NBA's stars seem perfectly aligned

Celtics, Lakers look to be in for rematch

By Chris Tomasson, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published June 18, 2008 at 8:53 p.m.

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Kevin Garnett, left, battling Derek Fisher, has been a role model for the Celtics. "He has clearly set the standard for everybody's intensity level," ESPN analyst Jack Ramsay said.

Photo by Photos By Gabriel Bouys / AFP/Getty Images

Kobe Bryant, left, wants another shot at Paul Pierce's Celtics.

Click to enlarge: The 11 NBA Finals meetings between the Celtics and Lakers have tended to come in clusters.

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Was this just a one-shot bit of nostalgia?

Were the Celtics and the Lakers like two ships passing in the night? (And indeed Finals games in the East were played very late at night.)

History says no. And Kobe Bryant hopes history, unlike what Henry Ford said, isn't bunk.

"That would be great," the guard said of his Lakers meeting the Celtics in upcoming Finals. "I got a chance to revisit a lot of the classic confrontations from the past. We lived those in the series, and the 'Beat L.A.' chants."

When the Celtics and Lakers get together, they usually do so in bunches, and Boston usually does beat L.A. The teams met seven times in the Finals between 1959 and 1969 and three times between 1984 and 1987, and the Celtics now have a 9-2 lead.

With the teams squaring off in the Finals for the first time in 21 years, the Celtics closed out the Lakers with a 131-92 rout Tuesday at TD Banknorth Garden to win four games to two.

With television ratings up 51 percent from last year's San Antonio-Cleveland snoozer, NBA officials wouldn't mind seeing the teams do battle again next June. It's certainly a reasonable thought.

True, the Celtics aren't the youngest bunch around. When next season gets under way, Ray Allen will be 33, Kevin Garnett 32 and Paul Pierce 31.

But Boston's main competitor in the East, Detroit, also is aging. And with the Pistons having undergone a coaching change (first-year man Michael Curry replacing veteran Flip Saunders) and executive Joe Dumars threatening to trade everyone in sight, Detroit could take a step back.

Orlando still might not have the experience and firepower to challenge the Celtics. And who knows what's going on in Cleveland, where playing musical chairs with players hasn't seemed to improve LeBron James' supporting cast?

"I think a lot of us were able to (get rest this season)," Allen, in a brief interview with the Rocky in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, said about age not being a concern for the Celtics' three stars. "My minutes were cut down. My shots were as low as they've been. Productionwise, we've relied on each other very easily. So we were able play a lot longer and be good at the end of the season."

During the regular season, Garnett (32.8) averaged about 5 minutes under his career average and Allen (35.9) and Pierce (35.9) about 2 minutes under it.

Forward James Posey doesn't see the Celtics fading away because they have a "special team with three leaders who all lead by example."

Hall of Fame coach and ESPN analyst Jack Ramsay said it all starts with Garnett.

"K.G. is such a galvanizing force," Ramsay said of the Celtics, who improved from 24-58 to 66-16 following the acquisitions of Garnett and Allen. "He has clearly set the standard for everybody's intensity level, and that's not going to go away. They're going to be tough (next season). Everything worked for them this season. Kind of a wonderful, wondrous season."

For a while, the Lakers were thinking the same thing about their season. They were the best team in the West after the February acquisition of big man Pau Gasol and looked to be the NBA's top team in the first three rounds of the playoffs, going 12-3 compared to Boston's 12-8.

Then the Finals started, and the Zen Master, who has won nine NBA titles but none since 2002, looked more like the Then Master.

"We're disappointed," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said after Tuesday's walloping, the most lopsided clinching game in Finals history. "Our fans are disappointed. . . . But we'll look back on this favorably. We were surprised we were here, and we're glad that we had an opportunity. But, whenever you get this opportunity, you don't want to let it slip away, and we did."

Still, the future looks bright for the Lakers, who had the top record in the West at 57-25. They should be favored to win the West again next season.

San Antonio is getting older. Dallas and Phoenix are in disarray. And surprising New Orleans still might be too inexperienced to earn a Finals berth.

The Lakers next season should have center Andrew Bynum back from a knee injury. That should give the Lakers the NBA's best front line in Bynum, Gasol and Lamar Odom, and they have the league's best player in Bryant.

"With Andrew and the same group, we won't be short two games like we were this year, I can guarantee you that," Lakers guard Sasha Vujacic said.

While a guarantee from a bench player might not conjure memories of Joe Namath, Bryant, albeit less boldly, also predicted the Lakers will be better next season because of Bynum providing much-needed rebounding and shot blocking.

"We're fine," Bryant said. "What we have to do is continue to work. . . . There's people who have gotten here before and never gotten back, so it's important for us to understand that, to work hard and come back next year ready to go."

It used to be a given the Celtics and Lakers would be back in the Finals, often against each other. The odds say those days will return.

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