Dec 26 2008
Living Up to the Hype
Christmas Day Basketball is always exciting, whether it is Kobe vs Shaq, Kobe vs the Phoenix Suns, or the latest installment of the Lakers vs Celtics rivalry game. After getting beat last year in the NBA Finals last year, the Lakers had to prove themselves worthy of competing with Boston.
This is the set-up for yesterdays game as the rivalry has hit an even more higher expectations from the two teams on Christmas day. The Celtics were coming in on a 19 game winning streak, and the best record at 27-2, which is the best start in Celtics history.
As before mentioned, the Celtics won last years NBA Championship against the Lakers and did so in convincing fashion. In truth, the Lakers needed this win a lot more than the Celtics, but Boston also needed this win too as they hoped to stay in the heads of the Lakers.
The Staples Center in Los Angeles was rocking of its foundation, the fans were uncharacteristically early for the start of the game. So the game was played really close throughout all four quarters when the better team pulled away in the end.
That team was the Lakers who played terrific defense holding the Celtics to 83 points and opened up the Celtics defense by scoring 92. It deserved all of the hype that it was given since the schedules were announced and the viewers could not be disappointed.
Now everyone turns their heads to the next meeting in Boston on February 5th in which the Lakers can go for the season sweep. If you are a Laker fan then you should be proud of your teams defensive effort and if you are a Celtics fan then you should remember your team is still the defending champs.
This rivalry is RED-HOT as both teams left the floor last night without shaking hands or exchanging any sort of sporstmanship gestures. In Fact the only exchange with Kobe Bryant and the Celtics was a thumbs up he gave the teams bench at the end of the game.
J.M.Saucedo
