2008 NBA Finals
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The 2008 NBA Finals is the championship series of the 2007-08 National Basketball Association season, and is the conclusion of this year's postseason. It pits the West's top seeded Los Angeles Lakers, the winner of the Western Conference Finals, against the East's top seeded Boston Celtics, the winner of the Eastern Conference Finals, marking the first time since 2000 that both top seeds from each Conference met in the Finals. The Lakers appear in the Finals for the first time since 2004 and a record 29th time overall. The Celtics appear in the Finals for the first time since 1987 and second best 20th time overall.
Overall, the Celtics have won the most championships all-time with 16, and the Lakers are second with 14. Both clubs, the two most successful teams in NBA history, look to renew a long-standing rivalry 21 years after their last NBA Finals meeting in 1987. They narrowly missed out in meeting each other in 2002. This is the 11th time the teams will meet in the championship round (1959, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1984, 1985, 1987, 2008). The Celtics own an 8-2 record all-time against the Lakers in the NBA Finals.
The Celtics have home court advantage due to Boston's (66–16) better record than Los Angeles (57–25). This is the first time that an Eastern Conference team will have the home court advantage since 1997, when the Chicago Bulls beat the Utah Jazz for the championship.
The Celtics defeated the Lakers in both regular season contests.
This was the first Finals since 1998 not to feature either Tim Duncan or Shaquille O'Neal.
Road to the finals
| Los Angeles Lakers | Boston Celtics | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 57-25 (.695) 1st Pacific, 1st West, 3rd overall |
Regular season | 66-16 (.805) 1st Atlantic, 1st East, 1st overall | |
| Defeated the (8) Denver Nuggets, 4-0 | First Round | Defeated the (8) Atlanta Hawks, 4-3 | |
| Defeated the (4) Utah Jazz, 4-2 | Conference Semifinals | Defeated the (4) Cleveland Cavaliers, 4-3 | |
| Defeated the (3) San Antonio Spurs, 4-1 | Conference Finals | Defeated the (2) Detroit Pistons, 4-2 | |
Regular season series
The Boston Celtics won both games in the regular season series:
These games were prior to the arrival of Pau Gasol to the Lakers on February 1.
Series scoring summary
| Team | Games | Wins | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | ||
| Los Angeles Lakers | 88 | 102 | 87 | 91 | 103 | If necessary | 2 | |
| Boston Celtics | 98 | 108 | 81 | 97 | 98 | If necessary | 3 | |
Key: Boldface - win, italics - home court, * - number of overtimes.
Game summaries
All times listed below are Eastern Daylight Time. Games marked with an asterisk (*) are if necessary.[1]
Game 1
June 5
9:00 pm |
| Los Angeles Lakers 88, Boston Celtics 98 | ||
| Scoring by quarter: 21–23, 30–23, 22–31, 15–21 | ||
| Pts: Bryant 24 Rebs: Gasol 8 Asts: Bryant, Fisher 6 each TOs: Bryant 4 |
Pts: Garnett 24, Pierce 22 Rebs: Garnett 13 Asts: Rondo 7 Stls: Posey 2 | |
Paul Pierce would score 15 points in the third quarter to give Boston the lead for good, and Kevin Garnett paced the Celtic attack with 24 points and 13 rebounds including a powerful two handed putback slam dunk late in the game. Kobe Bryant struggled with his shot, finishing 9-26 from the field with 24 points.
Also notable was Pierce returning after a knee injury, immediately following falling awkwardly on Kendrick Perkins leg. Pierce was carried off the court and had to be placed in a wheelchair. After realizing his injury was not as serious as had been feared, Pierce returned to a raucous cheering from the crowd. This was followed soon after by two three pointers by Pierce on consecutive offensive possessions. Pierce finished with 28.
Game 2
June 8
9:00 pm |
| Los Angeles Lakers 102, Boston Celtics 108 | ||
| Scoring by quarter: 22–20, 20–34, 19–29, 41–25 | ||
| Pts: Bryant 30 Rebs: Radmanović, Gasol 10 each Asts: Bryant 8 TOs: Bryant 4 |
Pts: Pierce 28, Powe 21 Rebs: Garnett 14 Asts: Rondo 16 3P-FG: Pierce 4/4 | |
The Lakers jumped out to an early 15–8 first quarter lead, but the Celtics answered with a 10–0 run at the start of the second quarter and ended the first half with a 54–42 lead.
