Celtics in Seven

Right now, the Lakers are up by two in Game 1 of the NBA championship. I'm rooting for the Celtics--mostly because I've always liked Kevin Garnett.

I also think the Celtics are going to win in seven.

From my point of view, the Celtics look like a better team. The final isn't going to be about Kobe Bryant or Kevin Garnett. Bryant is the best player in the world, but he's not so much better than Paul Pierce that'll he'll be able to carry the Lakers all by himself. The same with Garnett in relation to Pau Gasol.

For the Celtics, it gets down to whether Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen are going to play winning basketball from the guard slots.

For the Laker, the x-factor is Lamar Odom.

The way I see it is that Rondo is going to be able to trigger Boston's offense in a way that more than offsets Odom.

That what makes it Boston.

Update. Boston won 98-88 and they did it by gaining a lot of little edges. Koby Bryant had an off night and only outscored Paul Pierce by 2. That was more than balanced off by Kevin Garnett outscoring Pau Gasol by 9 and Ray Allen getting 17. My key guy, Rajon Rondo, was . . . well, key. Turning the Big Three into a Big Four, Rondo had 15 points, 5 rebounds, and 7 assists with only 2 turnovers. Tubby probably could have made better use of him at UK.