Celtics Smash Lakers to Lock up the title

Celtics destroy Lakers in boston, 92-131
the Celtics must have went to the multiplex and watched Incredible Hulk before game 6 Tuesday night... 'cause they came out and got their BEAST on in this one, playing like the superhuman defensive juggernaut that had everyone in the league shook the first part of the regular season, opening up to a monstrous 20-3 start. after the acquisition of Kevin "the Big Ticket" Garnett from the Timberwolves (to go with Ray "He Got Game" Allen and Paul "the Truth" Pierce) had the Boston faithful whispering "championship" and the haters screaming "overrated", the Celtics lived up to the challenge... but not with out a few road bumps along the way.after that 20-3 start, the Celtics lost to the Big Brother of the east, the mighty Detroit Pistons, the most significant of their 5 losses in an 11 game stretch last winter before thumping the Mavericks to remain perfect against the tough western conference at the All-Star break. even though the Celtics had the best record in the NBA and consequently home court throughout the playoffs, it was a tough road... they struggled to maintain the intensity to beat the lowly Atlanta Hawks, who forced a game 7 on the Celts, who would not win a road game until they faced Detroit in the Eastern Finals. the difference was Ray Allen, who for whatever reason, just disappeared for most of these playoffs. Once Allen found his shot against the Pistons, it was over.
and then there were the Lakers, led by the new-look Kobe Bryant. with the addition of Derek Fisher and Pau Gasol, the Lakers were barreling through opponents, reviving the vaunted Laker mystique, and calling forth the Kobe/Jordan comparisons. the first day of voting, before game one, 80% of ghettoManga fans felt the Lakers were a lock to win it all, since most people made it out to be just a scoring battle between Bryant and Pierce. certainly, few could question Kobe's obsession with leading a Shaqless team to the only achievement that mattered to him anymore, or that basketball (more than any other team sport) allows a great player to take a team on his back for extended periods, but the greatest player in the game today was still not a match for a team of Boston's stature, character, and yes, desire. as one reader put it, Boston would win "because of the hunger, fam"... and he was right. after referee controversies, big leads blown by both teams, both coaches recognized that the more aggressive team had won every game leading up to game 6.
after 5 games, the voters knew the time. 64% favored Boston, who had lost two of the three games in LA, but who had the advantage of playing the two final games at home. the first quarter was close, thanks to a blinding 11 point performance by Kobe, but the defense held Kobe down the rest of the game while simultaneously muzzling his teammates, stealing the ball from the Lakers 18 times and holding them to just 3 offensive rebounds. On offense Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce combined for 69 points, 21 rebounds and 16 assists. in the face of the defense that Houston's Tracy McGrady called "the best defense I've ever seen," Kobe wasn't able to elevate his teammates or his game enough to compete. Kobe has grown a lot since his squabbles with Shaq and crying when they got trained by the Spurs a few seasons ago. he's even matured since he was barking to be traded last off-season.
but as good a story as it would have been to see him climb out of Shaq's long shadow, it was better to see Garnett's tears of joy, Allen's turnaround to earn the Finals MVP, which was still given to Paul Pierce, because he suffered in Boston through the lean years... yeah, the gamma-green explosion form 100-pound weakling to massive unstoppable force was good enough for the Hulk... it worked pretty well for the NBA Champs this season, too...uno.
-gM