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The theory is that LeBron James lost his will to win in the playoffs last year. But the evidence, as amassed by Jeff Fogle of Hoopdata, is that he lost his shooting ability -- only in games with shorter rest.

In other words, he shot perfectly well in the first and third games of the series, which each featured long rest, but shot very poorly in games 2, 4, 5 and 6, which came with just one day off.

To Fogle, this is congruent with the idea that his known elbow injury (he shot a leftie free throw at the end of the prior series) hung around his final series in Cleveland more than was evident. Fogle writes:

LEBRON AT THE RIM

Games 1 and 3: 12/19 (63 percent)

Games 2,4,5,6: 15/26 (58 percent)

A slight drop off. But, the closer you are to the basket, the less an elbow injury is likely to affect your shot.

LEBRON FROM 3-15 FEET

Games 1 and 3: 4/7 (58 percent)

Games 2,4-,5,6: 4/10 (40 percent)

Quite a difference there. He's dropped off in both cases because he's further from the basket, but the spread is now 18 percentage points rather than just five.

LEBRON FROM 16-23 FEET

Games 1 and 3: 5/11 (45 percent)

Games 2,4,5,6: 4/16 (25 percent)

We're in the range where a bad elbow could definitely affect your jump shots. With three days between games, LeBron was at 45 percent. In the quicker turnarounds, that percentage plummeted to 25. Note again that both percentages are going down (as expected) the further he gets from the basket. The spread between the two situations is now 20 percentage points.

LEBRON ON 3-POINT SHOTS

Games 1 and 3: 5/9 (56 percent)

Games 2,4,5,6: 2/17 (12 percent)

LeBron was hitting his open looks from distance in the games where the arm was well rested. In fact, he was more accurate from behind the arc than in the 16-23 foot range. But, in the quick turnarounds, he was a woeful 2 of 17 on treys (44 percentage points worse). Doesn't THAT suggest a potential injury issue all by itself? A guy's got a bad elbow, and he goes 2 of 17 on long shots in games with limited preparation and rest time.

Fogle goes on to suggest that James knew he was not shooting well, and frantically tried to assault the rim (remember that?) which dramatically increased his turnovers. Those turnover totals can be taken as support of narrative that James quit, or the opposite.

The Miami Heat beat the Philadelphia 76ers 100-94 Thursday to take a 3-0 lead in their best-of-seven series. Miami improves to 6-0 this season against the Sixers, who have lost six consecutive postseason games.

The Heat set a franchise playoff record with 20 offensive rebounds, netting them 24 second-chance points. They averaged 14.5 second-chance points in the first two games of the series and had just one game during the regular season in which they exceeded 24.

Zydrunas Ilgauskas had eight offensive rebounds -- just three fewer than the entire Sixers team -- and none on the defensive glass. LeBron James had only one offensive board but had 15 total rebounds to go with his 24 points and six assists.

Dwyane Wade may have been the star for the Heat, finishing with 32 points, 10 rebounds (four offensive) and eight assists, his third career 30-10 game in the playoffs. Wade is the sixth player in the past 20 seasons to go for 30 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists in a road playoff game.

He accounted for HALF of his team’s points, a big improvement over his performance in the first two games of the series.

Combined, James, Wade and Chris Bosh scored 75 of Miami’s 100 points. They also combined for 15 assists, meaning they actually produced more than 100 percent of the team’s offense Thursday, combining for 108 points created.