The Celtics held a 24-point with less than eight minutes to go in the 4th quarter before the Lakers cut the lead to two points with 38.4 seconds to go. Paul Pierce and James Posey then closed out the game with two free throws each. The Lakers had a chance to take the lead with 14 seconds left, but the ball failed to get into the hands of Kobe Bryant, resulting in a shot by Sasha Vujačić that was blocked by Pierce. Bryant finished the game with 30 points and 8 assists.
Leon Powe, a second year bench player, scored 21 points on 6–7 shooting in 15 minutes of play, including back-to-back dunks in the last minute of the 3rd quarter.
Despite injuries suffered by Pierce (sprained knee) and Kendrick Perkins (high ankle sprain), both players started in Game 2 and appeared to be unhampered by the injuries, especially Pierce who finished with 28 points.
Boston finished the game 27-for-38 from the line, while the Lakers were 10-for-10. Some analysts viewed this as favorable treatment toward the Celtics[2][3], while others noted that a difference in playing styles may have lead to the discrepancy, and that the actual foul discrepancy was only 28-21 in favor of Boston[4].
Game 3
June 10
9:00 pm |
| Boston Celtics 81, Los Angeles Lakers 87 | ||
| Scoring by quarter: 20–20, 17–23, 25–17, 19–27 | ||
| Pts: Allen 25 Rebs: Garnett 12 Asts: Garnett 5 FG: Pierce 2/14 |
Pts: Bryant 36, Vujačić 20 Rebs: Gasol 12 Asts: Farmar 5 3P-FG: Vujačić 3/5 | |
In Game 3, the Lakers beat the Celtics 87-81. Paul Pierce had a poor shooting game, making only 2 of his 14 field goal attempts. Garnett also had trouble shooting having only 12 points. Ray Allen was the only member of Boston's big 3 that did well with 25 points. Sasha Vujacic scored 20 points in 28 minutes, similar to Boston's Powe's performance in game 2. Kobe Bryant scored a series high 36 points leading the Lakers to their first series win and adding another win to their undefeated streak at home in the 2008 post season.
Game 4
June 12
9:00 pm |
| Boston Celtics 97, Los Angeles Lakers 91 | ||
| Scoring by quarter: 14–35, 26–23, 31–15, 26–18 | ||
| Pts: Pierce 20, Allen 19 Rebs: Garnett 11 Asts: Pierce 7 Stls: Allen 3 |
Pts: Odom 19 Rebs: Gasol, Odom 10 each Asts: Bryant 10 FG: Bryant 6/19 | |
The Lakers jumped out to a 35–14 lead after the 1st quarter. The Lakers held their ground for most of the third quarter, leading by as many as 24 points. The Celtics went on a 21–3 run to end the third quarter, closing the deficit to two (73–71). With 4:07 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Celtics took the lead for good when Eddie House made an 18-foot jumper. The Celtics' victory in Game 4 was the largest comeback in the NBA Finals since 1971[5]. Kobe Bryant had 17 points (6 of 19 from the field), 14 of those coming in the 2nd half. The Celtics bench outscored the Lakers bench 35–15. Kevin Garnett finished with 16 points.
