Of the ten ESPN prognosticators, nine of them picked the Lakers to defeat the Celtics in the NBA Finals.  I picked the Celtics at the start of the playoffs, and then changed my mind at the beginning of the finals.  Countless pundits went for L.A. over Boston.  Well, to paraphrase comedian Ron White, "we were wrooooooong!!"

Boston just shoved it down the Lakers throats, culminating with their 131-92 annhilation last night to win the NBA title in six games.  So the question that everyone should be asking is, what the heck did we miss here?  As best as I can, I'll try and go through everything I overlooked - your mileage may vary.

• Boston's defense was absolutely stifling, moreso than any team's I'd seen in a very long time.  We didn't appreciate just how much their defense could take the Lakers out of their game.  No one plays better ball-man defense, no one rotates better, no one plays better help-side defense, no one's better than Boston.  Celtics assistant Tom Thibodeau put together a masterful plan to shut down L.A.'s two through five players, and dared Kobe Bryant to beat them.  Which leads to...
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• The Lakers' offense wasn't nearly as structured as we believed.  Every team they played they could beat on talent alone; Denver was hopeless, Utah was probably the 2nd best team in the West but their defense was way overrated, and San Antonio was just broken down.  So they got away with freelancing outside the triangle offense.  Once they actually had to run some plays against a talented squad who could cover the second and third option, everything broke down.  Which leads to...
  
  
• Kobe is not in MJ's league.  Never, ever, ever, EVER, make this argument again!  A 29 year-old Jordan doesn't let his team lose by 39, doesn't go 7-22, 8-21, 6-19, doesn't let his team surrender a 24-point lead, doesn't show up his teammates on court.  None of that happens to Jordan.  Funny what happens when you go up against someone your size that's physical and keeps you from getting to the hoop.  So let's let that one go right now.


• No one even considered the possiibility that Doc Rivers could outcoach Phil Jackson.  It happened.  Badly.  How could the Zen master not figure out a way to get his guys to double-team Garnett, trap Pierce, and keep a body on Allen?  And somehow, Doc found the right combination of players, finally realized that Sam Cassell needed to stay on the bench, and picked the right spots to put James Posey and Eddie House in.  He just schooled Jackson, there's no other way to say it.  (quick tangent: twice in the past five years, Phil Jackson has coached the team that was the prohibitive favorite in the finals, and both times they were soundly beaten.  I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'...)
  
  
• The emergence of Paul Pierce was almost impossible to predict.  Not only did he put together an absolutely career-defining game offensively in game 5 (one that they lost), he took over the 2nd half of the previous game, to the point that he essentially played point guard during the last five minutes.  And his defense on Bryant...no one knew he had that in him, but he took it upon himself to shut down #24, and he succeeded brilliantly.
  
  
• And finally, L.A.'s bench was horrific.  Jordan Farmar was mediocre at best, and got run around silly by Rajon Rondo.  Sasha Vujacic was out of sorts offensively, and couldn't play a lick of defense.  The rest of the crew (Luke Walton, Ronny Turiaf, Trevor Ariza) were mere afterthoughts.  The C's bench of Posey, House, P.J. Brown, and Leon Powe wiped the floor with them.

Just goes to show you, sometimes you have to go with your first instinct.  And now, I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep, as these games are ending way too late.  I can manage though.

NBA lakers, celtics, kobe bryant, doc rivers, phil jackson