Crowds cheer as Celtics roll through Boston

By Maria Cramer, Globe Staff, and Ryan Kost and Maddie Hanna, Globe Correspondents

The Boston Celtics were hailed by a sea of green-clad fans today as their rolling rally wound its way through the city in a jubilant celebration of the team's NBA championship victory.

Players brandished trophies, smoked cigars in homage to Red Auerbach, and waved from a procession of amphibious duck boats rumbling through city streets from the TD Banknorth Garden, the Celtics' home court, past Boston Common, to Copley Square. Fans lined the route, cheering their hearts out.

"It's been a long wait, but a great one," said Patti Nunley, 48, of Melrose, who came to the parade with her daughters Siobhan, 10, and Adrianna, 7. "It was absolutely worth it."

It took a little more than an hour for the procession to reach an ecstatic crowd gathered at Copley Square. From there, the duck boats slipped into Cambridge and made their way back to the Garden.

Crowds cheer as Celtics roll through Boston....

Celtics return to glory with championship effort

by Mark Kriegel

BOSTON - Spend too much time in Los Angeles and you forget what a real crowd sounds like, those deafening decibels, that beery din.

The Boston Celtics' 17th championship was accorded the familiar rituals: the spray of confetti followed by a televised trophy presentation. Still, however loud it remained inside the TD Banknorth Garden, by then the festivities had already begun to take on an anti-climactic air.

As celebrations go, this one was particularly exhausting, having begun midway through the fourth quarter. Finally, with 4:01 remaining and the Celtics up by a mere 35, Doc Rivers removed his triumvirate of stars known as the Big Three.

"They came in as a group," Rivers said. "I thought we should take them out as a group."

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Lakers put 17 on hold

By Mark Murphy

LOS ANGELES - In an NBA Finals stocked with blown opportunities on both sides, what’s one more?

The Celtics [team stats] have become master escape artists in this series, again climbing out of a big hole in last night’s Game 5. This time, however, erasing a 19-point second-quarter deficit merely was a delicious tease.

Though they threatened throughout, the Celts failed to close the deal in a 103-98 loss to the Lakers. The series now shifts back to Boston for Game 6 tomorrow night.

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Lakers one game shy of elimination from NBA finals

By Mike Bresnahan, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

The Lakers have already made history. They actually have a chance to do it again.

Somewhere in the same sphere of improbability that goes with blowing a 24-point lead in an NBA Finals loss, the Lakers will try to win the Finals after trailing, three games to one.

It has never been done since the Finals debuted in 1947, which speaks to the magnitude of their task, in case it wasn't already clear.

They managed to practice Saturday, one more step than they could take when they all gloomily assembled Friday, though it remained to be seen how they would look in Game 5 tonight against Boston at Staples Center.

They spoke positively, insisting the shock of Game 4 and the stagnation a day later had dried up and blown away. The final score tonight will be the best judge.

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Lakers one game shy of elimination from NBA finals

LOS ANGELES (AP) -Kobe Bryant realizes the Los Angeles Lakers are in deep trouble. He believes there's only one reasonable way to approach such a grim situation.

"I'm not thinking about beating them three straight,'' Bryant said after the Lakers collapsed in the last 18 minutes Thursday night, resulting in a 97-91 loss to the Boston Celtics that put them on the brink of elimination from the NBA finals.

"We're thinking about beating them on Sunday,'' Bryant said. "Then, you move on from there. Take one swing at a time to chop down a tree. We'll take care of business on Sunday.''

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NBA hopes Celtics-Lakers rivalry can respark the fans

By Erik Spanberg | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

With the return of pro basketball's most storied rivalry in the finals, the National Basketball Association has big hopes for a rebound in fans.

Last year, the league bounced from a controversy-filled All-Star game of celebrity excess in Las Vegas to a tepid San Antonio-Cleveland championship round to a summer filled with a disgraced NBA referee's guilty plea in a gambling scandal. Fast-forward to the NBA's recent run, a remarkable turnaround that began when Commissioner David Stern celebrated the league's humanitarian efforts during an All-Star weekend in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans. It was followed by exciting playoff runs featuring, among others, the resurgent Hornets and capped by a Celtics-Lakers that continues with Game 3 Tuesday night in Los Angeles. Boston leads the series 2-0.

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Boston Celtics take 2-0 finals lead

Ian Whittell

THE Los Angeles Lakers stumbled to another potentially costly defeat in their NBA Finals series with the Boston Celtics on Sunday but, from the ashes of a 108-102 loss, they may finally have witnessed the spark to ignite their Championship bid.

Kobe Bryant inspired a late comeback by his team, which had trailed by 24 points with only 7:55 (minutes) left to play, a recovery which brought them to within 104-100 with 63 seconds remaining.

Ultimately, thanks to two free-throws from the excellent Paul Pierce, the Celtics were able to hold on for a win which gives them a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series as it is transplanted to Los Angeles for three games starting Tuesday.

However, the performance of Bryant, who finally seemed to come to terms with Boston’s stifling defence in the second half on his way to a game-high 30 points, suggested that the Lakers may have it within their power to become only the fourth team to ever recover from a 2-0 deficit in the NBA Finals.

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Pierce will play through knee sprain

By Michael Vega

The day after, Paul Pierce had a noticeable limp, his right knee still sore, stiff,
Miraculously (except, perhaps, to the man known as Dr. Phil in the Lakers' huddle), Pierce overcame his injury that led to him being carried off the court, and returned to a thunderous ovation to score half of his 22 points.

"I've never had any knee problems in my career, so it was real scary once I felt a sharp pain in it," Pierce said yesterday at TD Banknorth Garden, where the team held a film session and shot free throws. "There's a little pain in it right now, so I'm just going to keep it wrapped, iced. [There was] still a little bit of swelling this morning when we looked at it. [I'll] just continue to get treatments and go from there."

Pierce said he took "four Advils" for the inflammation and would eschew an MRI.

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Pierce’s Return Fuels Celtics and a Rivalry

By HOWARD BECK

BOSTON — A brilliant rivalry was renewed Thursday night, with all the attendant tension, drama, ill will and ear-splitting volume.

And at the end of a long evening of “Beat L.A.” chants, the Boston Celtics had their first finals victory in 21 years, a convincing 98-88 defeat of the Lakers at TD Banknorth Garden to open this best-of-seven series.

Amid the heavy nostalgia for all things Lakers and Celtics, Paul Pierce borrowed a scene from another historic finals moment, doing his best Willis Reed impression to lead Boston to the victory.

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This version of Lakers and Celtics in unfamiliar territory

BOSTON - The season started this way, so why shouldn’t The Series, as well?

As a giant question mark matching a riddle against a mystery, no one capable of saying with certainty how the NBA Finals will end.

NBA? After five days of nothing but talk, that stands for Nonstop Baloney Analysis.

In one corner, there are the Lakers, a team which has two championship-proven starters but also with Lamar Odom, who never before had been beyond the postseason’s second round, and Pau Gasol, who never before had won as much as a playoff game.

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