As mentioned in the cover story I recently did about the Celtics, the way they play defense reminds me of an NFL team. Not an all-time great like the 85 Bears, '00 Ravens or '02 Bucs either. Just a regular really good defense like the 06 Steelers or all the recent Patriot teams. There's a distinct difference.

Great defenses totally undress their competitors and dominate them physically and mentally. Whether road or at home, no matter the stakes or the greatness of the other team, the great ones just blow mofo's off the ball. A just really good defense will allow other teams to score, build momentum and think they have a chance to win the game. These types of teams don't have get shutouts that often and will even allow teams to score a couple of touchdowns and keep it close but will ultimately get a big stop. The Celtics, regardless of how it turned out allowed the Hawks, Cavs, Pistons and even the Lakers to think it was all good. They were a possession away from losing to the Cavs and at times during this postseason played a maddeningly frustrating brand of basketball. Other teams brought their swagger to the court and blotted out the sunlight that the Celtics created in winning 66 games in the regular season. They had to think that they were gonna eventually break free of this team advance in their championship goal. But they didn't. They couldn't.

This Celtics team is unique in the way they are constructed in that no matter what happens scoring-wise for them they are gonna keep you under control offensively and eventually beat you. They differ from the recent championship Spurs because even though they were great defensively they could often score at will. Tim Duncan is not only a superior defender but a superior offensive player as well. They got theirs and you didn't get yours and that was it. With the Celtics, they might not get theirs. Kevin Garnett is not a lights out scorer, he's not going for 35 points. And he may even bail your defense out by taking more jumpers than playing on the block. But he limits the hell out the guy he's playing.

And his help-side d is remarkable, he makes up for whatever his teammates miss and on top of that is a dominating rebounder. His ability has allowed Paul Pierce and Ray Allen to shine as defenders, something that seemed absurd as recent as last season. When you add Rondo's speedy defensive pressure and James Posey's athletic smothering and PJ Brown paint toughness to the mix, this team became a team full of guys who were gonna get key stops at some point in the game or series. You are not gonna outscore them. Coach Rivers allowed his assistant Tom Thibodeaux to be his Buddy Ryan type and his schemes have been amazing. Looking back its obvious that Lebron much like Kobe now, wasn't just having bad shooting days. They were getting shut down.

By Alan Paul

I wrote about the NBA's Game 3 viewing party in Beijing for my NBC blog.

That pretty much tells the tale but I need to give a special shout-out to my man Xu Kai, an NBA fanatic who chose Wallace as his English name — because of Rasheed Wallace.

"You know him?" he asked me, pulling out his wallet, to display a Sheed Trail Blazers card.

"Do I know him?" I exclaimed. "Dude, I work for SLAM."

"I love SLAM! You run many articles on Rasheed."

"Yes, and I wrote some of them myself," I said.

His eyes grew wide and we exchanged a somewhat awkward high five.

"Listen," I said, "anyone who names themselves after Sheed deserves to be on Slamonline. You're in!"

So a big thumbs up from the SLAM nation to Wallace Xu of Qingdao, China, currently studying anthropology in Beijing.

by Marcel Mutoni

The Good

-The Lakers won the game, a game they absolutely had to have.

-Prior to the game, the atmosphere around the arena was a festive one. No one seemed particularly worried, and on at least three occasions, I overheard someone happily rattle off the names of the refs for the big game, and confidently state that they expected L.A. to get all of the calls. Um, maybe we shouldn't dismiss Tim Donaghy's allegations so easily…

-Laker fans are routinely accused of showing up late and leaving early, but from the moment I got to Staples (about 2 hours before game time), plenty of people were already there, getting their tickets, drinking and smoking, taking pictures, and just soaking it all in. I don't know if the same could be said for a mid-February game against Philly, but on this night, the fans showed up when their team needed them the most.

-With the world watching, and celebrities tripping over one another to get noticed, the women of L.A. came out in full force. I couldn't quite figure out if I was at Playoff basketball game, or standing in front of the hottest nightclub in town. Either way, I wasn't complaining.

