Double bagel

Well, almost. The highly anticipated four to nothing shaming on both sides did not happen. Only one side flipped, at the west where the LA Lakers wept after being swept, neither away nor off their feet. LeBron James and company drowned in the lake, not by the size of the mythical Loch Ness monster but by the heft of Denver Nuggets. The Lakers were desperate to atone they had to summon Tristan Thompson who in all fairness kept up with the game and thankfully not with a Kardashian.

But the 15-point advantage at halftime thinned out. The team that nags at the door of opportunity finally gets a shot at basketball immortality. Pass on not the popcorn this time, it sticks between the teeth, especially when gnashing at frustration over failed expectation. Chicken nuggets please, fried but not deeper than its bench. All five starters for Denver ended up in double digit, even if the Lakers also fielded its best first five. Nikola Jokic scored 30, Jamal Murray had 25 and Aaron Gordon 22. The chicken pieces never felt this good, minus the sodium content. Although it is not the only factor in hypertension, an edge of the seat game does, more so earliest end of the series. Also anger at stupidity, the pain we inflict on our sanity.

In the entire beast of four, er, best of seven, LeBron’s poor shot selection at the crucial time factored, this despite a 40-point game in the tire and retire, er, do or die game. It now forces one of the greatest to contemplate his future in basketball. He should not prove anything else at 38, except flirt with an aging, er, declining game worse than a 4-0 humiliation. What went wrong LeBron?

While he may have done something wrong, he did many things right. Except for game three, the three others could have gone either way. But LeBron made ill-advised jumpers in the dying minutes. Recency. What he did before is forgotten, even if he built the foundation to winning. Primacy. What matters is what he does when the clock ticks away and a chance at winning is bungled awry. Ruthless expectation, nothing should go wrong. That selfish, that exacting, that unforgiving. But it happens to the best of teams and even to the greatest of men.

Conversely, the Boston Celtics who vowed to fight to the end indeed refused to end its campaign. Not yet, 3-0 or 0-3 is not the end, whichever way you look at it. Jayson Tatum lives another day, er, game with 34 points and his entire team with three-point shooting. It could still be the beginning. Even if the heat is still on. But history is not on their side. All 150 teams did not recover in the playoffs, not even the latest addition led by a guy named LeBron. But there is always a first time. It is not history that makes great men and teams but the other way around. But can the Celtics turn this around?