Chase's Notorious NBA Blog Vol 11 Ft. Game 1 Analysis | the guru's scrolls

Last night the leagues most storied franchise kicked off their 11th meeting for the game's biggest trophy and boy it was one for the ages. Let's begin.

The pre-game festivities were fairly interesting, but were also vere long. The national anthem was good, but did the bench players really need to be introduced(i mean the starting lineups were 15 minutes long at the least), and after the lineups ABC cut to their welcome to the Finals montage which got me in the mood for some basketball. And then came the tip-off and the last games of the season were underway.

In the first half there was a lot of feeling out between the teams and Kobe had a suprisingly sublime opening frame, but Derek Fisher was scoring at will, scoring 13 points in the first half and finishing with 15 on the game. Kevin Garnett was having a great first Finals game, and ended up scoring 24 points. And the Lakers appeared to be stealing a road win going into halftime, as they were up 51-46 at half.

Halftime was fairly interesting as they showed clips from the old Celtics-Laker finals to inform young fans(like me) about this great rivalry.

Then came one of the greatest quarters in Finals history. The Lakers held the lead for all of the quarter and with 6:49 left in the third quarter, the series looked like it was going to take a turn for the worst for the Beantown Ballers as their captain, Paul Pierce went down with what looked like a serious knee injury. His teammates had to carry him off and put him on a wheelchair to get back to the dressing room. The Garden was very quiet for the time Pierce was in the room, thinking that the dream was over. Then in the greatest Boston miracle since Flutie's Hail Mary against Miami, Paul Pierce came walking, not limping, out of the dressing room and went to the scorers table to check in. Phil Jackson then took a timeout, which was a very good timeout since the Garden was rocking and the Beat LA chants were getting a lot louder. Pierce then continued to pick up were he left off, ending up scoring 15 points in the third quarter, three more than a healthy Kobe Bryant. The Celtics went in to the fourth quarter holding a 77-73 lead in what was shaping up to be a great fourth quarter.

The final frame did not live up to my expectations as the Lakers, seemingly affected by the crowd, came out flat and pretty much conceded defeat. The highlight of the quarter was when the Lakers were up by five and KG(coming off 9 straight missed shots) put back a Posey miss with authority, pretty much ending the game.

Game 2 is on Sunday

I will have a preview out tomorrow.