-Bottom line: Game Four, in many ways, will decide the series. If the Celtics lose, then all of the momentum going into Game Five will be with the Lakers, and they have to believe that they can win a game in Boston.

(Of course, should the Lakers drop this ginormous game, their season is pretty much dunzo. You're not going to beat Boston three straight times - you're just not - and both teams know it.)

The Bad

-This so-called rivalry: Plenty of people were walking the streets with Celtics gear on, and save for a few half-hearted boos, they were pretty much left alone. Come on, Laker fans! If they're going to invade your city, and have seats in your stadium, at least make their lives a little bit miserable.

(Amazingly, a few people even had on Boston Red Sox jerseys and hats. I mean, I understand the need to support your team and city, but that's a little much. The most out of place piece of attire, however, goes to the middle-aged man with long curly hair wearing a vintage Earl Monroe Knicks jersey. Kudos to you, sir!)

-Boston, despite the horrid shooting by KG and Pierce, had a very real shot at stealing the game in the fourth and all but ending L.A.'s season. Had it not been for a couple of missed shots by the Celtics, and Kobe's late game heroics, last night could've turned out to be absolutely disastrous.

-With Game Four looming, the C's have to be feeling pretty good about their chances. Two of their superstars played like crap in Game Three, and L.A. barely escaped with a win. Also, Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol seem overwhelmed by the enormity of the moment.

(Unless Kobe gets 40-50 points, and someone like Sasha has the game of his life again, the Lakers are in big trouble. Odom and Gasol cannot afford to have repeat performances if this team plans on forcing this series back to Boston. The Celtics are too good defensively, they rebound too well, and they have so many bodies to throw at the Lakers that Kobe putting on his Superman cape will simply not be enough.)

-The LAPD. No, there was no police brutality (at least, none that I saw), but L.A.'s finest had an absolutely massive presence around the arena. I don't think I've ever seen that many cops in one place. Why is this bad, you ask? Simple. They chased away all of the ticket scalpers. How are people, like myself, who weren't smart enough to get their tickets ahead of time supposed to get into the game?

(The good news is that I got tickets for Game Four online. The bad news is that they cost me a small fortune. I'm sure that I'll eventually get used to the idea of being homeless…)

-You know those shots that ABC/ESPN shows of fans losing their minds prior to the game? None of them are authentic. ESPN had two of their staffers hustling around Staples looking for Laker fans who wanted to be on TV, so long as they agreed to hold up signs and shout for the Leader's cameras. Needless to say, when they approached my brother and I, we politely declined.

(The best hand-held sign that I saw last night was from a pretty woman, who I'm guessing was in her early thirties, and it read: "Hey Pierce, we're going to break your knee for real this time!" ESPN employees didn't seem particularly enthused about including her in the broadcast.)

The Ugly

-There was an astounding number of douchebags loitering around the Staples prior to the game. I saw two guys who had draped some kind of heavy-looking Laker blanket around a dog they were walking (with the sun beating down on the poor thing.) The only thing these two clowns were missing were matching Michael Vick jerseys, and they would've entered the Animal Cruelty Hall of Fame on the first ballot.

-The Clown of the Night Award, though, goes to the gentleman who was driving around the arena in an SUV, with said SUV towing a beat up car (it looked like the thing had been set on fire, before someone took a baseball bat to it) painted all over with Laker colors, and the number 24 and the name KOBE in large letters on the sides. Dude drove up and down the street in front of the Staples at least ten times, and no one could quite figure out what the point was.

-Just before leaving, I went around the arena and found the VIP entrance. Pretty soon, it became clear that I was standing amongst various paparazzi, and with the large number of A-listers on hand, these guys were in heaven.

(Every couple of minutes, a celeb would arrive in some car that costs more than most people's homes, and immediately upon their emergence from the parking lot, they would be bum-rushed by camera-wielding dudes as they tried to make their way into the game.)

