All In

If the Boston Celtics want to win game 7 of the NBA Finals, they'd better be. I just hope they got all the bad juju out in that game 6 stink bomb, but this is an incredibly tall order. You kind of had to see an LA victory in game 6 coming, and although it's only happened a few times in NBA history I still firmly believe that if anyone can pull this off, it's these Celtics. I have no idea who will win, but if Boston continues to play defense effectively and goes from Arby's bad to just shit sandwich awful, they stand a really good chance of winning the title tonight.

In order to win, the Celtics need to take care of the basketball and win the rebounding battle. This will be tough without Kendrick Perkins, but perhaps his absence will inspire Glen Davis and Rasheed Wallace to step up and shoulder their share of the load. But it doesn't just fall on the bigs, everyone on the court has to box out and pursue the basketball tonight. Really, it comes down to playing with energy and being focused, decisive and aggressive, but rebounding is so hugely important to controlling the pace of the game and limiting the Lakers' opportunities.

Offensively, the Celtics just have to be in a higher gear than they were on Tuesday and move the ball with precision. Shots will fall if the Celtics take care of the other areas of the game, they just need to share the ball, protect it, and challenge the Laker defense to play well twice in a row (I don't think they have it in them).

I don't believe that Ron Artest and Lamar Odom are going to make the same type of shots they made in game 6, and I hope and pray that the Celtics can stifle the other Lakers and goad kobe into launching contested fade-aways while his teammates stand around flat-footed and watch. The Celtics have nothing to lose in this game, on paper the Lakers have every edge that matters. On the court, it's been even thus far and I don't see the Celtics being that bad or the Lakers being that good again.

Let's go.