Is “Miraculous” Too Strong?

By Gary Ceder
Love of Sports Correspondent

If you don’t follow the NBA, shame on you. You missed one of the more miraculous comebacks in NBA Finals history Thursday night.

The Celtics’ 97-91 win over the Lakers in Game 4 of the NBA Finals was incredible indeed.

I tend not to want to make use of the word “miraculous” lightly. “Miraculous,” after all, is a word that carries a fairly substantial amount of weight. Yet, I’d put Game 4 in that category for the manner in which it played out.

First of all, many NBA analysts and experts practically handed Kobe Bryant the Larry O’Brien trophy before the Finals started. Not many people gave the Celtics much of a chance. The Lakers were supposed to have the best player (Kobe), the better offense (Kobe, Gasol, Odom) and the better bench (Vujacic, Farmar, Turiaf and others).

However, somewhere along the line they forgot that defense wins championships. So, how did the Celtics win in Game 4, anyway? Sure, their players sank a few timely shots, but it was their shut-down, team-oriented help defense in the second half that paved the comeback.

At the end of first quarter, the Lakers led by 21 POINTS! Even in today’s NBA, when anything can and does happen fairly quickly, a 21-point lead ought to be virtually insurmountable when pitting the two teams with the best regular season records against one another.

According to Elias Sports Bureau, no team had ever overcome more than a 15-point deficit after the first quarter, and it was the largest comeback in the Finals since 1971. To look at it another way, the Celtics’ 18-point halftime deficit was the second-biggest overcome in Finals history. Only the Baltimore Bullets in 1948 overcame a greater one – a 21-point deficit when facing the Philadelphia Warriors.

Neither statistic above, though, might be as telling as the following two:

--The Celtics trailed by as much as 24 points in the first half and 20 points in the third quarter.
--It was not until 4:07 remained in the game that the Celtics took their first lead (84-83 on an Eddie House jumper). The game was tied only once also, in the opening minute, 2-2.

However, the Celtics dominated the Lakers in the third quarter the same way they have during every game thus far in this series. In Game 4, the Celtics outscored the Lakers 31-15 in the quarter and trailed by only two points (75-73) heading into the fourth.

Coming out of the lockerroom after halftime, Paul Pierce asked coach Doc Rivers if he could defend against Kobe. I don’t believe Pierce’s thought process was that he’d be able to stop Kobe altogether, but he could certainly neutralize the MVP’s offensive game. Rather than resting on defense and saving his energy for offense, Pierce was up to the challenge and wanted Kobe one-on-one.

Another reason you can call the Celtics’ Game 4 win “miraculous” is that Celtics players have been dropping like flies, with one injury after another. Pierce is still hobbled (albeit very little) by his sprained knee from Game 1. Kendrick Perkins, after spraining his ankle earlier in the series, banged up his left shoulder fairly badly and wasn’t very effective the rest of the game. Rajon Rondo called himself “89.995%” healthy after his Game 3 ankle sprain, and as the game progressed Rivers was giving more and more playing time to Eddie House.

In fact, it may have been Rivers’ decision to go small during stints in the second half with James Posey and House in the game together with Garnett playing center that stretched the floor and opened up shooting lanes for the Celtics’ Big Three. Pierce finished the game with 20 points, Garnett totaled 16 and Allen 19, two of which came on a crucial late-game reverse layup. Why Gasol didn’t help on defense sooner on that play, I’ll never understand.

As much as it shocks me to state it, Rivers has been outcoaching the Lakers’ Phil Jackson up to this point.

By no means am I proclaiming the NBA Finals over. I won’t do that unless the final buzzer sounds.

Yet, I can’t help but wonder when it will happen rather than if, if for no reason other than that the Lakers’ looked emotionally and mentally defeated during the conclusion of Thursday’s game. It’s entirely understandable to be in shock at how poorly your team could play (the Lakers) and how effectively the other team (the Celtics) could within such a short time frame.

In my opinion, a mental block of any kind is very difficult to overcome. Your team might have the more physically talented and athletic players - and the Lakers probably do - but it has to translate onto the court, too. The team whose players are more in gear and in-sync with another more often that not prevail (all other factors aside).

I’m very interested to see how the remainder of this year’s Finals plays out. However, the Celtics’ comeback in Game 4, whether you love or hate them, deserves a spot in our long-term memory.

For that, I give some love today to the Celtics and to the art of the comeback. They are certainly Lovin’ Life today!