The stockings were opened, the turkey was savored, and the eggnog shared. For NBA fans, the gift atop their wish list was unwrapped in Los Angeles late in the afternoon in the form of a nationally televised NBA Finals rematch.

The game that had been circled on every diehard fans’ calendar for months had finally arrived. As the pregame rhetoric and Christmas day media bluster calmed, one question still lay on some fans’ mind: are these Lakers truly a title contender?

To put it another way: is this team for real?

The answer to that asinine debate was found in Los Angeles’ 92-83 win over the defending NBA champions from Boston.

Behind Kobe Bryant’s 27 points, nine rebounds and five assists and Pau Gasol 20 points (including seven in the final three minutes), the Lakers accomplished several tasks greater than another mere late-December victory.

Boston’s leader, Kevin Garnett, shot 11-of-14 en route to 22 points and nine rebounds. Finals MVP (and Public Enemy #1 for Laker fans) Paul Pierce added 20 points and 10 rebounds, but much to the delight of the sold-out Staples Center crowd, did not score in the fourth quarter and strangely was not aggressive in demanding the ball down the stretch as he had been last spring.

The win meant Los Angeles had ended the Celtics’ 19-game winning streak. It signified that they had gained toughness and resolve since being embarrassed so mightily at the end of last spring’s Finals. It showed that they could play playoff-caliber defense. It also meant they moved closer in the race of home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.

While perhaps not providing the resounding affirmation fans were looking for, it was a victory that demands attention and reduces the scrutiny being placed on what is categorically the best team in the Western Conference.

Ultimately, the win answered most of the questions that had loomed over the team for weeks. As is always the case though, these old inquires were merely replaced by new, more relevant ones, though these new questions certainly have a different tone to them.

Instead of asking if the Lakers were over-preparing themselves for the game, we can now ask how it can be that the game means everything for one team and nearly nothing for another?

Instead of using the game as a public vote on the Lakers’ title chances, we can ask how a game that featured the fewest combined losses between the two competitors this late in the season (only seven in total) wasn’t celebrated more for the majestic dominance both teams have shown this year?

Instead of talking about how the Lakers could not afford to lose this game, we can ask ourselves whether a team that enters with a record of 23-5 could possibly have a ‘must-win’ game?

Surely, Boston is still the best team in the league. The manner is which they have steamrolled much of their competition and the professionalism they have conducted themselves with as defending champs has them a notch above Los Angeles and Cleveland as the class of the NBA. They are the first team since Jordan’s Bulls that is actively embracing the idea of defending its title, and they are not the least bit complacent or self-satisfied as some feared they might be.

The loss to the Lakers says less about Boston then than it does Los Angeles. The Lakers were looking to put the embarrassment of Game 6 from June behind them, and having been given the gift of hosting the first rematch since on their home court, they could not afford to miss the opportunity to validate their offseason progress.

It was as big and as important for both teams as any single regular season game in the can be. For Boston, a win would have cemented their utter dominance over the league as a whole and secured a sense of self-doubt in the minds of the Lakers. They fell just short of that mark but nonetheless showed that, even on an ‘off’ night, this team can nearly will itself to victory when it has to.

For Los Angeles, a win would quiet the mindless questions that had arisen over the last three weeks about their lack of toughness and their unwillingness to commit meaningfully to defense. In securing win 24 of this season, they did what most thought they wouldn’t: they drove for loose balls, they dominated the interior, they forced turnovers, and they won a low-scoring game. They used aggressive trapping in the halfcourt and denying the easy looks that had defined their defense in the Finals.

The game came down to the final three minutes, as it was tied 81-81 with 2:48 remaining. It was at that point that LA showed the mettle it will take for them to return to the Finals: a jumper by Gasol, a defensive stop, a perfect set-up from Bryant for a Gasol running hook, and block on Ray Allen.

After the clock ran out, the Lakers had the win and Phil Jackson had another distinction to add to his legend as the sixth coach in NBA history to win 1,000 career games and the fastest to do so

It should again be said that the Celtics did not alter any notions that they are the game’s elite team. They played a mediocre offensive game and hung with LA until the end. Their superiority is clear. This game was about the Lakers and proving that they have had progressed since last June.

A loss would not have ended their season. It would not have meant it was time for the team panic. But rest assured that sportswriters and ‘sky-is-falling’ media types across the country would have viewed it as in the sensational and comically grim way they always do. At the very least, it spared us as fans from that.

The Lakers had been waiting for this game. It was their opportunity. Now, opportunity realized, they must continue to build so to take this Christmas gift and give us all the present we really want: a Finals rematch.

Photo Credit: ICON Sports Media

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