With Title on the Line, Tommy Points Abound

Couper Moorhead
Celtics.com
June 17, 2008

The Boston Celtics didn't have to win Game 6. If they lost, they had Game 7 laying there ready to cushion their fall. But with an NBA Championship staring them dead in the eye, the Celtics came out and played not only as if it were their last game, but as if every basketball court in the world would collapse the next day and the game itself would never be played again.

That's what champions do, and after drubbing the Los Angeles Lakers 131-92 -- the 39 point difference the largest gap ever for an NBA Finals closeout game -- that's what the champions did.

"Tonight was a statement game for us," Kevin Garnett said. "We [were] really ticked that we lost the game in LA. We thought that slipped right through our fingers. Doc let it be known in the locker room, hey, let's not beat this team, let's beat them by 30 and solidify this win tonight and enjoy this night."

In doing so, the game became a Celtics highlight reel for hustle, grit and any other word that can be used to describe Garnett doing a superman dive into the sidelines trying to save a tipped ball. Rajon Rondo (6 steals) got the madness going with his the-ball-is-mine mentality, and across the board the team followed suit. Eddie House was tenacious. Kendrick Perkins was tearing down offensive boards on his injured shoulder. James Posey's iron curtain on Kobe Bryant forced turnovers and no ball went out of bounds without a Celtic trying to get a hand on it.

"When somebody dove on the ground for a loose ball, when somebody got a blocked shot, somebody boxed out and we got a rebound and we ran, those were the things that made this team better," Ray Allen said of the team's dedication throughout the season. "We held each other accountable to get on the floor every time there was a loose ball, to help in rotation when somebody was beat."

Rarely, if ever, have numbers been so descriptive of the team-to-team difference in the intangible known as hustle -- aside from Tommy Points, of course. Fifteen second chance points to eight for LA. 14 offensive rebounds to the Lakers' two. The Celtics scored 16 fast break points; the Lakers two. Eighteen Boston steals overshadowed four from the other end of the sideline. Every single digit hustle stat from LA was met with double digits.

But this last number is the one to know, and remember. The Lakers took 64 shots from the field in Game 6. The Celtics took 87.

"We played on our heels from the very get-go. They overran us," Phil Jackson said. "We never met that energy all night."

It was energy many wondered if the Celtics would have after a delayed flight cost them hours of rest the day before, but somewhere within they found it. Their vigor won them an NBA Championship -- and now, at least in the NBA, there really won't be basketball tomorrow.