• The Painted Area is doing something amazing, by leading an internet video tour of the best plays of this year's playoffs. Number 15 is my favorite so far -- that's the play of Goran Dragic's life.
• Does Derrick Rose have new shooting form?
• YouTube offers forth two contenders for world's longest basketball shot.
• Mike Kurylo of Knickerblogger writes a rare thing -- a thoughtful New York-based reaction to LeBron James' decision. He makes a ton of great points, and you should go and read the whole thing. But there's one particularly interesting chess analogy to James and Dwyane Wade deciding to play together: "It would be like Karpov and Kasparov sitting down to play, but Karpov’s queen decides it would be easier to win if she decided to play alongside Kasparov’s queen. LeBron, Wade, and Bosh’s choice could start a trend in the league." This gets to a core issue, in some ways. It's crazy for a chess piece to leave his team to play with his buddies, because chess pieces are made out of wood, glass, stone, plastic and the like. And we have long seen it as a crazy thing for NBA players to do, because that is not what they have done. On the issue of friends as co-workers players have been as silent as chess pieces. But, of course, players are not made out of wood, glass, stone, plastic and the like. They are human beings, like you and me. And there's nothing strange at all about human beings wanting to work with people they like and respect. In fact, it's totally normal. Kurylo also makes one other point I'd mention: "Free agency in a capped league," he writes, "like the amateur draft, is meant to help the weaker teams become more competitive." It may have the potential to have that effect, but let's be clear that the NBA has free agency only because they can't legally get rid of it. There is not a likely legal strategy to abolish it. That's because the government realizes even rich athletes aren't made of plastic or wood, and might need the right to leave a bad work situation once in a while.
• John Krolik of Cavs: The Blog: "It’s fine to boo LeBron James. It’s fine to hate LeBron James. What I’m concerned about is Cleveland becoming a franchise that defines itself by its hatred of LeBron James. It’s something I’ve seen other fanbases do to varying extents in the past, and it was never pleasant to look at. The fact that LeBron acted foolishly in the weeks and days leading to his decision to play for a different team didn’t change my mind about that. So here we are. Cleveland fans (and the owner of the Cavaliers) clearly feel that they were wronged by LeBron James in a major way, and most feel a very deep antipathy for him now. Fighting against this current with a 'Thanks for the seven years of service and all you did for the franchise, LeBron' night upon his return would be foolish. On the other hand, 'Screw You, LeBron night' (orchestrated chants, video segments to incite the crowd, 2-3 play stoppages because somebody threw something at LeBron, et cetera) also wouldn’t be my cup of tea. I completely understand why such a thing would happen, and acknowledge that it likely will. That said, this is a beautiful game played by a lot of good people, and losing sight of that makes for bad sports fandom. Also, going overboard with that stuff could lose Cleveland fans a lot of the good will they’ve gained since the LeBacle."
• All hail Elgin Baylor.
• Video scouting Kevin Seraphin, the Wizards rookie who has been compared to Nicolas Batum.
• Dwight Howard, in a conversation with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "You have to look long term and what’s best for your team. Cleveland got Shaq to match up with the Magic. They also got Antawn Jamison to match up with the Magic. But they didn’t even play the Magic. They played Boston [and lost]. You match up for the league, not just one team."

• Talk of Miami as the destination for the biggest three free agents is heating up. By the way, if LeBron James is there, expect Chris Sheridan to remind people for years to come that he learned about it all back in May from James' sneakers. UPDATE: Ooh, and Sheridan wrote about the big three going to Miami last October, too.
• Chad Ford revisits this years free agent class. It's a great class at the top, but it's also deep. And here's my offer: Pick either the top five guys (LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Amare Stoudemire, Dirk Nowitzki) or the field. Who's going to win more titles in the next five years? It's not a fair question. The field has enough players to have one on every darned team. However, my point is that those top guys will probably go to so-so teams and try to make them great. But every summer, some of the best moves are incremental improvements to really good teams, and if you're obsessed with titles, those matter. For instance, with Shannon Brown reportedly opting out, Derek Fisher a free agent, and Jordan Farmar already talking about moving on, the Lakers will be needing point guards, and whoever they get may well win a ring. Also, the Celtics could use some wing players.
• Hoopinion has long been saying what lots of people are now writing: That Joe Johnson is not a max player. Meanwhile, let's ask the same questions of Amare Stoudemire. I'd add reported free agent Dirk Nowitzki to that list too: He's clearly worth the max now. But what about at the end of his next deal? He said himself on TV during these playoffs that he has a two or three year window to be at his peak.
• Dear Cleveland fans who have long been certain that the New York media was obsessed with making up stories about LeBron James coming to New York, I'd just point out the themes of the New York Times' last three articles on free agency: That the Bulls are the favorites, that LeBron James isn't all that and that signing free agents is a risky business. Say what you will, but that does not look to me like a press corps putting James on rails to the Big Apple.
• After brainwashing the referees into giving his team the 2006 NBA title (as the story goes) Dwyane Wade may be the most hated NBA player Dallas has ever known. Buuuuuuut ... if he wants to be a Maverick ... that's cool.
• Sifting through the free agent bargain bin.
• Dan Feldman of PistonPowered predicts Greg Monroe will be starting for the Pistons before the end of the year: "I’m absolutely thrilled the Pistons have Monroe’s calmness, intelligence and ability. It sure beats the disarray, confusion and ineptness of last year."
• Some meaningful insight from team president Larry Miller into the process that led to Kevin Pritchard getting the boot on draft day.
• Ryan Gomes ain't chopped liver.
• Somebody is going to take a risk on Michael Beasley. Is that smart?
• Lots of media love for Dwane Casey as a head coach, including a suggestion he's too good for the Clippers. It's amazing he doesn't have a job already. People who didn't play in the NBA always take a backseat, for all kinds of reasons (some owners like to hang out with celebrity former players, some players like to take orders from people who have been in their shoes) that have nothing do with actual coaching skill.
• Peeking into Larry Brown's playbook.
• Steve Kerr has been mentioned as a candidate for various GM jobs, but it's looking more and more like he was serious about being a broadcaster.
• Hats off to ESPN's Chad Millman (Insider) for doing the hard work of attempting to quantify LeBron James' different options. Factoring in earning potential on and off the court, the quality of the rosters, the cost of living, legacy and more ... Millman and company handicap Chicago as the favorite, followed by Miami.

