The Lakers earned their 15th title as Kobe Bryant scored 30 points and Pau Gasol added 14 and 15 rebounds in a 99-86 Game 5 win over the Orlando Magic.

It took longer than Bryant expected, but he has stepped out from behind Shaquille O’Neal’s shadow. His fourth championship strongly suggests that Kobe Bryant might be the league’s best player since Michael Jordan.

Bryant said of the constant Shaq comparisons:

“It was like Chinese water torture,” he said. “I would cringe every time. I was just like, it’s a challenge I’m just going to have to accept because there’s no way I’m going to argue it. You can say it until you’re blue in the face and rationalize it until you’re blue in the face, but it’s not going anywhere until you do something about it.

NBA betting odds have the LA Lakers -12 at home in NBA odds for Game 5 against the Rockets with a betting total of 198. Aaron Brooks scored a career-high 34 points in Game 4 while Shane Battier added 23 points to help the Rockets demolish the spread as 7.5 point NBA betting underdogs.

“I think everyone but us got the memo that we weren’t supposed to show up today without Yao,” Battier said.

The Rockets led by as many as 29 points and the Lakers looked nothing like a potential NBA champ. Pau Gasol scored 30 points and Kobe Bryant had 15 for a Lakers team that looked disinterested. Head coach Phil Jackson had warned his players but they didn’t listen.

“They didn’t anticipate the energy that they were going to come with,” Jackson said. “But you say as much as you can as a coach and then the players have to execute and do it on the floor.”

The Lakers could be facing more difficulty on Tuesday as forward Lamar Odom was injured in Game 4 and did not return. He missed practice on Monday but still may play on Tuesday. If you are looking to see who will win Game 5 you might only need to watch the first quarter. The team that has led at the end of the first quarter has won all 10 of Houston’s playoff games.

After 22 years, the NBA has gone green again. The Celtics concluded a crazy rebound of a season with an amazing 131-92 blowout over the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 6 last night. The Celtics won their 17th NBA title and a first one for Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, a  Big Three for a new generation. Garnett scored 26 points with 14 rebounds, Allen scored 26 and Pierce, the finals MVP who shook off a sprained right knee sustained in game one. Boston’s 39-point win surpassed the NBA record for the biggest margin of victory in a championship clincher; the Celtics beat the Lakers 129-96 in Game 5 of the 1965 NBA finals.

The Boston Celtics edged the Los Angeles Lakers 108-102 giving the Celtics a two games lead in the National Basketball Association Finals. The best-of-seven series now heads to Los Angeles, where the Lakers have won eight playoff games in a row, for games Tuesday and Thursday.

The Celtics will try to extend their all-time record of 16 NBA crowns while the Lakers, second on the all-time list with 14, look for their first title since winning three in a row from 2000 to 2002.

Boston defeated the Lakers in their first eight NBA Finals meetings before Los Angeles broke that roll in 1985 and repeated the feat in 1987, their most recent playoff matchup before this latest revival of the NBA’s most legendary rivalry.

One of the most legendary rivalries in sports history will be revisited in the 2008 NBA Finals, as the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers go head to head in a best-of-seven series.
The first two games of the series will be played at TD Banknorth Garden, while Games 3, 4 and 5 (if necessary) will take place at the Staples Center. If the set goes to a sixth and seventh game, Boston would host those games.
This is the eleventh time these franchises will square off in the championship round. Boston has won eight of the 10 previous matchups in the finals. The Celtics defeated the Lakers in 1959, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969 and 1984. However, LA has won the last two meetings as it beat Boston in six games in 1985 and 1987.
Some of the greatest players of all time have participated in this rivalry. Larry Bird, Robert Parish, Bob Cousy, Dennis Johnson, John Havlicek, Sam Jones, Kevin McHale,  and Bill Russell are some of the great Boston players who have been part of the championship battles between these teams, while Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson,, Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West,  and James Worthy were there for the Los Angeles.
Boston is appearing in the NBA Finals for the 20th time and has won 16 titles.
The Celtics had the biggest turnaround in NBA history during the regular season, as they finished a league-best 66-16, a 42-win turnaround from a season ago. They had to fight in rounds one and two, needing seven games to eliminate Atlanta in the quarterfinals and Cleveland in the semifinals.

The Los Angeles Lakers have made the NBA Finals for the very first time after beating the 2007 champs the San Antonio Spurs 100-92, winning a best-of-seven series 4-1. Kobe Bryant was the star of the night, scoring 36 points as the Lakers came back from a 17 point deficit to take home an eight point victory.
Pau Gasol contributed with a 12 points and 19 rebounds while Lamar Odom got 13 points and eight rebounds for the Lakers, who will play the winner of the Celtics/Pistons series, which currently has Boston leading 3-2. Game six is in Detroit tonight. Tony Parker was the top scorer for the Spurs with 23 points, while Tim Duncan added 19. However, these were the only scorers of note as the Spurs sputtered towards the end.