Evergreen or Purple Reign

(This appears in the Monday June 2, 2008 edition of the Business Mirror)

Evergreen or Purple Reign
by rick olivares

The last time the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers faced off in the NBA Finals, the best 94-by-50 feet track team in the world ran down a broken team from Beantown into the ground with a 4-2 series win. It was the rubber match of a three finals appearances by the two squads and the Magic Show guaranteed that they were the team of the decade (the 1980’s) and that they had put the ghosts of Celtics past behind them.

The history of the two teams separately and collectively is almost the entire history of the NBA. And this season, past totems of the two teams have mightily contributed to a dream match-up – the 11^th Finals meeting (it’s 8-2 Boston) between the two teams -- that could revive the league’s glory days.

The Curse of Len Bias
What a difference one year makes. Two days before the 2006-07 season started, the team’s patriarch, Arnold “Red” Auerbach died of a heart attack and it cast a pall of gloom on the team that would last the entire season. It was bad enough that one of the team’s all-time greats Dennis Johnson also died of a heart attack earlier in the year after leading the practice of the NBA Development League’s Austin Toros. The New Orleans-Oklahoma City Hornets visited the TD Banknorth Garden for the first game of the 61^st season of the NBA, paid their respects, and stomped the Celtics good.

The Celts would finish with the second worst record in the league with a 24-58 record. It seemed that after years of lording it over the rest of the league, the hex that had been transfixed on Beantown’s hoops team beginning with the death of Len Bias would continue. Twenty seasons and counting. As Larry Bird once said, “People don’t understand. We lost Len not just for next season but for years to come. He was that good.”

Over the last few years, the General Manager position of Boston was held by Rick Pitino and Chris Wallace. It was somewhat of an anathema to Auerbach who believed that the position should have been kept in the family; meaning former players. Under the new ownership, Boston Basketball Partners LLC, Danny Ainge, one of the team’s links to its 80’s heyday was brought back. But instead of steadying the ship, Ainge was criticized to be rudderless and the Celtic faithful were all ready to hold a new millennium Tea Party by throwing the former All-Star guard into Boston Harbor.

Cut to a huge assist by Ainge’s former teammate Kevin McHale who was likewise under the gun in Minnesota. After 12 years, the franchise’s greatest player, Kevin Garnett, was disgruntled, disenchanted, and wanted to be disenfranchised. In a trade reminiscent of the deal that sent Charles Barkley from the Philadelphia 76ers to the Phoenix Suns where several players were swapped for one, Da Kid was now Da Man in Boston. This wasn’t like Dominique Wilkins going to Green and White at the twilight of his career. Although a cagey 12-year veteran, KG was still every bit powerful and capable of strapping a team on its back the way Cornbread Maxwell asked the 1984 team “to climb on his back” against the Lakers in 1984.

Of course Da Man’s moving eastward was preceded by the signing of Jesus Shuttlesworth aka Ray Allen. And just like that, Boston had its 2K version of the Big Three and were instant title contenders. It wasn’t anything like the signing of Bill Walton in 1986 who was considered damaged goods by the Los Angeles Clippers because the All-Star trio still had plenty of game left. They added James Posey and later Sam Cassell who both brought championship experience to the team. And there was Eddie House, Leon Powe, and PJ Brown. The only holdovers from the pervious team were center Kendrick Perkins and point guard Rajon Rondo (who has become the NBA’s version of the Chicago Bears Quarterback Rex Grossman for the constant questioning of his offense).

This was huge because this Celtics team once more reclaimed the title of the single biggest turnaround in league history (by 42 wins) as they finished 66-16. This was huge because it gave the team scoring sock in three of the five starting positions. This was huge because it tilted the balance of power in a watered down Eastern Conference.

And like their Red Sox brethren who ended the Curse of the Bambino in 2004, these Celtics hope that lightning will strike twice as they hope to finally put behind their own two-decade long curse.

The Kobe Lake Show
What a difference on year makes for the Los Angeles Lakers and Kobe Bryant. Between turning down Dr. Jerry Buss in a meeting in Barcelona, trashing General Manager Mitch Kupchak in a home video that was posted on youtube, and demanding that the team’s youthful center Andrew Bynum be traded, the Lakers’ All-Universe guard had become the teammate from hell.

The man who had broken up a dynasty (see the Lakers of 2000-04) as critics charged Bryant with. It was the Colbys and the Carringtons all over again. Except that the Los Angeles model was Kobe versus the world.

After a “dream team” summer during the FIBA Americas tournament in 2007, a chastened and contrite Byrant returned to the Lakers. The team was pretty much the same except that it featured a significant new yet old wrinkle in Derek Fisher. In D-Fish, the Lakers had another clutch shooter and someone well-versed in the Triangle Offense.

If Bryant was the team’s (and eventually the league’s) Most Valuable Player, Lamar Odom was a leading character in the Most Important Play of the season. During the Lakers’ pre-season training camp, Odom, sat Bryant down and the two forged a partnership to right the ship. And it immediately paid off. After being edged in the home opener, a 95-93 loss to the Houston Rockets, Los Angeles held off the challenges from a tough Western Conference and found themselves atop the Pacific Division.

