Celtics 108 - Lakers 102 * Lakers get cheated - Bad officiating - Celtics take 2-0 NBA Finals series lead on Lakers

WOW! I have never and I mean NEVER! Seen an NBA game so one sided by the officials. Plain and simple - the Lakers got cheated out of game 2 of the NBA Finals. Anyone who watched this game plainly seen it, the only ones who probably didn't notice it were the Boston Celtics fans, but that's the way it is when your team is winning. Through out the game the Lakers were getting hit and fouled but the officials refused to blow their whistles! Someone would have a case if they said that the officials actually got paid off by the Boston Celtics. Let's look at this honestly, every team gets there bad calls a couple of times in every game they play but there has never been a game were the officials completely favored one team during the whole game. It seemed like in the fourth quarter the officials decided to start officiating the way they supposed to and then Boston didn't know what hit them when the Lakers almost made the greatest come back in NBA history.

The Lakers trailed 54-42 at the half and the Lakers were so frustrated with the referees that Kobe Bryant got a technical foul just to make a point when he drove the lane and made a basket, got hit along the way but no foul was called. Kobe let the referees know what was on his mind and he got the technical foul.

In the third quarter and the beginning of the fourth quarter things just got worse as the Celtics went up by 24 points with under eight minutes left in the game. The Lakers began to chip away at the Celtics lead and when Kobe Bryant hit a three pointer with 2:55 left in the game the Lakers were down by 11 points 102-91. The Celtics still felt that they had the game under control but when Sasha Vujacic hit a three with 1:26 left the Celtics were only up by 6 points 104-98. Boston started to get scared. Radmanovic then made a steal from the faker Paul Pierce and dunked it to make it 104-100 with 1:03 left. Yes, even after getting cheated during the whole game here were the Lakers only down by 4 with about a minute left in the game! With 38 seconds left Kobe Bryant made two free throws to make it 104-102 and the Celtic fans looked like they didn't know what hit them. With about 22 seconds left Paul Pierce got bailed out when Derick Fisher was called for a foul. I say bailed out because the Lakers could have used at least one bad call their way. By the way, it was a foul on Fisher, it was the right call. THE WAY THE WHOLE GAME SHOULD HAVE BEEN CALLED! Pierce made both free throws to give Boston some security. Vujacic's three point attempt was blocked by Pierce with 13 seconds left and that was all she wrote, the Celtics won 108-102 to take a 2-0 series lead.

This game was clearly the worst officiated game in NBA Finals history or yet in any game in history and anyone who seen this game knows it. Phil Jackson said that he has never seen a game like it. David Stern really needs to look this game over and fire some referees! It's OK to lose, but to lose because of the referees not doing there job correctly is something else. The Lakers shot only 10 free throws in this game compared to the Celtics 38. Boston's Leon Powe alone had more free throws than the Lakers shooting 13 attempts. The Lakers got shoved, slapped, pulled and nothing got called.

Paul Pierce said that his team got relaxed with their lead. It was not that though, the refs just stopped calling everything the Celtics way in the fourth and let the game play on thinking that the Lakers could not come back from their hole but when the game is played right you see what the Lakers will do to the Celtics.

Just a last comment here. I do not wine or complain if the Lakers lose. It was just so ridiculous that it had to be talked about.

Game 3 is Tuesday night at Staples Center.