• On the day the Lakers hold their parade, here's an amazing collection of Laker title celebration videos.
• Neil Paine of Basketball-Reference on Kobe Bryant as Finals MVP: "I definitely don't think it's fair to say Kobe was 'bad' in the Finals. He didn't have a great offensive series, but it really wasn't horrific -- 25 P/36 on a 53 TS% is actually not that different from his regular-season numbers, and this was against one of the league's best defenses. He also played legitimately great defense, and did a surprisingly good job on the boards. Watching last night, my initial reaction was that it was extremely unfair to give Kobe the Finals MVP after he very nearly shot his team out of the biggest game of the season. And it's true that for most of Game 7, the selfish Kobe we've all come to criticize showed up. But looking at the numbers for the series today, it's hard to make a case for him not winning Finals MVP honors. As a stats guy, I usually come down against Kobe (and I still think he's nowhere near Michael Jordan or even LeBron James' level), but in this case I have to give credit where credit is due. Gasol had an eye-popping efficiency, but if you employ a trade-off and take him up to Kobe's usage level, plus factor in Kobe's defensive edge, Kobe deserved the MVP." (Via Cavs: The Blog)
• Steve Weinman of D-League Digest: "Since Thursday night, I’ve heard and read a lot from Celtics fans about how proud they are of this team, with some even going so far as to claim that it’s the proudest they have been of any Celtics team they have followed. I do know that I don’t share that sentiment, at least not to that extent (and that’s leaving aside for now the arguable silliness that accompanies the notion of taking pride in being a fan of a ball club of complete strangers). Without question, this team put on a show during the postseason that made me prouder to be a Celtics fan than I felt during the season. But I would be careful with the hyperbole beyond that. For my part, I had more admiration for the 2008-09 club, just to name one, a team that began the season 44-12, finished it 18-8 even after Kevin Garnett’s devastating injury in Utah (though he did play limited in minutes in four of those games during a short-lived comeback attempt), won perhaps the most dramatic first-round series ever in seven grueling games against Chicago and then took eventual East champion Orlando to seven games despite Paul Pierce and Ray Allen running on fumes and the frontcourt being so depleted by injuries that Mikki Moore was expected to make key contributions. That was a team that earned our respect with its effort all season long and left everything and then some on the floor in the postseason before finally succumbing to elements too big for anyone to overcome. This year’s team put in some terrific work in a two-month burst at the very end, but much of the adversity it overcame was of its own creation. It finished with the better result, but I can’t say I loved the 2009-10 team quite the same way I did the 2008-09 group. Comparing this team to the 2007-08 group that treated every game like the seventh of the Finals would be an exercise in kidding ourselves."
• An amazing and forthright (and a little PG-13) account of Ricky Rubio's draft night last year, from the man the NBA assigned to escort the just-drafted Spaniard through the media routine.
• Matt McHale of Bulls By the Horns wonders how Michael Jordan's legacy might affect LeBron James' chances of signing with the Bulls: "Magic Johnson’s place as the Greatest Laker Ever seemed pretty secure until recetly. Now that Kobe Bryant has won another title in L.A., some people -- including ESPN’s Chris Broussard and even Shaq -- are already annointing him the Greatest Laker Ever. So nobody’s place in history is unassailable. In theory. But Jordan’s is pretty close. The only thing we don’t know is: Would that challenge motivate LeBron or scare him away?"
• The top ten stories in European basketball. The video that tops the list will give you chills.
• How the TrueHoop Network's own Hoopinion conspired with some smoked mussels, whipped cream, Cheez-its and white wine to rouse the Twitter volcano that is Buzz Bissinger. Most assuredly, this is full of adult language.
• A big, serious, video look into whether or not Gilbert Arenas and John Wall can play together. My biggest worry would be that Arenas is a terrible defender, and when you're pairing a rookie with a veteran, that's not what you want from your veteran, you know? 'Cause even rookies who go on to become great NBA defenders are seldom effective the first time around.
• In case you're wondering if Paul Allen is still willing to invest in Kevin Pritchard's vision, here's a small sign, from a Warriors press release: "The Golden State Warriors have conveyed their second round pick in the 2010 NBA Draft (the 34th selection) to the Portland Trail Blazers, in exchange for the Blazers’ second round pick (44th overall) and cash considerations, the team announced today." And more signs in a press release from the Blazers, regarding two of Pritchard's most trusted staffers: "The Portland Trail Blazers have extended the contracts of Michael Born, Director of NBA Scouting, and Chad Buchanan, Director of College Scouting, it was announced today by General Manager Kevin Pritchard. The two-year extensions will keep Born and Buchanan under contract through June of 2012."
• Marcus Thornton says he has spent a lot of the offseason with Darren Collison.
• Alvin Gentry deserves a raise.
• Vince Carter's best game of the season.
• Avery Johnson says the Nets will have a defensive system. That's good! They need that! But what will it be? Here's a smart look at how the Mavericks defended under Johnson.