Spotted from my vantage point: Andy Garcia with his family in tow; Sylvester Stallone rolling solo; Michael Clarke Duncan and his smoking-hot girlfriend (or considering the fact that she's at least one-third of his age, it could very easily have been his smoking-hot daughter); Jalen Rose wearing a black suit and some white and yellow Nike Dunks; James Worthy and the fam; AC Green by his lonesome picking up tickets at the counter; Cuttino Mobley looking lost and confused in front of the arena; and according to the paparazzi, some of Hollywood's biggest power players (though, for the life of me, I couldn't recognize most of them.)

-The highlight of the star-gazing exercise, without a doubt, was the arrival of Hugh Hefner and three Playboy Bunnies. To my endless disappointment, Hef had elected to leave the robe at the crib.

by Lang Whitaker

Wednesday! And just a few hours after last night's Game Three, it was time to return to The Stapler and to let all the media give the players a hard time. Once again, I declined to do the media room and instead took my camera out to the court to see what was popping.

The answer? Not much. Tons of media members, two dozen players. And today the guys were even more worn out than in Boston. The most interesting thing was that after I posted that video the other day, Big Baby apparently saw it online and took offense to Tony Allen's report of dunking on him. Tony told me about this last night at the game, so today I decided to give Big Baby a chance to set the record straight. And set it straight he does. (While Gabe Pruitt does his best to stay the heck out of it.)

After practice, on the shuttle back to the hotel, a debate broke out about the hotness of various female celebrities. I was just saying that I wasn't a fan of Sarah Jessica Parker, and then Khalid, Jemele Hill and John Hollinger and I got into a discussion about which celebrities are overrated and which are rated correctly. I then came up with the greatest idea of the Finals thus far: John Hollinger is known for creating the PER statistic, a way to quantify and rank the contributions of every basketball player on a single scale.

What if, I proposed, Hollinger developed a similar scale to rank the beauty of female celebrities. John immediately suggested calling it the Hotness Efficiency Rating, and I pointed out we could abbreviate it to the H.E.R. I'm sure Hollinger's working on this as I write.

Got back to the hotel and Jemele and I rode over to In-N-Out and got lunch, and then I needed a nap. Woke up and slapped this video together…

by Lang Whitaker

We're here, but the internet isn't. Maybe it's my computer, I don't know. I've got numerous NBA people dealing with it.

• National anthem tonight is by David Cook. Didn't he used to play power forward for the Lakers?

• We get "Heart of the City" just before tip-off. Ain't no love, indeed.

• Of course, Kobe gets the big cheers during introductions. I will say that it's not nearly as loud in here as it was during Games One and Two in Boston.

• After introductions, we're told there will be a "slight re-warm-up" for the players. I've still got issues. Jemele is sitting with me and her internet is screaming — I think this is all related to ESPN or Jim Rome or something. I'm begging to get wired access at this point.

• BTW, on the way to the game I noticed the closest stores to our hotel are a bail bondsman, a 24-hour Subway restaurant and a rental car place promising no age limit and no credit card requirements. Cool neighborhood.

• 2-1 early on. Tim Dongahy texted me earlier and promised the officiating would be even.

• Rondo saves a bad pass from Ray Allen by rondo'ing it off of Pau's gasols.

• Derek Fisher drives and…blocked. Then Paul Pierce hurdles over an older gentleman and crashes to the floor, drawing wild cheers from the crowd.

• Vlad Rad swishes a three from the corner after Lamar runs someone down without a call. 6-2, L.A.

• 7:32 to go in the first, and the Lakers are up 9-2. and four Celtics starters have a foul apiece. When the NBA evens things up, they really even things up. Also doesn't help that noo Celtics other than Perk has a field goal.

• Out of a timeout, Boston forces back-to-back turnovers and gets one three from Ray Allen to show for it. 9-5, L.A.

