Lakers vs. Celtics Was Great, But We Could Have Had So Much More

Alas for what might have been.

An unlikely three-pointer from Rajon Rondo brought the Boston Celtics within two, but a second shot wasn’t in the cards. The Los Angeles Lakers held on in the clutch to win the deciding Game 7 by four points, sewing up their second straight championship. It was a thrilling series that went back and forth between the NBA’s last two champs, ultimately going the distance and requiring two crucial free throws from Sasha Vujacic (I know, I couldn’t believe it either) to put the game away.

In short, we got seven great games. But I still can’t shake the feeling that we got them at the cost of seven amazing ones.

For these two teams to reach the Finals and give us Lakers-Celtics XII, they had to go through the Phoenix Suns and Orlando Magic. Each plays an exciting brand of run-and-gun basketball. The Suns have Steve Nash, perhaps the most enjoyable person to watch play in a decade. The Magic have Dwight Howard, a dominant yet playful force in the paint. Both teams can make three pointers in their sleep. With those two teams on the court, we could have seen routine 130-point games.

Instead, we got a defensive slugfest from the Lakers and Celtics. Sure, the games were close and hard-fought, but anyone who says they were exciting clearly only saw the highlights. Only two games saw either team top 100 points. Neither team even topped 90 in the last two.

No, what we got was brutal, physical, “playoff” basketball. Players hacked each other under the rim for possession, resulting in either missed shots or a parade of free throws. Kobe Bryant won the series MVP despite shooting 28.8% for the series (66 of 163). Many thought Pau Gasol should have won that honor, but it’s hardly as though he shot much better, converting just 32.3% of his shots (43 of 90).

I know you can chalk most of that up to the defense, and to be fair, both defenses played outstandingly. It was clear the two best teams in the league were squaring off. They played an excellent series. But I still felt like I was being cheated out of something better.

You see, the Lakers and Celtics play the same sort of “championship basketball” teams have been playing for years. They play smothering defense, swarming the ball and forcing their opponents into difficult shots. It’s effective, sure, but it comes at the cost of offensive efficiency. When you focus on defense that much, you’re more tired than usual on offense, and your shot and ball movement struggle. It certainly showed this series. All ten starters looked exhausted throughout all seven games, shooting just over 30% combined. Considering they averaged closer to 40% during the rest of the year, it’s fair to say they were off their games just a bit.

It’s also fair to say that if the Suns and Magic had faced off, we wouldn’t have seen nearly the same commitment to defense. Instead, we would have seen guys raining threes and flying up and down the court in transition. I’m not going to comment on which approach to basketball is better, but it’s hard to argue that the run-and-gun style isn’t more exciting.

Ultimately, that’s where my concern is. My team (the Portland Trail Blazers) are good, but they aren’t competing for a title anytime soon, and if they don’t win, I at least want to be entertained. If I wanted to see a slow-paced defensive slugfest, I’d watch soccer. (Incidentally, I’m a huge fan of the World Cup, but at least with that, I expect low scoring. Not so with basketball.) In my mind, the Suns and Magic can provide entertainment. The Lakers and Celtics? Not so much.

When I wrote my last NBA article about how the Lakers and Celtics were ruining the playoffs, I heard from countless enraged fans from Los Angeles and Boston about how idiotic I was for suggesting that people didn’t want to see the two most celebrated franchises in NBA history. That’s fair. People like to see what they know. I can’t hold that against anyone. The Lakers and Celtics gave us a great series.

All I’m trying to say is that if we had a chance to see the Suns and Magic, we could have seen something fantastic, and at the very least, we would have seen something different. And in a league where the two finalists have 33 championships between them, I think something different is something we could all appreciate.

Maybe next year, right?