We have ourselves a re-match. Lakers-Celtics Part II. I had anticipated this matchup all season long and truth be told, I've been begging for it just for the CHANCE at retribution. Two summers ago, this Boston team beat us mercilessly for 6 games, which included a 24 point comeback win and a 39 point clincher. Needless to say, the Lakers redeemed themselves last year by capturing a championship of their own, but as any true Lake-Show fan will tell you, the victory felt somewhat empty. Yes, we took home the trophy, but we didn't get a chance to get back at Boston. Now two years later, we have our chance.

If you haven't noticed, when I talk about the Lakers, I often use the word "we". As many Laker fans can attest to, there's a family-type bond between us. The Forum Blue and Gold runs through our veins and as I've seen with many other fans, we feel like the team is our extended family. I'm not naive or ignorant enough to believe that we're the only fan base to feel that connection, but this is the team I bleed for and this is what I've seen. No Laker fan I know has NOT been openly cheering for the Celtics to make it to the Finals. David Stern may have wanted LeBron, but WE always wanted Boston. It doesn't feel right any other way. The Lakers-Celtics rivalry is both a referendum on the legacies of the two storybook franchises and an obvious long-standing example of two teams who's players, management and fan bases DO NOT like each other.

Since the embarrassment 2 years ago, I cancelled a planned trip to Boston, stopped wearing green and turned on a whole bunch of players that I used to genuinely enjoy watching. My Paul Pierce jersey is collecting dust right next to his game-used wheelchair, KG has gone from my 2nd favorite player to my most hated and Rajon Rondo fell from being a player I loved in the draft and wanted on LA to a smug little prick who needs to be put in his place. It is not an exaggeration to say I HATE the Boston Celtics. I felt dirty pulling for them to beat Cleveland and Orlando, but a shot at vengeance outweighs spite and disdain. With all that said, I as well as the Lakers, got exactly what I wanted.

This is meant to come off as an un-biased Finals preview, but you must understand how difficult that is in this case. In my eyes, Paul Pierce's acting chops are on par with some of the top Hollywood draws and Kevin Garnett belongs in the same nut-house as Charles Manson. These are NOT guys I feel good after talking about. But they are champions, just like we are and that's what makes this series so compelling and so important for the league as the final chapter before the summer of LeBron finally gets underway and changes the NBA landscape for better or worse. Case in point, Lakers-Celtics XII needed to happen.

Kobe Bryant is one of the greatest players to ever lace them up. But any honest basketball fan can admit that there are 4 series in Kobe's career that taint his resume somewhat. The first was his rookie season when he shot 3 airballs against Utah. If you ever watch Kobe perform surgery on Utah as he did the past 3 post-seasons, you can trace it back to the airballs. He doesn't forgive and he doesn't forget. He will probably continue to dominate Utah until they retire his jersey. Another series that made Kobe look bad was the horrific 3-1 collapse to the Phoenix Suns in 2006. You know the drill, Lakers led 3-1, lost game 5 then blew an almost sure-fire game 6 win, eventually getting crushed in game 7 and subsequently losing to the Suns again the following year in much less thrilling fashion. Kobe returned those favors to the tune of 34 points, 8 assists and 7 rebounds while shooting 52% and hitting dagger after dagger over the past 6 games in a scraping of the Suns. Yeah, he remembers.

By now you've probably figured out that the two remaining series' in question are the 2004 and 2008 Finals, where Kobe's Lakers were humiliated by the Pistons and the Celtics respectively. Why do I bring up the Pistons you may ask? Well if you look back at the history books, you'll remember that the big in-season acquisition that really put the Pistons over the top was Rasheed Wallace, whom they finagled for next to nothing. Yes! The same Rasheed Wallace who was brought in to be the prize off-season addition for THE BOSTON CELTICS! Since the Pistons are going to be in the NBA's proverbial gutter for the foreseeable future, this is Kobe's chance to kill two birds with one stone. Let me re-iterate. Kobe Bryant, the NBA's version of a blood-hungry assassin has a chance to right the two remaining wrongs left in his storied career in one series, all the while getting 1 championship closer to Michael Jordan's 6 rings. YOU DON'T THINK HE REALIZES THIS?!?

I'm not getting ahead of myself. The Boston Celtics are an incredible team. Top to bottom they are cagey, gritty veterans who know how to win, and relish the underdog role. They know that the majority of talking heads are taking the Lakers, but this time they're garnering a lot more respect than they got two years ago. They're still hungry, but in this series, they aren't the guys with something to prove. Kobe has already been mentioned, but Pau has to prove that he's not soft. He's made incredible strides this season, but that Boston series is still in his mind. It's time for him to go back into the mode he was in throughout these playoffs before Phoenix instilled a zone. Lamar Odom is in the same boat. Called too soft and too caught in the moment two years ago, Odom has to be the Laker's un-sung hero and game changer off the bench. Andrew Bynum didn't even play in the Finals 2 years ago. He is no doubt out to prove he's a difference maker and that with him, the 2008 series would have been a little bit different. This brings us to Ron Artest. Ron has been so unpredictable in these playoffs that I went from calling him an awful basketball player to calling him a hero in the span of two real-world minutes. Ron simply has to prove that he's capable of becoming a champion.

The Lakers are hungry. No matter what they all said in front of the cameras, they all wanted this. After the 39 point massacre, they'd be cowards not to. This is the series that will define their season and their dynasty. This series means retribution, redemption and revelation. The last time these two teams met at this stage, Boston was hungrier, tougher and determined to prove all the critics wrong. This time it's LA with an ax to grind. There is no part of me that believes that this will be a short or easy series. This is Goliath vs Goliath and there will be blood. The Celtics hate the Lakers and the Lakers hate the Celtics; no love lost. That all went out the window when a large group of Celtic fans, celebrated their series clinching victory two years ago by class-lessly throwing rocks at, spitting and cursing at and shaking the Lakers team bus as it was leaving the TD Garden. It's a memory that all the Lakers remaining from the 2008 roster still carry with them. This will be an epic showdown, and if you care about basketball, you won't miss it. All things being equal, the Lakers have something that the Celtics don't: Kobe Bryant. He never forgets.