• I just asked if Tim Berners-Lee could come check this Internet out. Nothing so far. Kobe gets two, then Vlad Rad gets his second foul and remains inconsequential. Ronny Turiaf comes off the bench and says Bon nuit. While Joey Crawford deals with something, dueling Boston sucks! chants break out.

• Kobe creates contact and gets back to the line. 13-7, Lakers. Then D-Fish rips an elbow jumper. 15-7, Lakers, and Boston seems to be the team completely out of it.

• Kobe fakes Posey out of his shoes, nearly literally, and Kobe is called for traveling. Rondo rondo's all the Lakers and hits Posey for three. Kobe gets two, Rondo gets a runner. 17-14, with 2:41 left. There's a bunch of loose balls and diving around, and somehow Gasol ends up with a foul called against him. That's the only thing he's done since that free throw early on.

• Greatest thing at the Staples Center: Slow-mo shots of the Lakers girls on the scoreboard during timeouts.

• Posey hits two free throws to make it a 1-point game, and then Pierce is called for a foul against Vujacic, Pierce's second foul. Pierce and KG have combined for 0 points. Sasha only hits one of the two free throws.

• PJ Brown with a hot potato jumper from the wing ties the game. KG snags a board on the other end and then Cassell hits a two to tie the game with 1 minute left.

• Non! Turiaf! Tie game, the Lakers really need a score, and they go to Turiaf?

• Leon Powe finally gets in the game, with 24 seconds left in the first. Joey Crawford whistles something with Vujacic on the line — Bostn has six men on the court? — and the crowd boos loudly, mainly because it was Joey Crawford making the call.

• OK, a wildly lackluster first quarter finally comes to an end, and it's knotted at 20.

• The second quarter begins with a loose ball foul against Lamar Odom, his third foul. He is not having a good series, to say the least. Kobe hits a leaning jumper to take the lead. Next time down Kobe draws a foul and hits both free throws. MVP chants are breaking out as the Lakers open a 24-20 lead. Bennett Salvatore has had enough, though, and he tags Sasha with a foul.

• Right now Kobe has 15 points, and all five Celts players in the game have a combined 14.

• Jordan Farmar might be on the NKOTB tour.

• The Lakers finally run the triangle to perfection and Sasha drains a three. The fans here seem to realize that they just saw and cheer wildly. Then something goes down with PJ Brown and Jordan Farmar. Hard to see what happened from here, but I think I saw cobwebs shooting out of PJ Brown's ears.

• When Joey Crawford goes to the table to explain the double foul on Farmar/PJ, Jack Nicholson stands and gives him an earful. Which is pretty funny.

• The Lakers are doing a really good job of spacing the floor tonight. As I type that, they end a play (out of a timeout no less) with Luke Walton going one on one against KG. Guess how that ends?

• KG has no points with 8:07 left in the second. He should be killing Turiaf. Ray Allen drains a three to make it 29-25. Then Kobe stutters to the hoop for two more. He's got 17 and the Lakers lead by 6, 31-25. then Farmar hits a three. The Lakers are on a 14-5 run, timed about to when Lamar went out of the game.

• KG catches an old-school oop from Ray Allen and Phil Jax takes a TO. 34-27, 5:49 left in the second quarter. This is not a particularly exciting game. Seems like it's more up the Celtics' alley as fas as style of play. Would probably be better for Boston if Paul Pierce could score a point.

• Sasha! Dude's hit two straight from the left wing. Then Pierce tries to get going and Walton stuffs him, but Pierce gets the ball back, drives baseline and hits a windmill layup. 38-29, L.A.

• Kobe returns and immediately drains a jumper from the same spot as Sasha's two J's. 40-29, L.A.

• Pierce shoots an airball, and Rondo fouls Kobe. Right now the five Lakers on the floor have a combined 2 fouls, while the five Celtics (Boston's starters) have a combined 9 fouls.

• Perkins dunks and pumps his fist excitedly in Kobe's face. Don't know if he realizes that cuts it from an 11-point deficit to a 9-point deficit, but he seems really excited.

