Basketball Betting

Home court proves to be no advantage in NBA Finals

Basketball Betting Lines

06/09/2010 - Boston, MA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - I'm starting to believe the sixth man is a bit overrated.

No, I'm not talking about my column, Lamar Odom or Tony Allen, I'm talking about the crowds that are supposed to mean so much in an NBA game.

The Los Angeles Lakers came into the 2010 NBA Finals with home-court advantage, a precarious position for the Boston Celtics since the Lakers came into the championship series 8-0 at Staples Center this postseason after going 34-7 there in the regular season.

LA managed to extend its postseason run in Hollywood with a Game 1 win last Thursday but premature visions of a sweep came crashing down three days later thanks to the record shooting of Ray Allen, a superlative fourth quarter by Rajon Rondo and Kobe Bryant's trouble with the officials.

Boston certainly wasn't awed by the Lakers success at Staples Center. The feeling was that LA was exceptional on its home floor because of its players, not because of a fan base more interested in watching Jack Nicholson play shadow coach or cheering a touching Dustin Hoffman-Jason Bateman Kiss Cam moment.

The intricacies of a great team playing a beautiful game are lost on the Hollywood elite. In fact, Paul Pierce, a Los Angeles native, was the first to post bulletin board material in the series, downplaying the fans in his hometown before things even got underway.

"Our fans are a little bit more knowledgeable to the game," Pierce said. "I think a lot of celebrities come here to get out of the house (rather) than to watch a game -- to see the other celebrities. It's an interesting crowd, whereas I think our fans really come to watch the actual game."

The series shifted to Boston Tuesday and the gritty East Coast crowd that was expected certainly showed but it didn't matter. The Lakers won 91-84 at TD Garden and ensured that if the Celtics win this series, they will do it in LA.

It's wicked loud at the Gah-den. The drunks sporting masks of Odom's wife, Khloe Kardashian, chants of "Ugly Sister" for poor Khloe, "Beat LA" and "Kobe Sucks" along with House of Pain telling me to "Jump Around" all morph into a perfect storm of noise pollution that could rival a jet engine.

The Southies really don't care about any movie stars. OK, maybe Nicholson and Leo DiCaprio get a bit of a pass since they both starred in Martin Scorsese's brilliant film "The Departed," the movie that has given Beantown a new theme song, "I'm Shipping Up To Boston" by Dropkick Murphys.

This is no wine and cheese crowd. It's 18,624 strong dressed in green, all Irish for 48 minutes, giving it to the Lakers whether their team is winning or not. The big celebrity here was New England Patriots star quarterback Tom Brady although Christopher Mintz-Plasse of Superbad and Role Models fame did get a nice little cheer, probably because he was wearing a Beat LA t-shirt.

Lakers coach Phil Jackson certainly knew what he was in for.

"The early momentum is what we are going to have to check," Jackson said. "Come out and absorb the crowd energy and whatever that fuels into the game. Once that's over and the adrenaline is burned you see what goes on in the game."

What went on was a 12-5 spurt by the C's featuring a series of easy baskets to start the game before the Lakers steadied themselves after Jackson called a timeout and finished the first quarter with a 26-17 edge as Pierce and Allen combined to shoot 0-for-10.

"We were playing so poorly, it was a necessity to call time out to slow things down," Jackson said. "We seemed to gather some strength and change the course of the game right there."

Pierce finally knocked down a three in the second quarter but LA led by as many as 17 points before settling for a 52-40 halftime edge.

On cue the fans erupted when Boston cut the lead to five with under two minutes to go in the third quarter but Bryant quieted them with a step-back three.

To their credit the Celtics never went away in the fourth but the Lakers came up with big shot after big shot down the stretch. Bryant, Odom and the villain in Game 2 for LA, the defensively challenged Derek Fisher, just wouldn't miss. Meanwhile, Allen, the hero of Game 2, ended up missing all 13 of his attempts from the field, including all eight from beyond the arc. . A chance for Boston to earn a record 18th NBA championship without seeing LAX again, a scenario Pierce placed on that same bulletin board in capital letters when he told Lakers fans "We ain't coming back to LA" after the Game 2 win, is now just a dream.

Jackson responded to Pierce by saying his team would prove him to be a liar. If he's incorrect now, it's the Lakers that will be NBA champions after three straight wins in Beantown.

The history of the finals says LA is in the driver's seat. The league's championship series has been tied at a game apiece 32 different times. The winner of Game 3 has taken 28 of those sets.

The 2-3-2 format certainly does Boston no favors. Beating a team like the Lakers three straight times in any venue was going to be a tall task. After all, even if they are playing poorly on a consistent basis, LA always has Bryant in its hip pocket, a player that can take over any game at any time.

Thinking Boston couldn't win in LA was folly. The Celtics were one of the NBA's best road teams this year and had already won five games away from TD Garden in the playoffs before the Game 2 win. Doc Rivers' club also compiled a 26-15 mark as the visitor during the regular season, one of the NBA's best.

Thinking LA couldn't right the ship and get this back to the left coast was equally as specious.