Sometimes I Hate Sportswriters and Love Bloggers (LAL v BOS)

(Photo from Lakers Nation)
We all saw the game (and thank GOD the NFL season is almost over so we get more Jeff Van Gundy commentating ABC games on Sundays). We all saw Kobe take a perfectly defended shot and swish it in with 7.4 seconds left and we all saw Ray Allen's 3 pointer as time expired barely miss to win the game for Boston.

Sooooo this makes Boston too old to contend for a championship? This makes KG lose his fiery intensity? I hate playing the what if game, but you have to think what if Kobe had missed that shot or Ray Allen had hit the 3 pointer at the end?

The sportswriters would be writing about the other half of the game that all the bloggers noticed and wrote about. They'd be writing about how Kobe was taking terrible shots and how he airballed a shot defended by Rasheed Wallace at the exact same spot. How the Lakers didn't take the ball to the rim enough and how the Celtic defense shut them down after that 30 point first quarter to 17, 19 and (what would be) 22 point quarters. How KG was not old and was able to hold Pau Gasol to a 4-9 shooting night and had some nice fakes to get Andrew Bynum out of position, and finally, how the Celtics are still up there in favorites to win the championship.

The Truth?

This game was a toss up. Both teams didn't play to their potential. Ray Allen's shot was off, KG's defense really is not up to his par (including the play where Bynum dunked on him while KG was talking shit to him in his ear). Yes, the Celtics look to have lost a step and will be relying on Rajon Rondo to take them as far as he can go. The Lakers took way too many jumpshots and should have gone to Bynum and Gasol way more often than they did. Kobe took terrible shots. Both teams gave up double digit leads and in the end, it came down to two shots that could have gone either way.

Yes, it was Kobe's 4th or 5th game winner of the season, but that shot was perfectly defended. Ray Allen was open and has made tougher shots than the one he took with Lamar closing out a little late. It truly is a game of inches and if you didn't watch the game and read the sports section of your newspaper, you would not get the true essence of what both teams were about on Sunday.

Thank you internet for bloggers.