• Timeout with 2:43 to go in the second quarter. 40-31, L.A. The Lakers finally found their triangle and they're jabbing the Celtics with it repeatedly. Interesting that they found it with Lamar on the bench.

• Kobe catches on the wing and goes back-and-forth through his legs a few times, then tries to drive past James Posey, who seems to pick him clean. Boston heads back up court and Kobe is called for a technical foul. Point taken, Kobe, but you still got ripped.

• L.A. tries using Kobe to double KG, and Boston moves the ball around and finds James Posey, who drives and gets fouled. Boston finally looked like they knew what they were doing there. 40-32, L.A.

• Anyone seen Leon Powe?

• Boston runs a pick and roll on the wing and KG ends up walking before taking the jumper. If I was a TV announcer, I'd describe KG's game tonight as "out of sync." If I was a Boston fan, I'd say he was sucking.

• L.A. misses another free thow and Ray Allen wets a three. 42-37 with time for one possession. Kobe drives around the entire Boston team and draws a foul Kobe misses the first and then the second. They're getting every call but can't make a free throw for nothing.

• Halftime. L.A. is up 43-37. Boston just 5-7 from the line, but L.A. is a miserable 12-22! Lakers coach John Calipari won't be happy about their free throw shooting, but he'll shrug and smile and try to gloss over it. Garnett and Pierce have combined for one less point (4) than Farmar has by himself (5), and the C's are shooting 32 percent but are down just 6 points. Then again, the Lakers starts not named Kobe have combined for 7 points.

• The Lakers Brass Band or whatever they're called plays "Shakedown" from the Beverly Hills Cop (2?) soundtrack.

• KG starts the second half with a massive brick that makes Khalid gasp.

• And Rondo goes down. This could be bad news for Boston. The crowd boos, suspecting some hijinks are afoot. I don't know, but Eddie House is in for the first time.

• Lakers are playing really good individual defense and Boston seems flummoxed, especially without Rondo. Eddie House comes off a screen and bricks a house, then Ray Allen goes baseline for two. 45-39, Boston. I think everyone is waiting for Rondo to come in from the locker room.

• As Ray Allen drives for two more, cutting it to 47-43, an NBA PR person comes by and gives everyone a printout of David Stern's comments from before the game about Tim Donaghy. And we see a shot of Rondo running circles around Michelle Tafoya in the tunnel. Guess he's ready to return.

• Trevor Ariza checks in and nails a long jumper, which is probably bad for LA — don't want him thinking he's become Reggie Miller.

• Eddie House drills a three and makes it 49-47. Good possession by Boston, who missed a three and then got the board. Then Gasol got stripped, Boston tied it up, then KG hit a baseline J to give Boston the lead. Jemele points out Pierce has 4, Perkins has 4, Rondo is out…and Boston is still ahead 51-49. How much more help can Boston give the Lakers?

• Ray Allen off a screen, bang! Boston goes ahead 54-50. Scoreboard celeb watch goes: Byron Allen! Hilary Duff! Flea! Hugh Hefner! Steven Spielberg! Dustin Hoffman! Sly Stallone! Eddie Murphy! Jack Nicholson! As far as I'm concerned, the celebrities began and ended with Byron Allen.

• Lamar hooks in a three to go ahead 54-52.

• Perk is a beast! He rattles in a hook. 56-52, Boston. 3:14 to go. Ariza lays one in in transition to make it a 56-54 game. KG and House run a two man game, and KG dribbles twice left-handed then rips a long two. Then Lamar scores. The floodgates are open. Then Ray Allen gets fouled on a three by Kobe.

• Konate texted Khalid about Ray Allen's shoes. We noticed them in the locker room pregame and couldn't quite make out what they were — some Jordan special makeups with SUGAR RAY on the tongues.

• Bston up 61-58m 1:38 to go in the third. KG walks and shoots over a less-effective facsimile of Pau Gasol. Misses. Then Gasol whacks PJ Brown and sends him to the line.

