 2. The two teams have met 11 times in the finals; the Celtics lead that with 8 wins.
It seems for some reason, Tom Brady and Randy Moss don't want to take a 6,000 mile flight this week and be reminded of Sunday's crushing disappointment. Brady's ankle issues are well-documented, of course, but Randy is feeling sympathy pain and is skipping the trip to Hawaii as well. So the Pro Bowl will have to go on without them. Tissues all around.
Hey, wasn't this West Coast trip supposed to demonstrate that the Celtics weren't quite as good as everybody thought?
Does the venue make the team or does the team make the venue? And what happens if the venue has two teams, two games, and one day to pull it all off? The two host teams win, venue staff deserve medals, and a lot of people walk out of the place happy. There wasn't much of a battle on the boards of the TD Banknorth Garden on Friday night. The Celtics, doing what has become...