Championships are won and lost by great players.
No matter how many times you play out the 2008 NBA Finals between the Lakers and Celtics in your head and break down all the matchups, the fate of the series will be in the hands of Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett.
I've always believed that to win an NBA title, your best player has to be at his absolute best when it matters most. When you review past Finals MVPs, it's going to look like a Hall of Fame induction speech.
Jerry West, Bill Russell, John Havlicek, Willis Reed, Rick Barry, Dave Cowens, Wilt Chamberlain, Wes Unseld, Moses Malone, Bill Walton, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Isiah Thomas, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Hakeem Olajuwon, Michael Jordan, Shaquille O'Neal, Dwyane Wade (just the 2006 version) and Tim Duncan.
With a few exceptions sprinkled in here and there (JoJo White, Cedric Maxwell, Dennis Johnson, Joe Dumars, James Worthy, Tony Parker and Chauncey Billups), most valuable players in the NBA Finals are all great players. Hall of Famers. Superstars. First-team All-NBA guys. Megastars.
The reason why the Celtics won in 1984 was because Bird outplayed Magic. The reason why the Lakers won in 1987 was because Magic outplayed Bird. And the reason why Jordan won all those titles in the 1990s was because he outplayed Magic, Clyde Drexler, Charles Barkley and Karl Malone.
Great players rise to the occasion against the best.
This year's NBA Finals has two of them: Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett. The 2008 NBA MVP and the 2004 MVP. The league's best scorer (sorry LeBron) and the league's best defender.
For the Lakers to win the title, Kobe needs to be at the top of his game. He needs to score, create shots for his teammates, take good shots, play defense and do what he does best...close games. With apologies to Kyra Sedgewick, Kobe Bryant is THE CLOSER. I consider only three players in the league that can just completely dominate a fourth quarter: LeBron James, Dwyane Wade (2006 version) and Kobe.
Like a baseball team stretching its pitching staff to six or even seven innings, the Lakers need to stay close for three quarters to give Kobe a chance to win the game in the final inning. Once the game is in the fourth, the ball will be in the hands of the Black Mamba.
For the Celtics to win, Kevin Garnett needs to be at the top of his game. He needs hit his mid-range shot to pull Pau Gasol and the Lakers big men out of the paint. He needs to score enough inside to force the Lakers defense to compact in the paint. And more importantly, he needs to defend all five Lakers on the court.
Like a football team playing man defense with one safety deep, the Celtics will jump on the Lakers shooters and force them to put the ball on the floor. This means KG needs to clean up all the mess his teammates will make on the court. Garnett is the most complete defender in the league. He can cover his post, blitz pick and rolls and jump at shooters. He's also the quarterback of the defense and his assignment is to keep the Lakers from getting easy shots.
Kobe vs. KG. The Black Mamba vs. the Big Ticket. May the best man win.
Keywords: Celtics, Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, Lakers