• Gasol finally gets a bucket and cuts it to a 2-point Boston lead. KG nearly completes an amazing tip pass to PJ Brown, but Boston and L.A. trade misses to end the quarter. Boston 62, L.A. 60.

• The computer guys are here. They said something about in five minutes we should be up and running…something about a lower encryption and APs. (Access Points, I discovered.) I'm really getting to know the computer nerds of Boston and L.A. pretty well.

• Here we go. Sasha begins the third with a three to put L.A. ahead. Ray Allen answers from the corner to put Boston back ahead, 65-63. Boston is beginning the quarter with Powe, Posey, House, PJ Brown and Allen. Ugh.

• Pierce checks in and misses a jumper. 9:45 to go, Boston up 2. Lamar tries to go one-on-one with Powe and gets called for a charge. To her credit, Jemele predicted a Lamar charge in the second half. There it was. Powe hits one of two.

• Posey sends Kobe to the line. The fans chant MVP as Kobe bricks a free throw. He hits the second.

• Trying to create, Pierce is called for a charge against Farmar, his fifth foul, with 8:56 left in the game. What will happen first, Pierce fouls out or we get internet access.

• We get internet access!

• Shouts to the Staples Center internet staff. Now back to the game…

• Boston leads 66-64, with 8:20 left. And Ray Allen just gave Boston their fourth team foul. And Sasha just drained a three to make it a 1 point L.A. lead.

• And Turiaf crushes Posey while trying to be active, who makes two free throws to put Boston back ahead. Posey then makes an amazing rebound from his knees on the other end. Boston goes to KG who ends up having to fire one up at the shot clock buzzer and missing.

• Paul Pierce checks in with his five fouls in tow, 7:09 to play. Kobe gets all day to look at a three from up top and he drills it. Boston throws a sloppy alley-oop to KG who can't do anything with it. Then Rondo fouls Fisher, the fifth team foul on Boston. Fisher to the line, 6:27 to play, and he makes both. L.A. leads 71-68.

• Pierce turns it over, then Kobe kinda gets bailed out on a call. Rondo tries to take credit for it and gets the foul, saving Pierce. Kobe hits one, two. L.A. is up 73-68, 5:58 to play. This is the loudest the crowd has been all night. Ray Allen misses a three over a triple-team, but Rajon gets the board and hits the easy jumper.

• Gasol gets a tip-in, seems like his first bucket of the night. Boston rushes a three from Allen that misses.

• L.A. is up 5 with 4:25 left, and Boston looks out of gas.

• OK, here we go. The fans are wired in here. Jack Nicholson is on his feet! Eddie Murphy just gave a ride to a transvestite!

• Pau! 77-70, L.A.

• And after a night of struggles, Paul Pierce just drove and hit a lay-up, and one. But he misses the free throw. 77-72, 3:52 to go.

• A few seconds ago, Doc put PJ Brown in for Kendrick Perkins, which seemed like an odd move, considering PJ can barely move and Perk has been pretty physical. PJ just got caught clinging to Gasol, who makes one of two. 78-72, 3:29 left.

• Pierce jumps into the air and lands with the ball, and Kobe is called on a bail-out call. I'm surprised Donaghy made that call so late.

• Becks is shown on the scoreboard. Really disappointed that Lauren Conrad isn't here. I want celebs! Feel the rain on your skin!

• Pierce to the line, with 3:22 left in the game and Boston trailing 78-72. First shot, good. Second shot, good. 78-74, L.A.

• Gasol against PJ, and Gasol whirls and fires a two-handed shot over the glass and into the 24-second clock. Pau!

• KG takes Gasol and spins around and banks one off the glass. 78-76.

• Sasha misses a J, then Eddie House does as well.

• Sasha drills one from the corner to put L.A. up 81-76. The Celts miss and Gasol beasts his way to the board. Fisher goes to the line and makes two, putting L.A. ahead 83-76 with 1:33 left. I'd say this was over, but we all saw how Game Two ended, right?

