Chicago has it all set up for them to win easily at home tonight, but easily just does not come easily in the NBA playoffs. The Bulls may not find the friendly home confines to be the answer they are hoping for.

Derrick Rose needs to find a way to slow down Rajon Rondo before they change his name to Raging Roundballer. Rajon had a triple double on a sprained ankle in the last game. That is right; he did it on one leg. Pretty impressive.

Rajon rules in spite of nothing up his sleeves

If the Bulls can bring the effort then the odds are that the Celtics will find themselves down 2 – 1 facing another game in Chicago without Kevin Garnett or Leon Powe.

It is that needed effort that has Bull Coach Vinny Del Negro concerned.

”Never think you can use logic in basketball,” Del Negro said. ”Playoff basketball just doesn’t work like that. Every game causes different adjustments, different matchups.

”We have to control [Rondo] in transition; he’s like a one-man fast break. His rebounding and his assists are killing us. We have to do a better job of keeping him off the glass and pay a little bit more attention to him. We have to do a better job keeping him out of the paint. He’s very quick and tough off the dribble.”

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Photo source Newscom

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Boston Celtics rule the world or at least the NBA World.

Paul Pierce is MVP and played fantastic.

Kevin Garnett reminds us that anything is possible.

Defense rules and the Lakers better get one.

Redlasso gives us this video from after the final seconds.

source RedLasso

Kevin Garnett was so emotional that he was crying one moment and shouting out the next moment. Boston absolutely dominated the last game of the series.

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Paul Pierce cannot be stopped. Not by Kobe. Not by anyone.

Image details: NBA Finals Game 6: Los Angeles Lakers v Boston Celtics served by picapp.com

Sam Posey or SAM missile. He just keeps burying 3’s.

Paul Pierce, not Kevin Garnett. It is the Paul Pierce series. Hey, Kevin is averaging a double double, but it does not matter. Paul Pierce is dominating.

Pierce had waited for his chance to be one of those generational Boston sports icons, and the Celtics had stopped surrounding him with a fighting chance. It was getting late in his prime, late in his patience. He watched Tom Brady win his Super Bowls and David Ortiz his World Series, and he could take it no more. This town is the best in the world for winners, and just the worst for everyone else.

These forever New England stars are remembered for the most clutch championship performances. Pierce was the forgotten, dismissed talent, a victim of unfair circumstance when the city never had less tolerance for losing causes.

Suddenly now, Pierce returns for Game 6 in these NBA Finals on Tuesday within a victory of a championship, within a whisper of his wildest dreams. Maybe the regular season belonged to Kevin Garnett for the Celtics, but the playoffs belong to Pierce. History is closing fast.

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Phil Jackson has a pink top of his head. What is that?

Pau Gasol racks up the stats, but plays soft most of the time. Lakers need Andrew Bynum.

Kobe Bryant can’t score on 5 Celtics at once. They are playing great defense. Kobe will get his, but it will take a lot of shots.

Boston by 23. Is this a series of big leads by both teams or what?

Ray Allen had his eye poked in the first quarter and has done nothing since.

Halftime.

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Paul Pierce, with a lot of help, put the clamps on Kobe Bryant

Image details: NBA Finals Game 4: Boston Celtics v Los Angeles Lakers served by picapp.com

The Lakers are done. They had a 24 point lead in the second quarter over the Boston Celtics.

Even in the 3rd quarter the Celtics were down 20 points.

Then the Lakers stopped scoring.

What was it? It was Celtic defense and Paul Pierce scoring.

It didn’t help that Kobe was being locked down by Pierce. Kobe just could not get his jumper going at all. Every time Kobe drove to the middle of the floor, he was met with a welcoming committee from Boston and most of the time had to pass off to an outside shooter. That is fine, but then the Celtics would recover fast enough to cover the outside shooter as well.

Sam Posey made a couple of clutch 3 pointers late in the game and had 18 points. It seems that there is a new Boston bench star in every game.

Kevin Garnett had a very quiet 16 points and 11 boards. Paul Pierce was very dynamic especially late in the game with 20 points in spite of missing all 3 of his 3 pointers.

Kendrick Perkins left the game with a strained shoulder. We will have to wait and see how bad that is. Paul Pierce tweaked his ankle late in the game, but continued to play.

The Lakers wasted a brilliant game by Lamar Odom, who had 19 points on 8 for 11 shooting and 10 boards.

