Everything looked to be in place for the Boston Celtics' Championship win on Tuesday. They had the trophy, the hats, the t-shirts, the fans, and even the champagne to celebrate. But there was just one problem on Tuesday for the Boston Celtics—Kobe Bryant.
Bryant looked determined to make a statement and force the Game 7 that the Lakers were looking for. He was shooting well and capitalizing on the Celtics mistakes. Kobe finished with 26 points, but most importantly he had 11 rebounds and four steals because of his aggressive defensive play. Bryant held Paul Pierce and Ray Allen to under 20 points with Pierce only scoring 13.
Although Kobe had an impressive game, the Lakers other stars, Pau Gasol and Ron Artest, helped the Lakers thrash the Celtics 89-67.
Gasol played arguably his best game of the series, finishing off with a near triple-double. He had 17 points along with 13 rebounds and nine assists to help the Lakers, while Artest finished with 15 points on the night.
A main reason why the Celtics fell to the Lakers by such a large deficit was the loss of the only non-all star on their starting roster, Kendrick Perkins. Perkins hyper-extended his knee just six minutes into the game after a Kobe Bryant foul.
From the start of the injury, most people could tell that it was serious. In the absence of Perkins, both his replacements shot a miserable 0-10 with both Glen "Big Baby" Davis and Rasheed Wallace scoring zero points on the night and getting out-rebounded 30-13 after just the first half.
Not only did the Celtics struggle on the interior, but when it came to their outside shooting, they were terrible.
The Celtics shot 22 percents from 3-point land and couldn't find a way to score on the Lakers' defense. Even simple shots like lay-ups were missed by the Celt...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Lakers
