04/24/24
June 13, 2008
An Instant Classic: "A rivalry between the league's two most storied franchises -- with some of the game's biggest names and biggest moments -- now has its biggest rally. No team had ever overcome more than a 15-point deficit after the first quarter, and Elias Sports Bureau said it was the biggest comeback in the finals since 1971. One thing's for sure, it will forever be remembered in the annals of Celtics-Lakers lore."
posted by brainofdtrain to basketball at 12:21 AM - 34 comments
Wow. I was absolutely dejected for nearly three full quarters, then elated for one quarter. An amazing game. I can't remember the last time I saw a team so dejected after the game, from Phil Jackson on down, than the Lakers were at their postgame pressers last night. Sure would be sweet to wrap this thing up on their court.
posted by The_Black_Hand at 05:25 AM on June 13, 2008
Goddamnit David Stern, I blame you for me giving up and going to sleep after Farmar's half-closing shot. Well, you and the refs who I assumed would bring this one home for the Lakers. I feel like a shitty fan.
posted by yerfatma at 06:22 AM on June 13, 2008
This game was sweeter than candy. I , like TBH, was sitting in my apartment wearing my Celtics home jersey, feeling like I just got dumped by my high school sweet-heart on prom night. That is, until the 4th quarter. By the start of the 3rd, I had already switched over to my Celtics road jersey in hope that it would conjure up good vibes and going into the 4th, I wasn't disappointed. The Celtics played just like the championship team I believe they are, even down by 24. Their defense stepped up ten folds and no matter who the Zen Master, Phil Jackson, brought in off the bench, there was no denying the Celtics' D last night. Kobe was defended by Paul Pierce better than when Shane Battier defended Kobe, and the Truth made it look fairly easy. Granted, Kobe did finish with 9 assists but let us all remember who won the game. IMO, this series is all but over but all I can really say about last is: what a great game!!
posted by BornIcon at 06:24 AM on June 13, 2008
In the article Kobe said: "They were determined not to let me beat them tonight," he said. "I saw three, four bodies every time I touched the ball." Was he thinking about the half they were ahead? Looked to me that in the 2nd half, it was pretty much 1 on 1 with temporary help on picks and screens.
posted by endorfin at 06:52 AM on June 13, 2008
IMO, this series is all but over but all I can really say about last is: what a great game!! You can't count a team like the Lakers out until the end, but if the Celtics can bring on Sunday what they brought tonight, Jackson and crew are going to have a hell of a time beating them.
posted by Joey Michaels at 07:48 AM on June 13, 2008
I blame this win on the Ghost of Red Auerbach. There is no way the Zen Master is going to surpass the man for coaching championship rings against the Celtics.
posted by apoch at 08:05 AM on June 13, 2008
already switched over to my Celtics road jersey I think your responsibility on Sunday is clear: have that road jersey ready to go.
posted by yerfatma at 08:17 AM on June 13, 2008
Ouch...
posted by docshredder at 08:19 AM on June 13, 2008
What a game. I was tending bar watching people getting drunk and yelling.
posted by GoBirds at 08:54 AM on June 13, 2008
I fell asleep when the Celtics were down 81-80. I couldn't keep my eyes open even though I knew it would be a great finish. Damn you 9pm tipoff!
posted by curlyelk at 09:28 AM on June 13, 2008
I never would have imagined the "big 3" would have come together in one year. Even the great Laker, Celtics and Bulls teams took a few years to reach this level. Or is everyone else just worse? Prediction: Kobe drops 62 on Sunday, but they still lose, 98 - 96.
posted by smithnyiu at 10:57 AM on June 13, 2008
I think your responsibility on Sunday is clear: have that road jersey ready to go. Trust, I'm way ahead of you on that one. That's the only jersey anyone will see me with, come Sunday.
posted by BornIcon at 12:19 PM on June 13, 2008
Kobe's not the only one who wanted a drink after the game.
posted by Newbie Walker at 02:23 PM on June 13, 2008
Great comeback. The post game interviews were interesting. My 2 favorite moments: 1. Kobe looking like he was going to kill someone (Gasol?) after the game. 2. Phil Jackson admitting that Doc Rivers outcoached him.
posted by brainofdtrain at 02:24 PM on June 13, 2008
Can someone please tell what Boston has done to earn all this amazing sports karma?
posted by gnutron at 02:49 PM on June 13, 2008
Can someone please tell what Boston has done to earn all this amazing sports karma? Famous baked beans?
posted by THX-1138 at 03:02 PM on June 13, 2008
Amazing sports karma?! It's been almost 8 months since a Boston team won a championship! Right now, there are babies born in New England that have never seen a Boston sports franchise win a championship! For shame! Actually, should the Celtics win this series, it will be nice yet... kind of sad that the Patriots won 3 championships, and were less than a minute from winning their fourth. I'd rather have traded one of the other championship rings and had the 19-0. It'd mean that Boston would have simultaneously held all three championship rings at once. I don't think that's ever happened before (actually, has any team held the MLB and NBA championships at the same time?). But I guess that's precisely the kind of greed that makes people hate Boston sports fans. It still saddens me that so many people were rooting against the perfect season. Having 6 championships in this decade does help soothe the hurt a little...
posted by hincandenza at 03:12 PM on June 13, 2008
Can someone please tell what Boston has done to earn all this amazing sports karma? Random number generator? Keep in mind, we've all of New England to generate good karma. Of course, the rest of New England will spend the next 3 months giving bad directions to New Yorkers, but maybe that helps.
posted by yerfatma at 04:18 PM on June 13, 2008
Can someone please tell what Boston has done to earn all this amazing sports karma? To make up for the funny accents?
