Celtics vs. Lakers - Game On!

Sports by the Numbers Stat of the Week

1 The number of NBA titles (1) it takes to make your childhood dreams come true. Starting this Thursday, Kobe will be going for ring number four – Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett will be looking to get ring number one.
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Honorable Mentions

11 Boston and LA have now met in the NBA Finals (11) times – but the most recent prior to this season was when the Lakers beat the Celtics in 1987, back when it was Larry Bird vs. Magic Johnson.

16 Paul Pierce is the Celtics captain – a franchise that owns a record (16) NBA titles. He grew up in LA, and said last Friday, “As a kid, I hated the Celtics. I’m going back home to play against my team that I grew up watching – it’s a dream come true.”

31 The Lakers have won 14 NBA titles – add that to the 16 for Boston, plus the title one of them will win this year, and the two franchises combined will own (31) out of the 62 NBA titles in league history.

110 Boston and LA met twice in the regular season – the last time on December 30, in LA. Boston took that game (110)-91, and also won an earlier meeting at home by a score of 107-94. If you think Lakers fans are concerned, well, think again – Pau Gasol was still with Memphis back in December, but once he came to LA the Lakers won 18 of 20 games and began playing like the team that won the Western Conference Finals.

232 The NBA uses a (2-3-2) format for scheduling games during the Finals – as opposed to the (2-2-1-1-1) format that is a bit friendlier to the team with the home court advantage utilized in earlier rounds. Boston benefited from getting games 1, 2, 5, and 7 at home in the earlier rounds – but if this series goes the whole way they will be at home for games 1, 2, 6, and 7. If you think Celtics fans are concerned, well, think again – after losing six straight road games to start this post-season, Boston won two out of three when it counted the most, on the road in Detroit, to win the Eastern Conference Finals.