Boston's offense was in middle of the pack in the regular season and again in the playoffs, and it always bogged down against good defenses. It's an amazing testament to their defense that they made it so close to a title.

Zach Lowe of CelticsHub:

All season, the Celtics struggled offensively when they could not get out in transition. We should not have been surprised that they did so again when faced with a Laker defense determined to get back on defense, shut off penetration and string Pierce and Allen out toward the sidelines on screen/rolls. Rajon Rondo was the beating heart of this team, but his inability to hit a 16-footer on screen/rolls is still the anchor that can sink an offense lacking a consistent post threat and susceptible to player fatigue.

People will remember Boston’s offense going cold in the 4th quarter of Game 7, and they should. The Celtics were flailing, relying on Pierce isolations and post-ups from Davis and KG on the left block as four tired players stood around on the right side of the floor.

But I’ll remember just as clearly the C’s inability to score even a single point over the first 4:47 of the 2nd quarter, blowing an opportunity to assert control of a game they led by nine when the quarter started.

And the turnovers. All damn season with the turnovers. The C’s coughed it up 15 times in Game 7, and that doesn’t sound like much, considering they averaged about 15.5 per game in the regular season. But Game 7 was an ultra-slow game, with about 83 possessions for each team. Those 15 turnovers work out to a turnover on about 18 percent of Boston’s possessions.

Perspective: The Charlotte Bobcats, the most turnover-prone team in the league, turned the ball over on 15 percent of their possessions this season.

I'm not sure I'm quite ready to renew the Kobe Bryant vs. LeBron James thing so quickly after a cathartic Finals, but Cavs: The Blog's John Krolik is there with the needle, popping balloons at Bryant's title party -- and he makes a point:

LeBron, Game 6: 27 points, 8-21 shooting, 19 rebounds, 10 assists. Satan.

Kobe, Game 7: 23 points, 6-24 shooting, 15 rebounds, 2 assists. Champion.

LeBron did have five more turnovers than Kobe, but still. For a couple of minutes there, I dreamed about how if Kobe lost while playing like he did, the LeBron/Kobe article would have to become about basketball. The whole “Kobe is a better sports human” thing would sort have melted after a historic choke in game 7 of the NBA Finals against the Celtics.

M. Haubs of the Painted Area:

Even though he's played 11 seasons as a Laker point guard, Fisher ranks only 12th in total assists. Even Michael Cooper, whose numbers are most comparable on the lower end, has the additional cache as an excellent defender -- he was the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year in 1986-87.

Of course, with all the intangibles and clutch shots, the key statistic for Derek Fisher is his five championships. Only five L.A. Lakers own that many rings; no one has won more of them as a Laker.

It's certainly remarkable, sitting here on championship night, to think that Derek Fisher's number 2 might not be retired.

On Thursday night, thanks to a Derek Fisher 3 and some Sasha Vujacic free throws, a result was determined in dramatic fashion.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Kevin Pelton has won second place in the 2010 TrueHoop Stat Geek Smackdown.

Jeffrey Ma had sewn up first place before the Finals even began -- he alone believed in the Celtics throughout. But there were all kinds of candidates to finish second. Six of the eight contestants picked Boston in the Finals, but Pelton and John Hollinger were the exceptions, both correctly picking the Lakers in 7 games to finish second and third respectively.

Meanwhile, my mom does a little jig, once again not finishing last. She's on fire!