posted by THX-1138 at 04:30 PM on June 13, 2008
Can someone please tell what Boston has done to earn all this amazing sports karma? To balance out our continuing disappointment regarding Dukakis and Kerry?
posted by Joey Michaels at 04:45 PM on June 13, 2008
(actually, has any team heald the MLB and NBA championships at the same time?) I can safely say, no, no they haven't.
posted by apoch at 06:47 PM on June 13, 2008
Kobe's not the only one who wanted a drink after the game. I second that... Great comeback. The post game interviews were interesting. My 2 favorite moments: 1. Kobe looking like he was going to kill someone (Gasol?) after the game. 2. Phil Jackson admitting that Doc Rivers outcoached him. The funny thing is that Perkin's injury is what led to the comeback and the ultimate victory. After Perkins went down and PJ was sorry as usual, Doc had no choice but to go with Posey who played the game of his life. I doubt that Doc planned for Perkins to separate his shoulder (or whatever happened to him, who knows if he was even really hurt...j/k at least they didn't have to carry him off of the court). As a Laker fan I can remember a lot of come-from-behind wins but being on this side of it was just devastating. I think I only slept for like 2 hours last night. I just couldn't stop thinking, "Did that just really happen?"
posted by docshredder at 06:52 PM on June 13, 2008
Can someone please tell what Boston has done to earn all this amazing sports karma? A group of new owners who live by the words of Vince Lombardi, "first we will be best, then we will be first". Crafts bought Patriots, made winning it all a priority Werner, Henry, etc. bought Sox, made winning it all a priority Grosbek bought Celtics, made winning it all a priority Bruins? Umm, no. Same reasoning.
posted by endorfin at 10:41 PM on June 13, 2008
Yeah; and the ownership groups talk to each other and reinforce that ethos. For a while the Krafts and the Red Sox guys got a little bit snippy over who was getting the most inches in the newspaper, but everyone got over that and now we have the Red Sox moving start times in order to accomodate the Celtics games.
posted by Bryant at 12:24 AM on June 14, 2008
A group of new owners who live by the words of Vince Lombardi, "first we will be best, then we will be first". Yeah; and the ownership groups talk to each other and reinforce that ethos. And, amazingly enough, it seems like these franchises are turning a good profit. It pains me to see teams that want to make money so badly, but think they can do so by running it like walmart (i'm looking at you Royals), when if you can create a culture of winning, you'll bank. Put out the best product and you'll make money; what a concept!
posted by brainofdtrain at 02:59 AM on June 14, 2008
Hal: Mets fall of '69, Knicks spring of '70; also Lakers and Dodgers in '88. In baseball-football, Yankees/Giants did it in '38 and '56. I immediately guessed 'Knicks-Yankees', just because the Yankees have so many titles the odds are good, but forgot that the Knicks only titles came during the '64-'76 Yanks malaise. Oddly, the most recent (football) Giants titles came during Yankees droughts as well (the '81-'96 drought and '01-present). Rangers-Yankees also have some overlap, I think. No three-fers for NY that I can see, and I can't imagine there are any for other cities either- Chicago's baseball titles well predate professional football and basketball; the Lions and Tigers had long dry spells, and so on. It'd be interesting for someone with more time on their hands to see if the three appearances in championship games in the same year is unprecedented- I'd imagine it must be. (Handy reference chart for someone who wants to undertake it.)
posted by tieguy at 03:45 AM on June 14, 2008
So now I've got a spreadsheet (no losers, only winners. Someone else can do that.) I think I've got the years lined up right, though I probably don't account for things crossing years very well (like Sox '07/Celts '08 if it happens.) Besides the ones mentioned above: '35: Detroit Tigers/Lions, and Red Wings won in spring '36, so I guess all three teams were holding the title at the same time? '27: Yankees/football Giants, though the Giants did not win a championship game- merely had the best regular season title before there was a championship game. '28: Yankees/Rangers '33: baseball giants/Rangers '52: Lions/Red Wings (I ignored the AFL-NFL split years in the '60s for football; also, during this period the Lakers were losing a lot to the Celts while the Dodgers were winning.) Impressively, the Celts and Bruins managed to miss each other in the late '60s/early 70s, looks like. Ditto Pirates/Steelers of the same era. '86: Mets/football Giants '89: (sort of): A's/49ers (obviously giants/raiders fans disagree.) '04: Sox/Patriots (duh, given how this came up.) Perhaps the thing that was most interesting to me about this list was how many great dynasties (Jordan's Bulls, the Yankees, early Celtics, '49ers, Steelers, etc.) never overlapped with other great teams in their cities. You'd think that would happen more often. Boston fans really do have it historically good in that sense- even Detroit in '35/'36 didn't have that.
posted by tieguy at 04:09 AM on June 14, 2008
You forgot the '02 Angels and Lakers...
posted by docshredder at 09:24 AM on June 14, 2008
You forgot the '02 Angels and Lakers... and... the Mighty Ducks lost game 7 of the 2002-2003 Stanley Cup Finals against Detroit.
posted by docshredder at 02:48 PM on June 14, 2008
The Mighty Ducks lost game seven of the 2002-2003 Stanley Cup Finals against New Jersey.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 07:33 AM on June 15, 2008
touche!
posted by docshredder at 09:45 AM on June 15, 2008
My list had the Angels listed as the Anaheim Angels so my brain skipped over them.
posted by tieguy at 01:26 AM on June 16, 2008
I guess it's different for LA since it could be any combination of the Angels/Dodgers, Lakers/Clippers(ha ha), Ducks/Kings...
posted by docshredder at 02:56 PM on June 16, 2008
Heh. I just came over here to post this same story. Regardless of the outcome of the series, this was an amazing night for Boston sports.