The amazing has happened again in Beantown.
The Boston Celtics won their 17th championship, and first in 22 years Tuesday, with a 131-92 Game Six thrashing of the Los Angeles Lakers at the TD Banknorth Garden, completing a magical season that ended with a title. It also put the seal on the biggest turnaround in NBA history, as the Celtics went from winning 24 games last season to being on top of the basketball world this year.
In the clincher, the big three were great again. Kevin Garnett scored 26 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, Ray Allen put in an NBA Finals record-tying seven three-pointers, and Finals MVP Paul Pierce added 17 as the Celtics set an NBA record with a 39 point win in the championship clincher, the highest ever.
"This is the reason we came here," Garnett said. "This is the reason we got together… This is it right now."
The championship is the first for the most of the players on the team, including head coach Doc Rivers.
"My first thought was what would my dad say," Rivers said, "and honestly I started laughing because I thought he would probably say, if you knew my dad, 'It's about time. What have you been waiting for?'"
Meanwhile, for the Lakers, it was a bitter end to a great season, as the outcome was never in doubt by halftime. The Celtics put the game away in the second quarter, outscoring the Lakers 34-19. Regular season MVP Kobe Bryant scored 22 points, but shot just 7-22 from the field against the best defense in the NBA.
"They were definitely the best defense I've seen the entire playoffs," Bryant said. "I've seen some pretty stiff ones and this was right up there with them.
It also didn’t help that both Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom had dreadful series, with the Celtics frontline role players of Kendrick Perkins, P.J. Brown, and Leon Powe playing shutdown defense while also providing a spark at the offensive end.
Ultimately, these current Celtics continued the tradition of greatness that was passed on to them by past legends like Bill Russell, John Havlicek, and Larry Bird, and, in the end, they wrote some of their own history as well.
