Kobe Bryant is the reason Lakers will win in seven games

By Mark Whicker / The Orange County Register

If you really think the Lakers will win this NBA Finals, you must think they can win Game 6 and/or 7 in Boston. No one has won a championship that late in a series, on the road, since Miami at Dallas in 2006, and, before that, Chicago at Utah in 1998.

No one has won a Finals Game 7 away from home since Washington at Seattle in 1978.

Or you must think the Lakers can get this done in 4 or 5, against the winningest team in the league, a club with one certain Hall of Famer and two other candidates, and a defense that has squeezed its playoff opponents into 87.3 points per game on 42.1 percent shooting. That isn’t happening.

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