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2008 NBA Finals

The 2008 NBA Finals was the championship series of the 2007–08 NBA season, and the conclusion of the season's playoffs. The Boston Celtics, top-seeded champions of the Eastern Conference, defeated the Los Angeles Lakers, top-seeded champions of the Western Conference, four games to two in a best-of-seven series. This was Boston's first title since 1986 and 17th overall.

2008 marked the first time since 2000 that the top seeds from both conferences met in the Finals and the first time since 2003 that any top seeded team played in the NBA finals. The Lakers appeared in the Finals for the first time since 2004 and a record 29th time overall. The Celtics appeared in the Finals for the first time since 1987 and second-best 20th time overall.

Going into the series, the Celtics had won the most championships all-time with 16, and the Lakers were second with 14. The two clubs, the most successful teams in NBA history, looked to renew a longstanding rivalry 21 years after their last Finals meeting in 1987. They narrowly missed meeting each other in 2002, when the Lakers advanced to the Finals, but the Celtics, who led 2-1 in the Conference Finals, eventually fell to the more favoured New Jersey Nets 4-2. This was the 11th time the teams met in the championship round; the Celtics won eight of their previous Finals meetings, which occurred in 1959, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969 and 1984.

The Celtics' 66–16 record gave them home court advantage over Los Angeles (57–25). This was the first time since 1997, when the Chicago Bulls beat the Utah Jazz for the championship, that an Eastern Conference team had the home court advantage and the first Finals since 1998 not to feature either Tim Duncan or Shaquille O'Neal.

Road to the finals

Los Angeles Lakers
57–25 (.695) 1st Pacific, 1st West, 3rd overall	Regular season	66–16 (.805) 1st Atlantic, 1st East, 1st overall
Defeated the (8) Denver Nuggets, 4–0	First Round	Defeated the (8) Atlanta Hawks, 4–3
Defeated the (4) Utah Jazz, 4–2	Conference Semifinals	Defeated the (4) Cleveland Cavaliers, 4–3
Defeated the (3) San Antonio Spurs, 4–1	Conference Finals	Defeated the (2) Detroit Pistons, 4–2

Regular season series

The Boston Celtics won both games in the regular season series:

Series scoring summary

Game	Date	Home team	Score	Road team	Score
1	June 5	Boston Celtics	98	Los Angeles Lakers	88
2	June 8	Boston Celtics	108	Los Angeles Lakers	102
3	June 10	Los Angeles Lakers	87	Boston Celtics	81
4	June 12	Los Angeles Lakers	91	Boston Celtics	97
5	June 15	Los Angeles Lakers	103	Boston Celtics	98
6	June 17	Boston Celtics	131	Los Angeles Lakers	92

Boston beats L.A. Lakers 4-2

Game summaries

All times listed below are Eastern Daylight Time. Games marked with an asterisk (*) are if necessary.

Game 1

Paul Pierce scored 15 points in the third quarter to give Boston the lead for good, and Kevin Garnett paced the Celtic attack with 24 points and 13 rebounds including a powerful two-handed putback dunk late in the game. Kobe Bryant struggled with his shooting touch, finishing 9–26 from the field with 24 points.

Pierce injured his knee by falling awkwardly on Kendrick Perkins' leg. Pierce was carried off the court and placed in a wheelchair. After realizing his injury was not as serious as had been feared, Pierce returned to raucous cheering from the crowd. He soon hit two three-pointers on consecutive offensive possessions and finished with 22 points.

The Lakers, who had had home court advantage throughout the first three rounds and had not trailed a series in that same time, now had to do without both luxuries for the first time.

Game 2

The Lakers jumped out to an early 15–8 first quarter lead, but the Celtics answered with a 10 – 0 run at the start of the second quarter and ended the first half with a 54–42 lead.

The Celtics held a 24-point lead with less than eight minutes to go in the 4th quarter before the Lakers cut the lead to two points with 38.4 seconds to go. Paul Pierce and James Posey then closed out the game with two free throws each. The Lakers had a chance to cut into Boston's four point lead with 14 seconds left, but the ball failed to get into the hands of Kobe Bryant, resulting in a shot by Saša Vujačić that was blocked by Pierce. Bryant finished the game with 30 points and 8 assists.

Leon Powe, a second year bench player, scored 21 points on 6–7 shooting in 15 minutes of play, including back-to-back dunks in the last minute of the 3rd quarter.

Despite injuries suffered by Pierce (sprained knee) and Kendrick Perkins (high ankle sprain), both players started in Game 2 and appeared to be unhampered by the injuries, especially Pierce who finished with 28 points.

Boston finished the game 27-for-38 from the line, while the Lakers were 10-for-10. Some analysts viewed this as favorable treatment toward the Celtics, while others noted that a difference in playing styles may have lead to the discrepancy, and that the actual foul discrepancy was only 28–21 in favor of Boston.

Game 3

The Lakers won game 3 on a strong shooting night from regular season MVP Kobe Bryant, who scored a series-high 36 points, leading the Lakers to their first series win and adding to their undefeated streak at home in the 2008 post-season. Saša Vujačić matched Leon Powe's performance in Game 2, scoring 21 points in 28 minutes, Paul Pierce had a poor shooting game, making only two of his 14 field goal attempts. Kevin Garnett also had trouble shooting, finishing with only 12 points. Ray Allen was the only member of Boston's Big Three that did well, with 25 points.