No NBA team has ever come back to win the Finals when trailing 3–1. However, 8 teams so far had come back from such a deficit in the playoffs in general. The most recent was a series between the Phoenix Suns against the very same Los Angeles Lakers in 2006.[6][7]
Game 5
June 15
9:00 pm |
| Boston Celtics 98, Los Angeles Lakers 103 | ||
| Scoring by quarter: 22–39, 30–16, 18–24, 28–24 | ||
| Pts: Pierce 38 Rebs: Garnett 14 Asts: Pierce 8 TOs: Pierce 5 |
Pts: Bryant 25 Rebs: Gasol 13 Asts: Gasol 6 Blks: Odom 4 | |
| Boston leads series, 3–2 | ||
Like Game 4, the Lakers jumped out to an early lead, leading 43-24 with 11 minutes to play in the 2nd quarter. Also, like game 4, the Celtics came back and made the game competetive, and took a 62-60 lead behind the strong play of Paul Pierce. The Lakers would regain their composure, and built a 14 point lead in the 4th quarter. The Celtics would again comeback with a 16-2 run to tie the game at 90 all. With less than 1 minute left in the game, the Celtics had the ball with the Lakers leading 97-95. Pierce had apparently beat Bryant off the drive, but Bryant knocked the ball out of Pierce's hands from behind. Lamar Odom picked up the loose ball and passed down court to Bryant for a break away dunk, giving the Lakers a 99-95 lead. The play arguably saved the Lakers season, at least for one more game, and the Lakers would go on to win 103-98, pushing the series to 6 games.
In Game six the Celtics come out strong and take a big lead into half time. At 6:48 in the third quarter they are 27 points up and continuing to push the lead. Rajon Rondo is having an amazing game with 10 rebounds 5 steals and 11 points.
Kobe Bryant scored immensely well in the 1st quarter with 15 points. But, he would only come to score 10 more for the rest of the game. However, Kobe Bryant made up for his lack of offense with good defense, which includes 5 steals - 2 of them in the fourth quarter. Gasol played well, with 19 points, 6 assists, and 13 rebounds. Though, it doesn't show in the stat sheet, his rebounds were very big plays, keeping Laker possessions alive.[8]
Another note is that the Lakers finally controlled the 3rd quarter, outscoring Boston 24 to 18. In previous games, the Lakers have been outscored by Boston in the 3rd quarter (22-31 in Game 1, 19-29 in Game 2, 17-25 in Game 3, and 15-31 in Game 4), with the complete total of 73-116, or +43 points in favor of Boston.
Another unusual note is the fact that Chris Mihm played for several minutes. Mihm has been out for more than half of the season (having only played 4 games since December 23rd, totaling only 25 minutes with 4 points).[9] Phil Jackson promised the media that he would not be experimenting with that in Game 6.
As for the odds stacked against the Lakers to comeback from a 3-1 deficit, Jackson claims "We're young enough and dumb enough to do this."[10]
Game 6
The Celtics in this game, blew out the Lakers, leading to the Celtics' first Championship in 22 years.
After a rocky first quarter, the Celtics would assume dominance for the rest of the game. Maintaining a lead of more than 25 points for the rest of the game, the Celtics' big 3 performed phenomenally, while the whole team smothered the Lakers offense with their tight defense, which included 12 steals. Though with an insurmountable lead for the whole game, coach Doc Rivers did not rest to put his best players forward, so that by 2:21 left in the 4th quarter, the Celtics lead was up to an incredible 38 points. This lead comes close to the 1998 Finals with the Chicago Bulls and Utah Jazz, where a Michael Jordan led team destroyed the Jazz by 42 points (96-54) in a game 3.
Rosters
| 2008 Los Angeles Lakers Finals roster | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 2008 Boston Celtics Finals roster | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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International broadcasts
Aside from ABC (U.S.) and TSN (Canada), other broadcasters across the world covered the Finals:[11]
See also
References
- ^ "2008 NBA Finals Schedule". ESPN. Retrieved 2008-05-31.
- ^ http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs2008/columns/story?columnist=adande_ja&page=jacksonlakers-080609
- ^ http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/080609
- ^ http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dime-080610
- ^ http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/25129400/
- ^ http://www.nba.com/suns/playoffs/2006_sunslakers_index.html
- ^ <http://www.nba.com/playoffs2003/bestofseven_series.html
- ^ http://www.usatoday.com/sports/basketball/nba/lakers/2008-06-16-gasol-game-5_N.htm?csp=34
- ^ http://www.nba.com/playerfile/chris_mihm/game_by_game_stats.html
- ^ http://www.daily-jeff.com/news/article/3951451
- ^ Global NBA Programming, NBA.com
External links
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See also: WNBA Finals | ||