Boston Celtics 131 – Los Angeles Lakers 92
2008 NBA Finals – The 17th NBA Title for the Celtics after 22 long years of championship drought was not only the record shattered. The Celtics’ 39-point margin after the game was the largest in NBA history for a lead in a finals winning game, surpassing the 33-point margin that was also set by the Celtics against the Lakers, 129-96, in Game 5 of the 1965 NBA Finals.
The game was already decided in the second quarter after the Celtics outscored the Lakers 34-15 and the Celtics had a commanding 58-35 bulge by the time it was over.
During the second half, Celtics fans chanted "You’re not (Michael) Jordan" at Kobe Bryant who scored only 22 points and was not able to lift his team against the newly crowned NBA champion. Bryant wasn’t also able to get enough help from his teammates, Lamar Odom made his first field goal during the fourth quarter and Pau Gasol finished with only 11 points, taking only 7 shots.
Kevin Garnett scored 26 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, Ray Allen scored 26 points and Paul Pierce added 17 points as the Celtics wrapped up their first crown since 1986.
Garnett and Allen were All-Stars in other cities, stuck in Minnesota and Seattle, respectively, on teams going nowhere. When Celtics general manager Danny Ainge pulled one of the biggest trades in NBA last summer, they joined Pierce and formed an unbreakable bond, a trio as tight as the club’s lucky shamrock logo.
Paul Pierce, nicknamed "The Truth" was named the 2008 NBA Finals Most Valuable Player.
No team had to work harder for a championship than these Celtics, who were playing in their record 26th postseason game. They were pushed to seven games in the first round by Atlanta, another seven by Cleveland and then took care of Detroit in six to win the Eastern Conference title.
It was a group effort by this gang in green, which bonded behind Coach Doc Rivers, who borrowed an African word ubuntu (pronounced Ooh-BOON-too) and roughly means "I am, because we are” in English, as the Celtics’ unifying team motto.
This shameful defeat of la lakers should inculcate into jackson’s mind that basketball is a team game. He should not focus on making bryant a superstar as he is too far from being jordan. He should also learn how to develop his mind on developing team effort and make use of bryant’s ability on a team play,… not develop the team towards bryant’s stardom. I’ve seen some players in the team, who, if given the opportunity could deliver more than kobe has contributed to the lakers…
Reply to cedric1023@cedric1023
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Very well said, I could not agree more. Celtics just gave them a lesson on team game/play during Game 6.
Reply to kyrillos