Game 4

The Lakers jumped out to a 35–14 lead after the first quarter, which was the largest first-quarter lead in NBA Finals history. The Lakers held their ground for most of the third quarter, leading by as many as 24 points. However, the Celtics went on a 21–3 run to end the third quarter, closing the deficit to only two points (73–71). With 4:07 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Celtics took their first lead in the game when Celtics' reserve Eddie House made an jumper. With House's shot, the Celtics were in the lead for good. The Celtics' victory in Game 4 was the largest comeback in the NBA Finals since 1971. Kobe Bryant had 17 points (6 of 19 from the field), 14 of those coming in the second half. The Celtics bench outscored the Lakers bench 35–15. Kevin Garnett finished with 16 points.

No NBA team has ever come back from a 3-1 deficit to win the Finals (although eight teams have done so in earlier playoff rounds).

Game 5

As in Game 4, the Lakers jumped out to an early lead, leading 43–24 with 11 minutes to play in the second quarter. And as in Game 4, the Celtics came back, taking a 62–60 lead behind the strong play of Paul Pierce.

The Lakers finally regained their composure, outscoring Boston 24–18 in the 3rd quarter. In previous games, the Lakers were outscored by Boston in the 3rd quarter (22–31 in Game 1, 19–29 in Game 2, 17–25 in Game 3, and 15–31 in Game 4) by a total of 43 points (73–116).

The Lakers built a 14-point lead in the 4th quarter, but the Celtics again came back with a 16–2 run to tie the game at 90. With less than one minute left in the game, the Celtics had the ball with the Lakers leading 97–95. Pierce beat Bryant off the drive, but Bryant knocked the ball out of Pierce's hands from behind. Lamar Odom picked up the loose ball and passed downcourt to Bryant for a breakaway dunk, giving the Lakers a 99–95 lead. The Lakers went on to win 103–98, pushing the series to six games.

Kobe Bryant shot 8 of 21 from the floor for 25 points, to go with five steals. Gasol contributed 19 points, 6 assists, and 13 rebounds. Several of his rebounds were big plays that kept Lakers possessions alive.

As for the odds stacked against the Lakers to come back from a 3–1 deficit, Jackson said, "We're young enough and dumb enough to do this.

Game 6

After a rocky first quarter, the Celtics dominated the rest of the game. Maintaining a lead of more than 25 points, the Celtics' Big Three performed phenomenally, while the whole team smothered the Lakers' offense with their tight defense, which included 18 steals. Though they built up a large lead by the second half, Celtics coach Doc Rivers did not rest his best players until the fourth quarter. The Lakers reduced the point spread to 39 points by the final buzzer. This lead was close to the Finals point-spread record set in Game 3 of the 1998 NBA Finals where a Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls team beat the Utah Jazz by 42 points, 96–54.

Boston dominated in numerous statistical categories, including rebounds (48–29, with a 14–2 disparity in offensive boards), turnovers (7–19), steals (18–4), assists (33–16) and blocks (4–0).

The Celtics demolished the Lakers, 131–92, the 39-point margin being the largest in a championship game, breaking the old record, set by the Washington Bullets over the Seattle SuperSonics, of 35 in Game Six of the 1978 NBA Finals, 117–82. They also improved their overall record against the Lakers to 9-2 in Finals meetings, beating them in the Finals for the first time since 1984. Celtics guard Ray Allen tied a Finals record with seven three-point field goals, while the Celtics also set a Finals record with 18 steals. This was the Celtics' 17th championship, their first since 1986, extending their record for most NBA championships won by a single team. All this capped off the Celtics' best regular season (66-16) since their previous championship season in which they went 67-15. The record also surpassed the Memorial Day Massacre of 1985 in which Boston beat the Lakers by 34, 148-114, in Game 1 of that series, for the largest margin of victory in a Celtics-Lakers finals game.

Awards

2008 NBA Champion: Boston Celtics
Finals MVP: Paul Pierce

Rosters

{| class="toccolours" style="font-size: 95%; width: 100%; " |- ! colspan="2" style="background-color: #6137ad; color: #ffcd35; text-align: center;" | 2008 Los Angeles Lakers Finals roster |- style="background-color: #ffcd35;color: #6137ad; text-align: center;" ! Players !! Coaches |- | valign="top" | {| class="sortable" style="background:transparent; margin:0px; width:100%;" ! Pos. !! # !! Nat. !! Name !! Ht. !! Wt. !! From |-

{| class="toccolours" style="font-size: 95%; width: 100%; " |- ! colspan="2" style="background-color: #008040; color: white; text-align: center;" | 2008 Boston Celtics Finals roster |- style="background-color: #efe196;color: #008040; text-align: center;" ! Players !! Coaches |- | valign="top" | {| class="sortable" style="background:transparent; margin:0px; width:100%;" ! Pos. !! # !! Nat. !! Name !! Ht. !! Wt. !! From |-