L A LAKERS WIN NBA CHAMPIONSHIP 2010 – V

Lakers edge Celtics in Game 7, win 16th title

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Lakers beat Celtics to claim NBA champion

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/video/2010-06/18/c_13357141.htm

BEIJING, June 18 (Xinhuanet) — The seventh and last game of the NBA final between LA Lakers and Boston Celtics is the first Game 7 in the finals since 2005. Previously in the NBA history, Lakers and Celtics met four times in Game 7 of the finals and LA won none. See if they can achieve this time.

Both teams were very tight in their early performance with rather low percentage of shots. Rasheed Wallace was facing Paul Carsol and had very good judgement and timing for interuption of the LA attack. On the other end, the Lakers maintained their effort and advantage in rebounds.

Kobe Bryant clearly intended to save something for later as he didn’t make one shooting attempt until five minutes into the game. An extremely fierce competition saw quite many confrontations and fouls. Boston continued their accuracy at the free throw line to have 9 for 9 by half time, while LA was only throwing in 50 percent. Celtics lead 40-34 by half time.

Kobe finally gained a two-point shot 4 minutes in to the 3rd, to cut the deficit back to within ten points. Shooting rate gradually rose on court for both sides. A thourough comback was difficult in the 3rd quarter for LA. They only shrinked the deficit to four points with the effort from Odom in the 11th minute. 57-53.

Averaging 29.5 in the last 6 games, Kobe only made 5 for 12 to score 13 points by the 4th. Casol’s shot closed in for 57-55, while Pierce felt the pressure to shoot more points.

5 minutes into the 4th, Artest had a crucial 2 plus 1 to catch up with Boston for 61-all, the first draw since 1st quarter. Lakers finally come back 8 minutes into the 4th, with Bryant’s free throws followed by his own jumper.

The Boston guns fired weakly while the Celtics send more free throws to Lakers.

Ron Artest Makes Lakers’ NBA Championship More Fun – The Daily Fix – WSJ

http://blogs.wsj.com/dailyfix/2010/06/18/lakers-title-more-fun-with-artest/

Right up until it became awesome, Game Seven of the NBA Finals was a pretty lousy basketball game. But a game previously defined by back-rimmed jumpers, missed free-throws, and loose-ball fouls became a bona fide thriller in its final minutes as the Los Angeles Lakers held on to hold off the Celtics and win a second straight NBA championship. “There have been a lot of classic NBA Finals games played between the Celtics and Lakers,” the Boston Globe’s Christopher Gasper writes. “Last night wasn’t one of them.” But while it wasn’t pretty, by the time an ecstatic Ron Artest delivered an on-camera shout-out to his psychiatrist before plugging his upcoming hip-hop single, this ungainly Game Seven had become something nearly beautiful.

Can we talk about Ron Artest for a moment? Kobe Bryant won NBA Finals MVP honors and deserved them. But Artest played tough defense, hit a clutch late-game three, and nailed down the Daily Fix’s coveted Most Interesting Laker award by continuing to add some unpredictability to a team otherwise defined by the glossy corporate Zen of head coach Phil Jackson. That great interview merely sealed it. “This was Ron Artest unplugged, the last honest man in sports,” Yahoo’s Johnny Ludden writes. “Has the NBA ever produced a less likely champion – and a more deserving one?” In the Los Angeles Daily News, Phil Collin notes Artest’s unlikely emergence as a Lakers team leader.

The sneakily dramatic Game Seven was a fitting capper for what wound up being both an exciting and unusually interesting NBA Finals. For Bryant, who won his fifth championship ring, it was a happy ending to what could’ve been remembered as one of the worst games of his career. Bryant was brutal from the floor, shooting 6-for-24, but made up for it with a monster rebounding night and some clutch free throws. “The game’s best closer, the guy with so many buzzer-beating jumpers, the Laker with the greatest sense for the dramatic, put this one away in the fourth quarter by hitting 8 of 9 15-foot set shots,” the Orange County Register’s Jeff Miller writes. “Black Mamba nothing. This was more ‘White Shadow.’”

Precisely because it was such an ugly slog, Game Seven should’ve belonged to Boston, the Boston Globe’s Bob Ryan argues. But the loss would be even less pleasant in the memory for Celtics fans if it wound up being the last game together for Boston’s big three (Paul Pierece, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen) and coach Doc Rivers. The Fix advises fans to look on the bright side: at least Ron Artest has a new single coming out.

YouTube – Ron Artest 2010 Finals Game 7 Press Conference

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyGqu9nAsE4

YouTube – Ron Artest Game 7 Post-Game Interview 2010 NBA Finals

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRkLp3ixrzQ

June 17, 2010 — Ron Artest with Dorris Burke Post Game Interview Game 7

Lakers Win 2010. Talks about Psychiatrist and new Single called “Champions”