Image via WikipediaAfter winning the last two championships, the Lakers have been casting about for inspiration all season. West gave it to them -- prove me wrong, he was saying -- and he did so as the Celtics were on their way to Los Angeles for the first rematch since Game 7 last June.
It's hard to define the importance of regular-season meetings among title contenders. "Once they get between the lines, the outcome of that game makes all the difference in the world to those players," an NBA advance scout said this week, looking ahead to Boston's visit to L.A. on Sunday afternoon. "But two nights later, if the Lakers are playing Minnesota or whoever, they're realizing that game means as much in the standings as the game against the Celtics."
The Lakers and Celtics have met in the Finals five times since 1984, and the outcomes of their regular-season meetings haven't always been helpful:
2009-10: Split regular-season series, L.A. won Finals 4-3
2007-08: Boston swept 2-0, Boston won Finals 4-2
1986-87: L.A. swept 2-0, L.A. won Finals 4-2
1984-85: Split series, L.A. won Finals 4-2
1983-84: L.A. swept 2-0, Boston won Finals 4-3
In the NBA's most important rivalry, each team is most concerned by its own prospects. The Celtics are beginning to work center Kendrick Perkins back into their rotation after losing him to a major knee injury in Game 6 in L.A. They've earned the East's best record despite injuries that have sidelined a half-dozen members of their rotation for at least nine games each. Their focus has been remarkable even as coach Doc Rivers complains of "slippage" in their execution because he has been making do with a different mixture week after week.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/ian_thomsen/01/28/lakers.celtics/
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