Good Lord, the NBA should be embarrassed if those are the two best teams in the league.

Ah, the opinion of the typical nba fan. If it's not fast paced and high scoring, it's not good basketball. Entertain me! SLAM DUNK!

The Lakers won a game 7 for the championship while shooting 32%. It wasn't good basketball, no matter how hard to try to make it so.

Who cares??????

Great game last night between two very good teams.

Im still in awe at how the Lakers just willed themselves to victory in that extremely intense 4th quarter.

TREX01 gets it. I love great defense, but last night was piss poor shooting (especially from the FT line), sloppy play, no blocking out, etc. It looked like a bunch of monkeys (not racist) trying to **** a football.

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I actually loved last night's game. Every possession was very meaningful and nothing came easy. To me, that's enjoyable.

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Me too.

I typically hate Detroit, San Antonio, Boston style of playoff basketball....where the games are 81-74.

But im still in awe of that 4th quarter. The Crowd was so intense...and to watch the Lakers just win that 4th quarter through shear will power was nothing short of amazing.

Maybe the Spurs in 2005....but I cant remember too many Final series where the winning team had to fight so hard to win the series.

Typically by the time the Western Conference team (or the Bulls) gets to the Finals....its a cakewalk.

Usually the hardest competition was within the conference.

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Game 7s are all about grinding, clawing, and fighting your way to a Championship. Sheer will gets it done, not pretty basketball.

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This is 100% true. I am disappointed in the outcome of the game (obviously), but in a game 7 every possession is played like it will be the last because it is.

Kevin McHale talked about these exact things yesterday before the game. He knows a few things about game 7's.

I'm sorry, there were a lot of missed open jumpers. Goods look not falling last night - both teams looked poor on offense, and it wasn't just because of the defense.

The lakers willed their way to a win? They shot more free throws in the last quarter than boston shot all game.

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They shot more free throws in the last quarter than boston shot all game.

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Yeah, that pissed me off something else... Boston was getting called for everything in the 4th quarter. The nba officiating is corrupt.

It was an ugly game largely due to the refs letting them play. All of a sudden the 4th quarter rolls around and its time to give the home team more ft's then the other team had in the whole game? Doesn't add up. I wonder if that has ever happened before.

I remember when the kings got screwed over in that one game 7 when the lakers shot twenty something ft's in the 4th quarter, but at least that wasn't game 7 of the nba finals. With boston losing their starting center late in the series and the refs deciding game 7 it's a pretty hollow championship.

Agreed on the inconsistent officiating. It was horrible.

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It was an ugly game largely due to the refs letting them play. All of a sudden the 4th quarter rolls around and its time to give the home team more ft's then the other team had in the whole game? Doesn't add up. I wonder if that has ever happened before.

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I would prefer that they call the entire game consistently, but I commend the refs for actually doing their jobs in the 4th. The Celtics got away with murder the entire game, and they earned every foul called against them in the 4th.

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I would prefer that they call the entire game consistently, but I commend the refs for actually doing their jobs in the 4th. The Celtics got away with murder the entire game, and they earned every foul called against them in the 4th.

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Thank You.

The refs just called all the fouls the Celtics had been committing the entire game during the 4th quarter.

Why would they establish a precedent of a certain level of contact being allowed only to change it at the most pivotal stretch of the game?

The clearly blatant fouls were being called all game. So it's just the "degree of contact" calls that had a changing definition over the course of the game. I don't agree with letting the players settle into a certain style of play and then moving the goal post in crunch time.

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Why would they establish a precedent of a certain level of contact being allowed only to change it at the most pivotal stretch of the game?

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Because they refs were trying to help the Celtics stay in the game in the beginning. Utter and complete bullcrap.

I'm not sure what you mean there. The Lakers maybe missed some shots that were affected by contact that did not result in a foul, but the Lakers couldn't shoot for anything, even on open jumpers.

They benefited just as much from the lax officiating while they were pushing the smaller Celtics all over the place on those offensive rebounds they amassed, and so desperately needed to "stay in the game".

Whatever the reason, the gayass officiating in the beginning of the game was completely and utterly pathetic. I was just assuming the refs has a reason for doing such a chitty job. I am not blaming the Lakers poor shooting on the officiating at all. It was pathetic all on its own.

I like it when they let the teams play. They were a little too forgiving in the first quarter, though.

I remember there being a scrum for an offensive LA board where bodies were flying all over the place and Kobe took a hard fall. No whistle. First thing I thought of was Donaghy talking about refs making pre-game wagers on who would blow the first whistle. Maybe it was after the first whistle, but it's just what I thought of. It was early in the game.

I would like to see somewhere between first quarter and fourth quarter officiating. But consistency is definitely the key. Like balls and strikes in baseball.

The OP is correct. That was a horrible game to watch. Including the awful free throw shooting by the lakers and the terrible 2nd half offense by the celtics

I thought the first half set the game of basketball back 50 years. That said, to see a team look so bad, get down 9, tie it up, then go down 13, then come back to win was thrilling. I thought the officiating was fairly even. Both teams absorbed bad calls but I don't think it decided the winner. The Celts took a lot of jumpers while the Lakers tried to bang it inside more. There were plenty of people at Staples ready to hang Joey Crawford last night. He visibly stood out among the three refs.

For as bad as the first three quarters were, the last one was incredible, especially with the Celtics refusing to wilt
by draining three after three in the last minute or two.

Pretty sloppy basketball. And pretty sloppy officiating.

quantum "ace" and kellso = dead wrong about the officiating.

Judge = correct (the 4th quarter was atrocious.

That NBA game was more like college basketball than any other NBA game.

The game would get interesting when Ray Allen made a shot. I'm still waiting.