Just like the old days, chants of 'Beat L.A.'.  Boston takes Game 1 of the NBA Finals Thursday,  98-88.  Great win for the Celtics.  The most encouraging aspect was the fact that everyone chipped in and contributed.  Rajon Rondo 15 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds and 2 turnovers.  Ray Allen had one of his best overall games in the NBA Playoffs with 19 points and 8 rebounds.  The Big Ticket, Kevin Garnett added 24 points.  Kevin Garnett should change his nickname to the "Big Shamrock" forget the Big Ticket!!   The Celtics played great defense Thursday night.  They should have won by more points, the turnovers after good defense stops kept it a 10 pt game for them.   The oddsmakers at sportsbook.com currently have the Boston -1.5 favorites to LA Lakers Game 2 of this NBA Finals Matchup Sunday.

Paul Pierce laid on the floor in pain after teammate Perkins landed on his leg.  Pierce gets the early Academy Award though.  He got carried off the court, carted in a wheel chair - only to run back in the arena 10 minutes later to a standing ovation.  I understand that when you sprain a knee there is a lot of pain and trauma in the joint.   It takes a while to settle down.  Especially if the knee catches and it's bone on bone for a second.  But the way he was acting out there, like he broke something and could be out for the rest of the series.  Then he strolled back on to the floor 10 minutes later maybe less.  Pierce emerged from the tunnel as if reborn out of Parquet history.  You could almost hear a heroic melody pumping through the loud speakers of your heart.  When Paul hit those two three pointers, you could almost picture Red dancing on a podium, conducing the orchestra with a rolled up program for a baton.  Pierce is the main reason the Celtics won this game.  His injury fired up Boston.  Then Pierce came back and hit back to back 3 pointers. It was all Boston from there.

People keep on saying that Kobe is just as good or even better than Michael Jordan.  Jordan never stunk it up in an NBA finals game.  His Bulls might have lost a game, but he never stunk.  Kobe forced way too many shots, and had too many turnovers.  Bad game for Kobe equals bad game for Lakers.  Kobe scored 24 points on 26 shots.  Pierce scored 22 points on 10 shots.  It's all about efficiency and Kobe is going to shoot LA out of the Finals.  That's three games now this season that Kobe has struggled against the Celtics defense.  The Lakers thought they would coast to a four game sweep of the Celtics.  The C's looked hungrier, motivated and played better D.  Kobe is gonna need some help, or else this could be signs of things to come.  Kobe lovers, please stop blaming all the other players, remember who is suppose to be the MVP, KOBE, he sucked in Game 1.  Just remember the 1987 finals.  Boston won the first game 136-98 but L.A. went on to win the series.

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