At one point in the third quarter, they flashed a graphic saying the Lakers had missed 9 shots in a row.

Where do the Lakers go from here? Game 5 is in LA and then the last two games are in Boston. No team has ever come back from a 3 -1 deficit. It is hard to imagine the Lakers winning the next 3 games with 2 of them in Boston.

It will be interesting to see the two team’s mindset for game 5.

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Kobe Bryant walked off with a victory in game 3 of the NBA Finals

Image details: NBA Finals Game 3: Boston Celtics v Los Angeles Lakers served by picapp.com

Kobe was cool and calm and had an excellent game.

Los Angeles Lakers 87, Boston Celtics 81

Bryant scored 36 points with an MVP-worthy performance; Sasha Vujacic added 20 points and the Lakers, teetering on the brink of falling into an impossible hole in the NBA finals, beat the Boston Celtics 87-81 in Game 3 on Tuesday night.

L.A.’s brightest sports star, Bryant was California cool.

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This took the pressure off his teammates and they also played excellent ball.

Vujacic, the self-proclaimed “Machine,” made three 3-pointers, including a crucial one from the left corner with 1:53 left that gave the Lakers an 81-76 lead. Pau Gasol finally flexed his muscles with two inside baskets in the fourth quarter and Derek Fisher, who took an $8 million pay cut to come back and play for the Lakers, made two free throws with 1:33 remaining as the Lakers held on.

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Meanwhile the Boston 3 party was going solo with only Ray Allen showing up.

But it took everything they had to keep that streak alive as the Celtics, two wins from their 17th NBA title but only 2-8 on the road in this postseason, made the Lakers play a more physical, Eastern Conference-style game and nearly walked away with a win.

Ray Allen scored 25 points—15 on 3-pointers—for the Celtics, but only one-third of Boston’s Big Three showed up.

Kevin Garnett scored 13 points on just 6-of-21 shooting and Paul Pierce, playing a short drive from his childhood home, had only six points, missed 12 shots and was in foul trouble all night.

Game 4 is Thursday night.

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Paul Pierce? Kobe Bryant? It looks like Leon Powe is the man as he is getting triple teamed by the Lakers!

Image details: NBA Finals Game 1: Los Angeles Lakers v Boston Celtics served by picapp.com

If you did not see this game, you would not believe it.

Boston dominated this game up until the last 7 minutes. The Celtics were up by over 20 points. Paul Pierce was scoring like crazy. Rajon Rondo was dishing assists like Bob Cousy. The Celtic Defense was shutting down the Lakers and frustrating Kobe Bryant. Boston was shooting so many free throws that the game lasted forever.

Then the Lakers caught fire!

They went on a 27 – 9 run and cut the lead to 4.

Boston had to call a time out and go back to Paul Pierce. It has been the Paul Pierce show and not the Kevin Garnett show so far. Paul’s knee appears to be fine. His ability to score is even better.

Paul drove to the hole off of a Kevin Garnett screen (since when did he become a screener in clutch situations?) and tried an up and under move that was fouled. Two foul shots later the Celtics led by 6 with 12 seconds to go.

LA called a timeout and ran a play at their end of the court. Kobe Bryant did not touch the ball. Pau Gasol could not find him. The Lakers missed. Paul Pierce actually blocked the shot and Boston won the game.

Paul Pierce, darting around the parquet floor with ease, scored 28 points, Boston’s defense mobbed Kobe Bryant long enough and unknown Leon Powe scored 21 points as the Celtics held off a remarkable Los Angeles rally for a 108-102 win over the Lakers on Sunday night. The Celtics have a 2-0 lead in these trip-down-memory-lane NBA finals.

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Leon Powe

Wait a minute, Leon Powe had 21 points. Leon who? Powe had more free throw attempts than the Lakers 13 to 10. Now this was Leon who?

They asked Phil Jackson what he took from the game more, the Celtic defense for 3 quarters or the offensive surge of the Lakers late in the game and he responded with “Leon Powe getting more free throws than his whole team. That is ridiculous.” Phil could not really talk about the referees directly, but the message was clear.

Boston benefitted from 38 free throws to LA’s 10. Talk about your home court advantage!

Now the series goes to LA and we will see what the Lakers are made of. Typically a series goes to the home teams for a while when they are evenly matched.

We will see if Boston can steal one in LA.

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