NBA Finals: Celtics vs. Lakers - Game 4

Last night was a game to remember as Boston made the biggest comeback in NBA Finals history after being down 24 points to beat Los Angeles on their home court 97-91, and put the Lakers on the brink of elimination down 3-1 to the Celtics in the series. No team in NBA Finals history has come back from being down 3-1 and with the devastating loss for Los Angeles in Game 4, the Celtics may bring back a World Championship to Boston as early as Game 5 on Sunday.

I have never seen such a game in my life that had two completely different halves from a team after the Lakers had their best first half in the 2008 playoffs and their worst half of the year in the second. Everything was going the Lakers' way in the first-quarter with a score of 35-14, as they embarrassed the Celtics' best defense in the playoffs by scoring 58 points going into the half and a 18-point lead. I know I have not had much faith in Lamar Odom after his first 3 games in the series, but even he shot 7-7 in the first half with 15 points.

I don't know if Los Angeles thought Game 4 was over and were looking on to Game 5, or if Boston was more hungry to win but the Lakers got dominated in the third-quarter as Boston went on a 21-3 run to end of the fourth-quarter with the score 73-71. In doing so, the Lakers 18 point lead at halftime was cut down to 2 points and when Eddie House put the Celtics up 84-83 with four minutes left in the game, Boston never looked back. The Celtics' tough defense locked down on Kobe Bryant, limiting him to a playoff-low 17 points as the Lakers' crowd was left speechless. They had just witnessed a nightmare that will always be remembered as one of the most devastating losses in their team's franchise history.

It took the Boston's entire team to come back from such a huge 24-poit lead with coach Doc Rivers' motivation to never give up, the excellent play of the Boston PGA (Pierce, Garnett, Allen) Tour and the production off the bench from House, James Posey and P.J. Brown. Pierce did lead the game with 20 points, Garnett was a factor in the second half with a total of 16 but Allen was the player of the game hitting 3-pointers and blowing by the Lakers' Sasha Vujacic at will. Even though I hadn't thought it would that big of a factor in the series, the team that won each game in the 2008 NBA Finals has gotten more production from their bench than their opponent. That was definitely the case in Game 4 as Boston's bench dominated the Los Angeles' bench 35-15, with 18 major points from Posey and another 11 points from House.

I know I predicted that the Celtics would win the NBA Finals in six games, but the way the Lakers lost Game 4, I would not be surprised if Boston wins it all in five games. The Lakers are a young team and I don't know if they can get over such a huge loss by Sunday. I'm not going to guarantee that Boston will win Game 5 because no team is out of the NBA Finals with Bryant on their team, but if the Lakers don't play their 'A' game the Celtics will win the World Championship for the first time in 21 years.