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Garnett To The Rescue

I w as s itting at the loc al pub s ur r ounded by people w ho w er e w atc hing bas ketball but knew nothing about bas ketball. Y ou know the ty pe of people I'm talking about; they make a c omment like "It's a team game Kobe!" and "Why is n't he s hooting mor e thr ees ?" They obv ious ly like to tr y and s ound as if they ar e ex per ts on the game, but c lear ly hav e no c lue. How ev er , ther e ar e moments in bas ketball w hen ev en uneduc ated mor ons s uc h as thes e r ealis e a momentum building play . It w as the f our th quar ter of game 1of the NBA f inals . L.A . w as dow n and looked like they w er e about to s tar t a r un agains t a f r agile Bos ton team. Bos ton w as in pos es s ion and Ray A llen thr ew his 14th bad pas s f or the quar ter . It mis s ed ev er y one and w as about to bounc e bac k ov er half w ay . Ev er y one in the entir e w or ld thought it w as about to be a bac kc our t v iolation, and the Laker s w ould hav e pos es s ion. Ther e w as s omething none of us w er e c ounting on though. Kev in Gar nett. Suc h w as Gar nett's des ir e to r egain pos es s ion, he made a c has e f or the ball. Nobody els e on the c our t w ould hav e c has ed that ball. It's likely that nobody els e on the planet w ould hav e c has ed that ball. Y et the c ompetitiv e f ir e that dr iv es Gar nett to bas ic ally ex plode eac h game kic ked into 7017th gear . He put his head dow n and leaped into the air . For a moment he s eemed to hang ther e w hile ev er y one held their c ollec tiv e br eaths . Gr adually he c aught the ball and liter ally milimetr es f r om the f loor , he hur led the ball bac k ov er half w ay . Mos t of the Laker s w er e c aught by s ur pr is e. Sas ha V ujac ic ( the mos t annoy ing play er in Laker s his tor y ) had ev en headed to the s ideline r eady to inbound the ball. Y et s omehow , s ome w ay ... Bos ton had pos es s ion again. This w as the moment that the Laker s of f ic ally died in game 1. Ev er y one ar ound me had the s ame r eac ton. "How the hell did he do that???" None of us r eally knew . The only thing w e did know , is that Bos ton w anted it mor e. For that one moment def ined the f ir s t tw o games of this s er ies : Bos ton w as hungr ier . Kev in Gar nett has this team s o pumped up, s o intent on w inning and s o des per ate not to los e, it's almos t ins pir ing. The bigges t r ec ipient of this c ompetitiv e f ir e in game 2 w as Leon Pow e. Wher e the hell did HE c ome f r om??? Somehow this Nuggets dis c ar d s hot mor e f r ee thr ow s than the entir e Laker s team. Somehow he w ent c oas t to c oas t and dunked on Gas ol's f ac e. Somehow he he had dunks lef t, r ight and c entr e and w as the s ingle mos t popular man in Bos ton f or a good 21 minutes . He's the guy that appear ed f r om now her e to dominate. Fr ankly , I'm not a Celtic s f an. I des pis e James Pos ey . I des pis e Doc Riv er s . I'm unc er tain if Sam Cas s ell is ev en f r om this galax y . Y et y ou'v e got to admir e them. They 'v e s how n s o f ar that the team w ho w ants it mor e, w ill w in. So the ques tion bec omes , w hat c an the Laker s do? They ar e getting killed by the r ef s ( the of f ic iating in game 2 w as an abs olute dis gr ac e - illus tr ated by a 38 - 10 f r ee thr ow adv antage) , they ar e getting blow n aw ay on the boar ds , their benc h has all but dis appear ed, and Radmanov ic s hould be ex iled to Siber ia. A s my f r iend Stev e s aid, "He c an't ev en c atc h a r ebound w hen it hits his c hes t." How ev er , they hav e one las t r ay of hope. Kobe. He got Z ERO lov e f r om the r ef s in games 1 and 2. He got hac ked. He got c alled f or the s of tes t f ouls in the his tor y of bas ketball. He r ec eiv ed a tec hnic al f oul f or goodnes s know s w hat. He didn't look like hims elf . It w as the equiv alent of s eeing Jennif er Haw kins f r ow ning, or Julia Gillar d s ay ing s omething intelligent; v er y out of c har ac ter . Sasha Vujacic is alw ays a likely candidate to be punched in the face KG is the most excitable athlete on the planet.

How ev er , did any one els e s ee the look on his f ac e in the 4th quar ter ? He looked mean. He looked angr y . This bodes f antas tic ally f or game 3 in Los A ngeles . How ev er , it c ould br eak one of tw o w ay s f or the Laker s . It c ould mean that Kobe c omes out and dr ops 50 on the Celtic s and s uddenly w e hav e a s er ies on our hands . Conv er s ely , it c ould als o mean that Kobe launc hes on of his f amed 'all about me' games and s hoots 9 of 30 and the Laker s get s mas hed. Whic h Kobe w ill w e s ee? Who know s ? A ll I know is that the Celtic s w ill be f ier y thanks to Gar nett. Will the Laker s be f ier y ? Only time w ill tell. My game 3 pr edic tion: Laker s by 14. Clic k her e to email Dy lan about the abov e c olumn. Clic k her e to go bac k to the homepage. You can alw ays count on Jennifer Haw kins flashing a classy smile