ARCH RIVALS

And yet, in Boston, our Lakers not only

tied the Celtics more than once, but at

games' end, we beat them! Kobe Bryant

and Steve Blake were sidelined with their

injuries but helped coach the team at

times when ever they felt they could.

Pau made 24 points and 13 rebounds

and Kendall Marshall finished with 19

points and 14 assists including a 3-pointer 

with 69 seconds left on the clock.

At one time during the second quarter, 

the Celtics actually led by 13 points and still

held a 97-94 lead when Rondo, back once

again to play, checked back in and made a 

3-pointer to extend the lead to 8 points.

With making some necessary free-throws, it 

left the Celtics with a 3-point deficit and less

than 10 seconds to play. Boston's defeat 

deflated the excitement of Rondo's return to play.

The long standing rivalry between Boston and

L.A. has lost some of its luster with Boston's

most recent Big Three long gone and the Lakers'

star, Kobe Bryant recovering from a broken

bone in his left knee. In fact, the Celtics and

Lakers had never been this bad when they faced

each other. According to the Elias Sports Bureau,

their combined winning percentage of .354 (28-51)

was the lowest ever for the longtime rivals in a 

head-to-head match-up (after the first 5 games of the

season). What is even worse is that our Lakers

had won only one game since the week-end

before Christmas and Boston had won just 2.

Lakers rookie forward Ryan Kelly grabbed the

ball and nailed 2 free-throws that both secured

the win and polished off a career high 20 points

on 6-of-12 shooting. We won the rebounding battle.

Our ending score was:107-104.

The next game will occur up in Canada at Toronto.

This will be played early in the day, at 10:00 AM

on Sunday at Air Canada Centre.

On a roll? Be nice!

BABS WELLS