• Alen hits KG for an easy 2. 83-78, with 1:25 left. No fouling. Kobe takes Ray Allen, shakes him, waits for him to get up and hits over him. Then House hits a three ball. 85-81, :53 seconds left.

• Kobe runs the clock down and gets two with 38 seconds left. Kobe Bryant is The Closer!

• Offensive foul on KG, with 21.1 left. OK, this game is dunzo…although Lamar just punctuated it with an extra offensive foul, which was fun.

L.A. wins, 87-81.

The rest is still unwritten.

by Lang Whitaker

OK, so I'm in L.A., and right off the bat we have a bad omen: Checked into the hotel, sat down to check email and the internet connection went out after about 10 minutes. This after the internet went out at our hotel in Boston, and after the internet got about as much burn as Eddie House during Games One and Two at the FleetCenterNorthGardenBank. I would think that perhaps this was my fault, that I'd done something wrong or that my laptop was running Operation Shutdown, but Ben was having the same issues in Boston on his computer. So maybe it's the NBA's fault, or Kobe's fault. I don't know, I'm just looking to assign blame here. Obviously.

Whatever. I'm in L.A. and it's wonderful out here, about 65 degrees, and considering I was in the pressure cooker in the northeast the last week, this feels like heaven. No more complaining from me. At least until Khalid gets here.

(Just called down to the front desk and in my nicest voice said, Hi, just wondering if there was something wrong with the internet? The woman said, "Yes, we have been having problems with the internet. It will be up. Give us…um, 15 minutes." Their clock is ticking. The best part is that I'm in the official NBA hotel for the Finals, and guaran-damn-tee that if the internet's down in the temporary NBA offices downstairs there's going to be some heads rolling.)

And suddenly, the internet is back. But are the Lakers? The thing that struck me most about Games One and Two, but particularly Game Two, was the way the Celts just bullied the Lakers around. Sure, Boston got every call imaginable in Game Two, but LA didn't seem to have much fire in their bellies, especially when it came time to rebound the rock. Garnett and Perkins were moving bodies inside, and Lamar and Gasol didn't do much more than watch admiringly. The Lakers might not have gotten any calls in Game Two, and I understand how that could make them feel like packing it in, but that doesn't mean they should pack it in, which is exactly what they did.

And regarding Paul Pierce's knee injury, I think I know what's up. Saturday afternoon I was sitting on the couch watching Euro 2008, and I bit into a pretzel and immediately felt a searing pain from one of my teeth down into my jaw. It hurt so bad that I immediately started thinking about calling a dentist or oral surgeon or something, because I knew I'd need to get patched up fast to get back on the road for the Finals. Then, just as quickly as the pain hit me, it started fading away, eventually leaving entirely. I was suspicious, however, so I sipped some water, swished it around, even poked the offending tooth a few times. Finally, the pain left completely. Maybe ten minutes later, I tried another pretzel, gingerly, and survived. That night we went out to dinner and I was careful with the tooth, but had no further problems. That's what happened to Paul Pierce's knee. Except a little bit different.

OK, Khalid just landed, so I better pack this up because I need to short-sheet his bed and put saran wrap over the toilet.

I'll be back here on SLAMonline tonight to liveblog Game 3 from the Stapler. Later…

by Lang Whitaker

Tonight we finally get back on the floor, and the two best teams in the NBA will square off in Game Two of the Finals up in Boston. Ben and I will be in the heazy as well.

In the downtime between the two games, I've been thinking a lot about Paul Pierce's Game One performance, and there's one thing that's been bothering me: I have seen written dozens of times that Paul Pierce heard his knee pop.

But I don't think he ever said that.

In the postgame press conference immediately after the game, Pierce said, "When I came down I thought I felt a pop, I thought I tore it. I couldn't move." So he didn't actually "hear" a pop, he just "felt" a pop? I can't tell for certain what he said which time, because this ESPN.com story twists around another quote and makes it sound as though he did actually hear an audible pop.

