Why Yesterday Doesn't Matter

Christmas? No, yesterday Celtics-Lakers tilt.

As Mrs. Save Fitchburg and my buddy Bigs can attest, I was smelling a loss last night. At some point the law of averages win out, and a long winning streak at some point comes to an end. They were on the road on Christmas Day (an absolute travesty. The champs should be home on Xmas, period. The NBA needs to make that a rule). The Lakers are a very good team, and yesterday meant a lot more to them than it did to the Celts.

Want proof of that last one? Well, right after the game, I felt perfectly fine with the loss. When the home team wins and lets streamers go off after a game in December, you know it meant a lot more to them than to the other team.

So good for the Lakers. The national media, which has an unending lust for LA and its, um, ethically challenged leader, has another reason to get all hot and bothered for the Lake Show. Pau Gasol proved he can come up big in the 30th game of the season. Which is nice for him. Five months too late, but nice for him. At least he acted like he had been there before. Or not.

Of course I wanted a win last night. The Celtics have done an amazing job of putting teams in their place early this year (hello, Cleveland, Detroit and Orlando). They are playing as well as they were in the Finals last year, and if Rondo keeps it up, they're better than they were last year. Throw in Ray Allen's improved performance (if you thought he was good last year -- and he was good -- he's extraordinary this year. He plays with a beautiful grace that can not be overstated. He's beautiful to watch right now. Beautiful), and the Celts are going to be just fine.

They've played better games than last night, but they had a number of things going against them last night, and it was tied with 3 minutes left. That was the best punch the Lakers could deliver, and as we learned last spring, they can't make that effort six times in a row. So I'm not sure yesterday matters much, except the Lakers got a chance to (finally) fire off some streamers.