Celtics rout Lakers to claim crown
BOSTON – On a new parquet floor below aging championship banners, the Boston Celtics won their 17th NBA title and a first one – at last – for Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen – their Big Three for a new generation.
After 22 long years, the NBA has gone green.
Carried by ear-splitting chants of “Beat L.A.” early and cries of “Seven-teen” in the closing seconds by their adoring crowd, which included past Boston stars Bill Russell and John Havlicek, the Celtics concluded a shocking rebound of a season with a 131-92 blowout over the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 6 on Tuesday night.
With the outcome assured, Boston fans sang into the night as if they were in a pub on nearby Canal Street. They serenaded the newest champs in this city of champs, and taunted Kobe Bryant and his Lakers, who drowned in a green-and-white wave for 48 minutes.
Garnett scored 26 points with 14 rebounds, Allen scored 26 and Pierce, the finals MVP, added 17 as the Celtics, a 24-win team a year ago, wrapped up their first title since 1986.
This was total domination. The Celtics obliterated the Lakers, who were trying to become the first team to overcome a 3-1 deficit in the finals.
Boston’s 39-point win surpassed the NBA record for the biggest margin of victory in a championship clincher. The Celtics beat the Lakers 129-96 in Game 5 of the 1965 NBA finals.
Pierce doused Celtics coach Doc Rivers with red Gatorade. Owner Wyc Grousbeck, who named his group Banner 17 to leave no doubt about his goal, put an unlit cigar in his mouth – a tribute to Red Auerbach, the patriarch who had a hand in the franchise’s first 16 titles.
Garnett dropped to the parquet and kissed the leprechaun at center court and then found Russell, the Hall of Famer who taught him the Celtics’ way, for a long embrace.
“I got my own. I got my own,” Garnett said. “I hope we made you proud.”
“You sure did,” Russell said.
Rivers pulled Pierce, Garnett and Allen with 4:01 left and they shared a group hug with their coach, who was nearly run out of town last season. In the final minute, Rivers was soaked by Pierce, the Celtics’ captain who decided to stay when things were bad and was rewarded for his loyalty.
It’s was Boston’s first title since the passing of Auerbach, whose signature victory cigar was the only thing missing on this night. Even Auerbach, who died in 2006, got some satisfaction. Led by Rivers, Auerbach’s beloved team denied Lakers coach Phil Jackson from overtaking him with a 10th championship.
A perfect ending: a 17th title on the 17th of June.
The Boston-Los Angeles rivalry, nothing more than black-and-white footage from the 1960s and TV highlights of players wearing short shorts in the ‘80s to young hoops fans, remains tilted toward the Atlantic Ocean. The Celtics are 9-2 against the Lakers in the finals.
They missed their first crack at closing out the series in Game 5, but didn’t miss on their second swing, running the Lakers out of their gym.
Bryant, the regular-season MVP, finished with 22 points.
Garnett and Allen were All-Stars in other cities, stuck in Minnesota and Seattle, respectively, on teams going nowhere. But brought together in trades last summer by Celtics general manager Danny Ainge, a member of the ‘86 Celtics champions, they joined Pierce and formed an unbreakable bond, a trio as tight as the club’s lucky shamrock logo.
With Garnett scoring 17 points and Pierce adding 10, Boston built a 23-point halftime lead, and unlike Game 2 when it let the Lakers trim a 24-point lead to two in the fourth quarter before recovering, the Celtics kept coming in waves.
They pushed their lead to 31 in the third quarter, and with Boston still up by 29 after three quarters, plastic sheets started going up in the Celtics’ locker room in preparation for a champagne celebration.
Bryant started 4 of 5 from the field, but he missed seven shots in a row and went only 7 of 22, capping a forgettable finals. Everywhere he went, L.A.’s No. 24 ran smack into a wall of Boston defense as high as the Green Monster a few miles away at Fenway Park.
“Defense,” Rivers said before the game. “Is what we do.”
In the second half, Celtics fans chanted “You’re not (Michael) Jordan” at Bryant, who will have to wait for his fourth title and first without former teammate Shaquille O’Neal. The Lakers, who stole Pau Gasol away from Memphis in a midseason trade to help Bryant, will have the all summer to think about what went wrong.
No team had to work harder for a championship than these Celtics, who were playing in their record 26th postseason game. They were pushed to seven games in the first round by Atlanta, another seven by Cleveland and then took care of Detroit in six to win the Eastern Conference title.
Just as they had while winning 66 games during the regular season, the Celtics got plenty of help from their bench as P.J. Brown, James Posey, Leon Powe and rookie Glen “Big Baby” Davis came in and contributed.
Boston outscored Los Angeles 34-19 in the second quarter, getting 11 field goals on 11 assists while holding Bryant to three points, all on free throws.