Then again, maybe none of this makes any difference, because he faked the whole thing anyway.

Kidding!

To prepare for tonight's live blog, I'm trying to figure out what to expect. Here's a few quick predictions…

Doc Rivers will pretend to sprain his knee, be carried off the court screaming and crying, placed in a wheelchair, and then will make a miraculous recovery and return to coach the C's to a victory.

Kobe will become upset with his inability to make jumpers and will pour a gallon of clam chow-dah over Bennett Salvatore's head.

Kobe will become upset with his teamates and punch all of them in the face.

Ray Allen will show emotion on the court.

Sam Cassell will record an assist.

Cameras will capture Glen Davis shucking oysters on the end of the bench.

Tony Allen will check into the game and lose his mind on national TV.

And now it's your turn. What do you expect to see happen tonight? Leave us some comments and let us know.

Have fun with that. In the meantime, I've got to get to Boston for the game. See you guys back here tonight for the Liveblog.

Lang and I are back in our respective NY/NJ homes for the day, and Mutoni is doing whatever he does on weekends, but I figured you guys could use a little recap of the day's Finals news…

Here's what's going down as everyone thinks back on a great Game 1 while wondering why there are two days off in Boston, then one day off to fly across the country, then two days off next weekend in L.A., then one day off to fly across the country.

My local paper, the Star-Ledger, checks in with NJ's own Andrew Bynum.

"Gino?" He's dead.

The 8,000 hours between Games 1+2 is having the predictably positive effect on Paul Pierce and Kendrick Perkins.

Our man Scoop Jackson, who has been great to catch up with these last few days, did a Pierce feature he was working on before all the heroics.

Phil Jackson: hater or realist?

Kobe continues to insist that the Celtics had little to do with his game one struggles.

That should give you all a nice taste of what's happening with the Finals. I think Lang is posting something today, too, though it might be tough after I just stole his traditional Links-style post for myself. We will both be back in the building for Game 2…check us out and

by Lang Whitaker

And welcome to Boston, for Game One of the 2008 NBA Finals. That's right, Ben and I are in Beantown. Why they call it that, I have no idea. I thought I'd recognize Boston, considering I recently watched the entire John Adams mini-series on HBO, but nope, nothing. Boston sure has changed a lot in the last 250 years.

Last night back in NYC, I was committed to going to an event with Wifey. Even though I would have much preferred to chill on the couch, with the Finals taking me on the road for the next two weeks, I had to man up, to take one for the team. So off we went to this launch party. We'd been there for about 20 minutes, when suddenly Wifey said, Who is that guy? I turned and saw a rather large man with short blond hair wearing a nice suit come walking in. I looked closely and noticed it was Tito Ortiz. And right behind him was Jenna Jameson. Or as I told Wifey, I have no idea who that woman is. Only in New York, kids, only in New York.

Ben and I left NYC around noon and got here in Boston by early afternoon. Checked into the hotel and found out that the internet wasn't working. Awesome! Ben and I flipped on the TV. Ben had the Weather Channel on and there were two female weatherpersons on the screen, a black lady and a white lady. And according to the graphic on the screen, the white woman was named Samantha Mohr, and the black lady was named Samantha Mohr Brown. I assume that was a typo. Ben decided to go to the business center to check his email. While he was gone, the wireless internet magically sprang to life and started working in the room. I texted Ben and he came back up and reported that in the business center the internet was working at a crawl and that he'd had to pay $10 using his credit card, then he couldn't receive a receipt. As I pointed out, they definitely gave him the business.

Anyway, we're ready to go for the game tonight. Ben asked me if I wrote a prediction yesterday, and I said I was pretty sure I wrote that I thought the Lakers were winning it. Looking back, I was kind of vague. So here's my pick: Lakers in 5.

I'll be back tonight to live-blog the game. See ya then…