The final tally:

• Jeffrey Ma 71
• Kevin Pelton 70
• John Hollinger 66
• David Berri 57
• Stephen Ilardi 54
• Neil Paine 52
• My Mom 44
• Haralabos Voulgaris 40

The NBA Finals are the pinnacle of the sport. They're also a stressful event for small band of NBA employees who are charged with making certain the champions have championship hats, t-shirts and towels -- branded for their team -- at the ready instantly after the game ends.

In a Game 7, the NBA staffers have to have garb on hand celebrating both the Celtics and the Lakers. On Thursday night, once the Lakers won, those hundreds of Celtics' 2010 champion shirts and hats became an embarrassment. The league goes to great lengths just to make sure no one even takes a photograph of that stuff. (Although, if you live in Africa, you may see some -- eventually those Celtics 2010 NBA champion shirts will be distributed to the needy through NBA Cares.)

The gear that's handed out to the players on the court is printed in Indianapolis and shipped to the NBA's offices in New York. NBA staffers then fly with it -- the biggest of the bags weigh more than 100 pounds each -- to the Finals, where they are kept locked away in a little-known storeroom in the bowels of the Staples Center.

Championship games end in pandemonium. Security, media and crowds of fans ring the court. Game 7 came down to the wire. The gear for both franchises, therefore, had to be smuggled courtside ready to be distributed to the players quickly after the final buzzer. Two teams of four people -- one with Laker gear, the other with Celtics' stuff -- worked their way courtside as the game came to an end. Once the Lakers won, one team ran "at a dead sprint" to stash the Celtics gear safely out of sight. The whole process is high adrenaline, and on video.

Many thanks to the people you see in this video, especially Brian Keegan, Vandana Balachandar and Kristin Conte, as well as Kevin Arnovitz, for all their help.

• Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times: "Throughout much of an hellacious, historic night at Staples Center on Thursday, the Lakers have rarely been so human. Yet in the end, awash in confetti and love and a giant ball of gold, they have rarely been so immortal. Struggling through one of their worst starts of the season, the Lakers finished with one of their greatest moments ever, climbing back from a 13-point deficit to defeat the Boston Celtics, 83-79, to win Game 7 of the NBA Finals and clinch their second consecutive championship. This is 16 franchise titles, perhaps none of them more difficult. This is five rings for Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher, absolutely none of them as hard. This is redemption for the Celtics' 2008 Finals beating, and can anything be so sweaty yet so sweet? 'We wanted it more,' said owner Jerry Buss, simply, perfectly."
• Phil Collin of the Los Angeles Daily News: "In the locker room, Ron Artest had tears as he asked for someone to hand the championship trophy to his mother. 'I'm just so happy for Ron the way he played tonight, the way he played Game 6, very aggressive, very confident,' Gasol said.'Defensively I think he did another great job on Paul Pierce tonight, so he's a huge part of our success. I'm just so happy he was able to win his first championship and you could see it in his face. He's like a little kid right not that got his dream come true, like we all did.' The Lakers signed Artest to be their defensive stopper on the wing. They knew all about his volatility throughout the years and then suddenly, in Game 7, he was the calming influence. The argument could be made that Artest was left open consciously by the Celtics, who were determined to harass Kobe Bryant off his game and out of the triangle offense. Or maybe Artest's idiosyncracies rendered him immune to the pressure the rest of the Lakers couldn't overcome. It was like some mind meld had transferred the collective poise of his teammates into Artest somehow."
• Arash Markazi of the ESPNLosAngeles.com: "Ron Artest was all over the court, finishing with 20 points, five rebounds and five steals, and making key play after key play while changing the momentum of a game that was seemingly slipping away from the Lakers from the opening tip. History will remember Kobe Bryant as the Finals MVP, but there is no way he celebrates the honor and a fifth championship without the help of Artest, who scored 12 points in the first half (all in the second quarter) while the triumvirate of Bryant, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum went 7-for-31 for 16 points and the team shot a collective 25.5 percent from the field. It was Artest who kept the team within striking distance with his defense on Paul Pierce, who finished with 18 points, and his hustle on both ends of the floor. He was responsible for two of the game's signature moments and ultimately was the reason why the Lakers won their 16th championship."
• Phil Miller of The Orange County Register: "Like we said, the Lakers would win ... and comfortably, too. What? That wasn't comfortable enough for you? How do you think it was for Kobe Bryant, who was less than a quarter away from having one of the poorest games of his life in one of the worst defeats of his life on one of the biggest nights of his life? The airballs? Was he nervous? The unforced turnovers? Was he panicking? The missed shot after shot after shot? Was he, dare we even suggest, choking? 'I just wanted it so, so bad,' Bryant said later, reeking of that pungent champagne smell that confirmed he somehow had, after all the failed attempts on this night, gotten it. 'On top of that, I was on 'E.' Man, I was really, really tired. And the more I tried to push, the more it kept getting away from me.' But teammates Derek Fisher and Ron Artest hit giant 3-pointers, Sasha Vujacic -- huh? -- made two big free throws and Pau Gasol did enough of everything else to allow Bryant to finally leave his mark in the most fundamental of ways: By knocking down free throws. Free throws? Yes, free throws. The game's best closer, the guy with so many buzzer-beating jumpers, the Laker with the greatest sense for the dramatic, put this one away in the fourth quarter by hitting 8 of 9 15-foot set shots. He might as well have been wearing Chuck Taylors and releasing the ball from between his legs. Black Mamba nothing. This was more 'White Shadow.' 'I was thankful that I was able to make one (darn) shot at the end of the game and make some free throws,' Bryant said. 'I had to do something. But it was a tough one.' So the Lakers survived the Celtics and their own sick shooting to claim Game 7 on Thursday, 83-79, and the franchise's 16th NBA championship."
• T.J. Simers of the Los Angeles Times: "Phil Jackson will turn 65 in September, and Thursday he once again was talking about the 114-game grind the Lakers had this season, and the toll it takes on him. He earned a base salary of $12 million this season, and reportedly $2 million more in bonuses which he intends to donate to charity. Hard to argue this morning it's not money well-spent. It might be too rich for the Lakers, but doesn't he have to come back? He's the surest bet as there is in sports when it comes to winning a championship, and Dr. Jerry Buss is the best owner in all of sports, isn't it a no-brainer? Jackson's coached 19 years in the NBA, advanced to the Finals an astounding 13 times, winning 11 championship rings and yet most of the time he's probably taken for granted. Lakers' fans have yet to sound the alarm, probably more talk on radio about the return of Derek Fisher and Jordan Farmar when you would think they would've been screaming Holy Tomjanovich at the end of Game 7. Fortunately, Jeanie and I have something in common; we won't be moving to Montana any time soon, so no way do I see Phil abandoning his girl and buddy for the woods and a life of solitude and mosquitoes."
• Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald: "Rasheed Wallace walked off under his own terms. In what may well have been his last NBA game, Sheed didn’t put on his civilian clothes after the Celtics' 83-79 Game 7 loss to the Lakers last night. He threw on a black, long-sleeved workout shirt over his green uniform, stuffed his things in a bag and walked out of the dressing room. Sheed wore his sunglasses at night as he walked down the hallway and headed toward the referees’ room. Back in the interview room, Doc Rivers was letting it be known that Wallace was thinking about retiring after 15 NBA seasons. That seemed to make more sense of Wallace’s desire to speak with refs Danny Crawford and Joe Crawford. He was stopped at the door, and when official Scott Foster came out for a different reason, Sheed shouted in that he just wanted to talk for a second. He said it was nothing about the game. Wallace was kept outside and he waited for several minutes. 'I’m trying to give him a compliment, and he thinks I’m trying to say something (bad),' Sheed said to no one in particular as he stood across the hall from the door. It appeared he was trying to offer an olive branch of sorts on his way out. He had no comment after he shrugged and walked toward the team bus. It had been a long night."
• Bill Doyle of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette: “ ' It was everything you’d expect out of a Game 7,' Kevin Garnett said. 'We just came up short.' The Celtics came up especially short at the foul line, getting outscored, 25-15, in their 83-79 loss. 'It’s hard,' Garnett said. 'Everybody’s physically, fatigued, mentally fatigued.' 'This is probably one of the hardest feelings that I’ve felt in my lifetime,' Ray Allen said. Allen made only 1 of his 9 shots in the first three quarters before making 2 of 5 in the fourth quarter. He’ll be thinking about those misses for quite awhile."
• Chris Forsberg of ESPNBoston.com: "As he addressed the media at his postgame news conference, Doc Rivers fought back the emotions after coming up short of the ultimate prize and lamented the fact that things are unlikely to ever be the same after a season that was so fulfilling because of the obstacles this team had to overcome. ... That closeness was forged over the final months when, even as the Celtics struggled, they banded together with eyes toward Banner 18. Rivers always believed this team was championship material, even during those dark days in February and March when Boston lost to lowly New Jersey and got blown out by Memphis, both on the Garden floor. To call Boston's run to the brink of an 18th NBA title improbable wouldn't be fair. This is a team that hung a blank championship banner in its practice facility at the start of the season and displayed a picture of the Larry O'Brien Trophy inside its locker room with the phrase, 'Begin with the end in mind,' printed below it. The Celtics overcame so much adversity, but walked away without the prize that would have provided the storybook ending in Hollywood's backyard."
• Scott Souza of the MetroWest Daily News: "As the Celtics walked off the court amid the piercing Lakers hoopla ringing in their ears, it was fair to wonder if this was the final stand of a team that won a championship in 2008 and nearly did it again on the two-year anniversary of a dynasty's resurrection. Allen is a free agent. Pierce could be. Celtics coach Doc Rivers will reevaluate his future in the next few weeks and may well decide this team got as close as it ever will be to another title. It will be an offseason of upheaval for a team that for most of Game 7 had its fans thinking summer might just start off with a parade this weekend."
• Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald: "No one wanted to acknowledge it but the postseason, and the launching pad for postseason moves, began after last night’s 83-79 Lakers victory in Game 7 of the NBA Finals. That meant the possibility that the Celtics will have a new head coach next season. But Doc Rivers, who plans to confer with his family over the possibility of walking away with one season and $5 million left on his contract, wasn’t ready to look that far ahead. 'It’s tough; I can’t reflect on it right now,' he said. 'Probably in a week or so I’ll go hide somewhere for a while. But it was the craziest, most emotional group I’ve ever coached in my life. I told them that they made me reach places I never thought I needed to go -- had to go,' said Rivers. 'But through it all, we were the tightest, most emotional crazy group that I’ve ever been with in my life. So that’s what makes it tough. I don’t know,' he said. 'I’m going to wait. I’m going to go and watch my kids play AAU basketball. Just wait a little bit.' He can probably expect some calls asking for a return, if Rivers hasn’t been lobbied by his players already."

