NBA Finals: Something to prove

The Los Angeles Lakers will win the 2010 NBA Finals.

Or, maybe the Boston Celtics will.

Either way, you’ve seen this story before.

Another NBA championship will be No. 18 for Boston or No. 16 for Los Angeles. The two franchises already account for more than half of the Larry O’Brien trophies ever handed out.

The two teams have boasted no shortage of superstars in their storied histories. There hasn’t been much love lost, either.

The rivalry began in the 1960s, but it wasn’t much of a rivalry in the beginning. Boston won eight-straight championships and 11 titles in 13 seasons through 1969. For seven of those championships, it was the L.A. Lakers that Boston bested in the finals.

Jerry West is the man forever immortalized in the NBA’s logo, but even he couldn’t keep Boston and Bill Russell from dominating the league and the rivalry in those early years.

In the 1980s, it was all about Larry Bird and Earvin “Magic” Johnson. The two teams won eight of the decade’s championship titles and Bird and Magic combined for five Finals MVP Awards.

Magic and the Lakers came out on top in the head-to-head finals meetings, winning in six games both in 1985 and ’87 against the Celtics. At the time, Lakers/Celtics was the biggest rivalry in sports. Some argue it still is.

So from now on, until this season’s champion is crowned, be ready for a slew of historic montages and Auto-Tuned commercials of legends past hyping up this year’s rendition in the latest round of a truly historic rivalry.

When the teams met in the 2008 Finals, an injury-plagued Lakers team was manhandled by Boston in six games as the Celtics won their first title since 1986. The Lakers were lucky to even be in the finals that season, whereas the Celtics were expecting nothing short of a title after acquiring The Big Three in the previous offseason.

Plans for a Boston repeat were cut short when Kevin Garnett went down with an injury and missed the 2009 playoffs. As a result, the Orlando Magic emerged from the Eastern Conference only to be beaten by the Lakers in five games.

And that sets us up for this season, where the NBA’s two previous champions each have something to prove.

The Lakers are out to prove their 2008 Finals loss was a fluke, they aren’t a “soft” team and they’re still the NBA’s best. A fifth title for Kobe Bryant and 11th for head coach Phil Jackson would only further cement them as two of the greatest ever involved with the game.

Boston has plenty to fight for, as well. The Celtics tasted championship glory in ’08 and more than anything want to reassert themselves as the league’s best team. A championship run this season would help the argument that the Lakers “stole” the title last year and injuries alone prevented the Celtics from winning three-straight championships.

Overall, the two teams look pretty similar to the ones that took the court against each other in ’08, but the small differences will be key.

The Lakers traded Trevor Ariza for Ron Artest, whose best defensive effort will be necessary to keep Boston’s scoring low.

Lamar Odom was forced into a starting spot in ’08 with Andrew Bynum sidelined with an injury. With Odom now coming off the bench, Los Angeles’ depth is that much better.

Rajon Rondo was a Boston starter in ’08, but he was living under the shadow of The Big Three at the time. If Rondo continues to play at the level he has been this postseason, he should be a shoe-in for Finals MVP if the Celtics win.

If they don’t win, Bryant will likely win his second-straight Finals MVP and add fuel to the fire in the Bryant vs. Michael Jordan debate.

Either way, an NBA giant will walk away with another championship when it’s all said and done as the little guys watch on their plasma screens back home.

LeBron James and Steve Nash will continue to be the best active players without a title and, at the rate the Lakers and Celtics are going, who knows when another team will finally get good enough to challenge for a ring of their own?