© Edward G. Roberts
Game four of the 2008 NBA championship series between the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers promised to be the defining game of the series to this point. The Lakers, trailing the series two games to one, could create a brand new series by winning game four and going to game five all tied up: two to two. The Celtics however, could almost guarantee capturing the championship by defeating the Lakers in game four and assuming a commanding three games to one series lead. Would Lakers' Kobe Bryant and Lamar Odom lead this bunch to victory; or would Boston's Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnet overwhelm the Lakers as they did in games one and two?
The game started fast for the Lakers. Lamar Odom was driving the paint and scoring: finally. In the first half, he made seven out of seven shots; quite a change from game three where he scored a total of four points. Derrick Fischer was making some shots. Radmanovic drained a couple of key three pointers. Kobe was struggling, in the first half he had zero points; he was running the floor and giving his teammates the shots. And it worked. In the first quarter, the Lakers took a twenty-one point lead while holding Boston to fourteen points. Part way through the second quarter, the Lakers extended their lead to twenty-four points. The Boston Celtics looked limp. By halftime however, the lead was reduced to eighteen points. Was Boston making a mini comeback? But they can't come back from a twenty-four point deficit; or can they? A cloud of anxiety enveloped Lakers' fans as their overwhelming lead started to shrink.
The third quarter started with both teams bobbing and jabbing. Twice, the Celtics cut the lead to single digits. The Lakers held them off and rebuilt their lead to seventeen. With six minutes remaining in the third quarter, the lead was back to twenty. But then everything changed. Suddenly the Lakers could not make a basket. Their defense completely crumbled. Boston kept punching, the Lakers could not punch back; the Celtics overwhelmed them again. Why was the Lakers' "machine" (Vujacic) running around like a chicken with his head cut off? Why was Radmanovic flopping and flailing his arms like he was doing a Serbian folk dance? Meanwhile, Fischer, Odom, and Reza who sparked the Lakers in the first half, warmed the bench, why? The greatest comeback in NBA Finals history was happening before everyone's eyes. The Lakers could do nothing about it as Boston shrunk the twenty-four point deficit like snow melting in the Mojave Desert. By the end of the fourth quarter, the Celtics had defeated the Lakers by six points.
This was the biggest embarrassment ever suffered by the Lakers organization in their long history. The Lakers were unable to protect a twenty point lead with approximately eighteen minutes left in a vital playoff game. Unbelievable! The mighty Lakers, unstoppable in the first half, came to a screeching halt with all cylinders melted. Where was Lamar Odom? In the second half, he disappeared again. During the Lakers' second half melt down, their mighty bench players should have stayed home. After the game, Kobe Bryant said, "the Lakers wet the bed big time." He didn't know the Lakers' fans had to vomit and "mess" their pants while watching the second half. The NBA Finals ended for the Lakers in the third quarter of game four. No team has ever won the series after trailing three games to one. To win the championship, they now have to defeat the Celtics three consecutive games: not going to happen. But who knows, as unbelievably miraculous as the Celtics' epic comeback was in game four, perhaps the Lakers will make an unbelievably miraculous comeback and win the series. Don't bet money on it!
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