Comedian Mike Birbiglia did not play for the Celtics in Game 7 -- or any game, for that matter. But not for lack of preparation:

Every kid who grew up in the 80s in Massachusetts thought they could be Larry Bird. The legend of the Celtics superstar was that he was not a natural athlete. That he wasn’t even very good at basketball growing up. That he was frankly kind of an idiot, too. Larry Bird was just some dumb, oafish kid who had put his mind to basketball. I remember thinking, That’s like me! I’m an idiot and I suck at sports too! I’m exactly like Larry Bird! I’m going to be in Hall of Fame. These legends of Larry Bird failed to mention that Bird was six-foot-nine and had hands the size of baseball gloves. So I set my mind to it.

I asked my parents to put in a basketball hoop in the driveway. I’d hit free throw after eleven-and-a-half-foot free throw until I was blind. Or I should say, until it was dark. I was really good at playing basketball alone –- Baskurbation. And surely my solo basketball skills would blow the other kids’ minds when I showed them off.

Eventually, Birbiglia gets to the part of the tale where he brings his skills to an actual game.

The operative line: "I find that you really lose the confidence of your fellow basketball players when you cry in the middle of a game."

So, yes, the Celtics went down while missing a key player. But no, that key player was not Mike Birbiglia.

By John Hollinger

LOS ANGELES – It was fitting that an offensive rebound provided what proved to be the title-clinching play. And it was equally fitting that all the basketball gods made a mockery of all our non-stop chatter about individual legacies when a team-wide Lakers effort that won them Game 7 in spite of, rather than because of, their best player.

All night long, the Lakers had battled to overcome a mystifying inability to shoot straight by sheer brute force, grabbing 23 of their own misses and maintaining possession four other times on balls knocked out of bounds.

So when Kobe Bryant forced a long 3 under duress with 28 seconds left, it was only natural that Pau Gasol – for the ninth time – came down with it. Gasol held off Rajon Rondo for the rebound, passed it back to out to Bryant at the free-throw line, and then Bryant drove the lane to draw a foul.

Had Boston secured the rebound, they would have had the ball with a chance to tie and send the game to overtime. Instead, Bryant’s free throw put the Lakers up 81-76, and the Celtics never had the ball with a chance to tie again.

It all started when the Lakers caught Boston in a bad match-up coming upcourt. Kevin Garnett ended up guarding Derek Fisher in the left corner, leaving Rondo frantically trying to switch men with Rasheed Wallace and Paul Pierce. He ended up on Gasol near the foul line as the Celtics went to trap Bryant in a pick-and-roll and then, as the shot went up, under the rim. Rondo had inside position, but being a foot shorter proved problematic. Gasol reached up with one arm, held Rondo off with the other, and claimed the rebound near the baseline.

“We were trying to trap and we got caught,” said Rivers. “I thought Rondo boxed him out. He went over his back, but they’re not going to call that with the size advantage.”

