NBA Finals Game 5: Closing Time

During Game 5 of the NBA Finals, both Jeff Van Gundy and Marc Jackson seemed to have the same opinion about the how the game ended: the Lakers played terrible defensively.

While I don't necessarily disagree with that, there is a reverse side to that coin: the Celtics didn't close out the game. Sure, the Lakers' defense wasn't great down the stretch, but they still won the game by five points. What does that say about the Celtics' offense?

The Lakers gave them plenty of open looks down the stretch that the Celtics weren't able to capitalize on. For every missed assignment that the Lakers had down the stretch, there was a missed opportunity by the Celtics that immediately followed.

Therein lays the biggest hurdle that the Celtics face. Sure, they are still in great position to win the series with two home games remaining. But they had plenty of opportunities to take the game from the Lakers in Game 5 and didn't do it. Now, suddenly, the biggest question mark that has surrounded this team all season long has brought itself to the forefront: do the Celtics players, who have little to no experience closing out series, have what it takes to close out the biggest series any of them have ever played in?

For the record, I think that if last night's game was played in Boston, the Celtics would have pulled it out. But what are the chances that Game 6 will play out the same way during the stretch? Who's to say that the Lakers won't be able to make adjustments and fix the problems that they had down the stretch in Game 5?

It's possible that with the home crowd behind them that Boston will jump out to such a big lead that it won't matter how the stretch run plays out. It seems more likely at this point that Game 6 has a better chance of playing out like Game 2 than Game 5, where the C's just need to hold off a late charge by the Lakers.

If somehow the Lakers do manage to take the lead into the last five minutes of the game, it will be very interesting to see how the Celtics handle it. Maybe home court advantage will be enough to carry them over the top, or maybe Game 5 was just a microcosm of how the rest of the series will go.

Remember, this is still the same team that seemed to have trouble handling the pressure of winning a road game for the first part of these playoffs. They seemed to have put that obstacle behind them. Now they face a whole new sort of pressure: closing the series and winning an NBA title.

I wouldn't go as far as saying that Game 6 is a must win for the Celtics because home teams have an unreal advantage in Game 7s, but if it becomes another situation where the Celtics have the opportunity to close out the Lakers by playing well down the stretch and don't, all of the sudden, the pressure really mounts going into Game 7.

After all, if it does get that far, the Lakers will have won three of the last four games and the game that they did lose was the result of an epic, once-in-a-lifetime comeback.

All of the Celtics closing issues, however, will be rendered moot if they can jump out to a huge lead like they did in Game 2.

And if you are to believe Jeff Van Gundy and Marc Jackson, the Lakers defense will allow them plenty of opportunities to do so.