The Boston Celtics Leads Series 3-1

It doesn’t look like it in the first quarter of Game 4, but the Celtics chased the Lakers near the closing minutes of the 4th quarter and took a commanding lead of 3-1. They won 97-71. No team has ever came back and win after being down 3 games in the NBA Finals.

This is historical. Not only they rallied from 24+ points in the 1st quarter to be only down in the teens by half time, but they became the first team in about 33 years to come from a huge defecit in a NBA Finals game.

The new Big Three were contributing big in this game. But so were the roll players. James Posey is big as usual – he hit couple of big threes as well make defended well. Eddie House also played well when he came in for Ronjon Rondo, who is still dealing with ankle injury. And the defense that Paul Pierce played on Kobe, it’s suffocating! Kobe only scored 17 points; he got 36 in Game 3.

It appears that as they are further into the playoff, the Celtics are seeing more injuries. Hopefully, they can close the Series back in Boston on Father’s day.

And you know how they came back and win it? They did with team defense! So defense do win championships… Okay, let’s not get ahead of ourself here, there’s still one game; hopefully only one game left.

Have you heard the player interviews? It is interesting how Kobe does not act the leader that he should be. Even with the Championship rings that he has, he still doesn’t get it. It all about the team. And if you are the leader, you take the blame; and when you have success, you give the credit to your teammates. And he doesn’t appear as confident as he was in the first two losses. I guess being beaten after you have built such a big lead can do that to your confidence.

Don’t get me wrong, Kobe is a great player in this league. I am sure he will be in the Hall of Fame when he retires. And he is playing more unselfish basketball, so it is nice to see. But offense can only get you so far. If the Lakers are playing better defense on the Celtics, I think the Celtics would be in trouble.

But hey, it’s the other way around. We have the best defensive team against the best offensive team. It is interesting that the Lakers were scoring averages of 100+ points prior to the Finals. And then in the Finals, they only manage to 80-90 point range. So, Boston’s defense is having an effect…

Next game is this Sunday – on Father’s day at 9PM. Since both team will be off couple of days, there should not be a lack of energy like they have in Game 3. They should be a great Game 5. Go Celtics!