“I just wanted to go get it,” said Gasol. “ I was able to box him out and hold him with one arm. I was pretty proud of that play because those little play, those little thing make a huge different, especially at that point of the game.”

For the game L.A. kept possession 27 times out of a possible 62 caroms, an exorbitant Offensive Rebound Rate of 43.5% -- a normal total is barely half of that. It couldn’t have come at a better time. L.A. shot a horrid 32.5% from the field and 67.6% from the line, but won by securing 22 possessions more than Boston between its rebound and turnover advantages.

Of course, rebounding has been an issue the entire Finals – the team with more rebounds won every game. Even more atypically, the team with more offensive rebounds won six of the seven. Offensive rebounds typically correlate with losing, because you can’t get an offensive rebound unless you miss a shot, and usually the team with more offensive rebounds gained that distinction by missing a great many more shots.

True to that trend, L.A. missed more shots than Boston tonight, but the offensive boards allowed them to attempt so many that it didn’t matter. With Kendrick Perkins absent, L.A.’s size put even more pressure on the Celtics’ defensive rebounders, especially on the opening minutes. Seven-footer Andrew Bynum ganged up with Gasol to regain possession on the first eight Laker misses before Boston finally claimed a carom – a missed free throw that Rasheed Wallace rebounded at knee-level.

“I thought the lack of size was the difference,” said Rivers. “Our guys battled down there, but 23-8 on offensive rebounds, and the 37-17 discrepancy in free throws, that makes it impossible to overcome.”

The rebounding battle became so important because the Lakers couldn’t get out of their own way on offense. Bryant deserved his Finals MVP award but Game 7 was a stinker for him, shooting 6-of-24 with just two assists and committing four turnovers. Instead, it was his teammates who picked him up.

Which leads us to the big takeaway from L.A. boarding its way to the title: Reminding us that this is a team sport.

The silly “Kobe has five, Michael has six” debates we had all week now seem more ludicrous than ever after his teammates bailed him out on a night that would allegedly decide his legacy.

Yes, the ring’s the thing, and even Bryant couldn’t resist noting that he now has one more of them than Shaquille O’Neal. But this isn’t tennis or golf – individuals don’t win championships. Teams do.

Bryant helped prove it when he suffered consecutive first-round exits prior to Gasol’s arrival. As brilliant as Bryant has been at times in these Finals, it’s noteworthy that his best Finals performance (Game 5) came in defeat, and his worst in the deciding victory.

Instead it was L.A.’s cavalry that rode to the rescue. Artest, whom Laker coach Phil Jackson called the team’s MVP tonight, suffocated Paul Pierce on defense and scored 20 points, including a back-breaking 3 with a minute left. Derek Fisher hit a difficult 3 to tie the game midway through the fourth, Gasol owned the glass in the fourth quarter, and Sasha Vujacic stepped out of the freezer to hit two title-clinching free throws with 11 seconds left.

That’s not a knock on Bryant. That’s just how it’s usually been done … far more frequently than most people care to remember. Take Jordan, for instance. He clinched his first title as a mostly-bystander watching a monstrous fourth quarter from John Paxson … and the second with five reserves leading a 16-point comeback against Portland in Game 6 ... and the third watching Paxson nail the game-winner in Phoenix.

In fact, if a player had his legacy defined tonight it wasn’t Bryant, who was the third-best player on his own team, but Gasol. Lambasted for his lack of toughness and fortitude in the 2008 Finals, and earlier in this series, he dominated the fourth quarter with nine points, six rebounds, two assists and a blocked shot. Perhaps that’s why he seemed more emotional than usual in the aftermath.

“He was the one guy I felt really played with good energy," said Lakers coach Phil Jackson.

As a result, the Lakers are champions, no matter how ugly it might have looked in stretches -- "It wasn't well done, but it was done," said Jackson.

And in the end, it wasn't done by legacies or superstars, but by the very basic fact that the Lakers earned so many shots they couldn't help but get at least a few them to the bottom of the net.

Pau Gasol's nature is to be measured in his comments, about just about anything. With microphones around, he is borderline humble. But in the lead-up to Game 7, he did remind people on Wednesday that he has more than a little relevant experience.

I take great pride in accomplishing great things. You know, a gold medal in the Olympics, a gold medal in the World Championships is very, very special. But it's hard to compare, it's hard to put one above the other when you talk about an NBA Championship. It's just so hard to win at this level, it really is. And I feel very fortunate that I had a chance to fight for different championships and win different ones, too.

Tomorrow is just another great opportunity to continue to accomplishing great things, and that's why I want to give my best, as I always have at this point. At this point in my career, I think I have a good maturity level and wisdom to approach this the right way.