The season-ending injury to Bynum who emerged as a force in the lane for the Lakers in some ways strengthened the team. For they soon engaged in their own massive trade that brought in the Memphis Grizzlies’ star Pau Gasol for virtually nothing. Gasol’s trade reenergized the Lakers and was promptly criticized by many quarters including the San Antonio Spurs’ head coach Greg Popovich. But in reality, the deal was good and if that meant that Tim Duncan finally had someone to guard on the Lakers then that represented a serious threat to the Spurs’ dynasty.

The Lakers once more had their superstar center; a tradition that began with George Mikan then continued with Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, and Shaquille O’Neal. And the net effect confirmed Popovich’s worst fears; the Spurs’ last stand was at the Staples Center where the Lakers squashed their back-to-back aspirations. And the purple and gold returned to the Finals where standing in the way of their 16^th banner was that familiar foe in green and white.

The ties that bind
These aren’t your daddies’ Lakers or Celtics. While the Boston teams of Bill Russell pioneered the fastbreak, Showtime was perfected by Earvin “Magic’ Johnson’s famous track team.

As for the current editions of this renewed rivalry, well, they’re both very good halfcourt teams. Phil Jackson’s team runs the vaunted Triangle Offense, a variation on the total team game that Auerbach’s Celtics’ espoused. While for the Celtics, pundits would exclaim, “What offense? It’s just ‘give the ball to any one of the Big Three and get out of the way.’” Oy!

Yet interestingly enough, many of the characters on both teams’ casts are directly or indirectly involved in this great rivalry.

Phil Jackson was an assistant coach to Doug Collins when the Chicago Bulls were swept by the Celtics in the first round of the 1987 Eastern Conference playoffs.

Glen “Doc” Rivers was the starting point guard for the Atlanta Hawks when they were beaten by the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern semis. It was that same Hawks team with Wilkins who engaged the Celtics’ Bird in shootout the following year.

Mitch Kupchak who was obtained by the Lakers after Magic Johnson pleaded with Dr. Buss to obtain his services from the Washington Bullets, was in the first two Finals meetings between the two teams in the 80’s before nagging knee injuries ended his career.

Jim Cleamons, was on the Lakers’ first title team in Los Angeles in 1972 when they defeated Red Holzman’s New York Knicks in five games. On the Knicks roster was Phil Jackson who has been his boss dating back to their coaching days at Chicago.

Already, the team’s past stars have come out to show some support. Former Lakers’ great and model for the NBA logo, “Mr. Clutch” Jerry West awarded the Western Conference trophy to the team and Kupchak, his much-maligned successor at the front office.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, current Lakers assistant was… well, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

And Pat Riley, who like Cleamons played on the ’72 title team and later coached the Lakers to four titles in the 1980’s said, “There was never anything like the Celtics and the Lakers in the Finals. Never.”

Time to throw out the stats?
When the two teams clash, expect the unexpected to happen. Without a doubt, the Big Three of each team – the Celtics’ Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Garnett and the Lakers’ Bryant, Odom, and Gasol – will be the main men. But the bench play is equally important.

It was Gerald Henderson who picked off James Worthy’s errant pass in Game 2 of the 1984 title series that sent the game into overtime which the Celtics won. And three years later, it was reserve Boston slotman Greg Kite who was escorted to the interview room after scoring zero points yet blocking a momentum-changing shot by Magic Johnson.

When Boston won its last title in 1986, their one big pickup that year was Bill Walton whose son Luke plays for the Lakers. To overthrow the Celts, LA signed away Portland Trailblazer forward-center Mychal Thompson the following season.

And these two teams have a way of getting taking telling blows on one another. The Minneapolis Lakers of Mikan, Jim Pollard, and Vern Fleming were the NBA’s first dynasty, but when Bill Russell came to the league, he ended any notion of extending their reign by sweeping them 4-0 and sending them packing to LA. When the Lakers got the better of the rivalry in the 1980’s they also broke a cherished Celtics’ record – snapping their consecutive home wins at 38 in 1987 (see here; obviously Boston has a chip on their shoulder against Los Angeles).

And for their three finals meeting in the 1980’s, the team that won the season series went on to win the NBA title. And if that held true for today, then it should be known that Boston topped LA twice (107-94 at home on November 23 and on December 30 110-91. But it should be noted that in both games, Pau Gasol was not yet a member of the Lakers.

So how do these two teams stack up?

Here are the numbers in the playoffs thus far:
Da Man, the Truth, and Jesus average 54.3 ppg versus the 64.3 ppg by Black Mamba, Pau, and Lamar.

The Celtics’ starting unit averages 74 ppg while the Lakers’ starters score 82.6 and they can all nail the three. The LA bench mob also trumps the Celtics’ reserves 41.6 to 37.3.

Both teams play solid defense are their numbers nearly cancel each other out:
Boston - 91.6 ppg, 39.4 rpg, 21.1apg, 7.3 spg, and 4.4 bpg.
Los Angeles - 105.9 ppg, 40.5 rpg, 21.3 asp, 7.3 spg, and 6.1 bpg.

While the numbers certainly aren’t absolute especially in what is projected to be a prolonged series, they do provide insights on what they all need to address. Both teams have taken care of business at home with Boston losing one game to Detroit. Yet both have shown the capability of stealing games on the road when need be as the Celts closed out Detroit for the summer and LA shut down the muzak at the Energy Solutions Arena.

And if there is anything else that can be gleaned in these playoffs, it’s that the home court is a place where tired bodies and injuries mysteriously heal in time for tip-off. So do we give the advantage to Boston?