Where do we even begin? The Los Angeles Lakers, through seven of the most taxing games this current team has ever played in and we as fans have perhaps ever witnessed, outlasted the Boston Celtics to capture a 16th franchise title and a Big Baby Davis sized dose of redemption.
The ugliest of offensive games ended with our Lakers hoisting the most beautiful of trophies for the second straight year in a row, a feat that has evaded the NBA for nearly 10 years and was last accomplished by…yes, the Lake Show.
The emotional chaos that we all endured for all of Game 7’s 48 minutes roared through valleys as dubious as Kobe’s 6 of 24 shooting performance and peaks as heart-warming as Ron Artest’s post-game interview with ESPN’s Doris Burke.
As expected, our stars won Game 7, whether it was Ron Ron’s 20 points and five steals, Pau’s 19 points and monstrous 18 rebounds or Kobe’s dogged defense and waxing of the glass for 15 boards of his own. Our super three played 46, 42 and 45 minutes each, respectively, and boy did we need every second.
The defensive execution on both ends was stunningly exceptional last night, defining every nook and cranny of how an NBA Finals Game 7 is supposed to play out, especially one between us and Boston. While the Lakers sure didn’t spare us any ulcers in doing so, they earned this chip through unrelenting belief and trust in one another that the game would be ours. I honestly can’t say that I’ve ever seen this team play such supreme defense and as the classic adage in all of sports goes, defense wins championships – it always will.
The Celtics did not give away the game, we won it straight up, straight away.
Even down 13, there was never quite a serious sense of the game being a lost cause. Whether it was false bravado or not, you just knew in your gut that our Lakers were not going to give up so easily. Low and behold, we battled back with championship poise and completely shut down the Celtics’ offense in the fourth quarter – again, the most impressive display of defensive intensity that we’ve ever seen from this Lakers squad.
The bliss that I’m feeling is all too fresh for me to even appropriately arrange my thoughts into some profound collection of words so bear with me. I’m on Cloud #16.
NEXT: What #16 means.
