11. 2008 – Boston Celtics over Los Angeles Lakers (4-2)
The prequel to the 2010 NBA Finals win for the Lakers, but I don’t think L.A. goes back to back in 2009 and 2010 without taking this haymaker from Boston in 2008.
Both teams had a lot of key new players in the 2007-08 season. Boston of course put together their “Big 3” of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen, and the Lakers were gifted Pau Gasol mid-season from Memphis for his less talented brother and the small-handed Kwame Brown. Doing my best to not get derailed and go off about that horrible deal.
For all the new faces, the difference in this series was that Boston was just tougher, specifically tougher than Pau Gasol who got his lunch eaten by Garnett seemingly every game. The Lakers needed more from Gasol with Andrew Bynum out for the series, but he couldn’t give it to them. Gasol got his revenge and turned the tables on Garnett by being more physical in that 2010 series, but I truly think he needed this to happen to him in 2008 to get to that level.
Kobe was also pretty erratic. If you want to watch one of the greatest Kobe games ever, watch Game 3. But if you’re getting swept up in the nostalgia then be sure to not watch Game 4, because it’s one of the worst Kobe games ever. He just wasn’t consistently good enough throughout the series to give them a chance.
The series ends anti-climatically in Game 6 with Boston putting L.A. away before the end of the first half, but this series is still interesting all the way through. Games 1-5 are all pretty close and Games 3-5 is one of the most interesting 3-game stretches that you’ll find on this list.
And oh yeah, Game 1 is the scene for Paul Pierce’s famous…accident. Google it.