You don’t need one of the greatest basketball players to tell you the following: Right now, the Boston Celtics are a better, hungrier team than the Los Angeles Lakers. All one has to do is watch the games and take a quick scan of the standings.
But if you need to hear it from a great former player, here it is. Courtest of the LA Times:
“Those guys have got to come out and really prove something to themselves and show the league that they are really ready to challenge the Celtics. Right now, the Celtics believe that the Lakers can’t beat them. It’s all about the Lakers on Christmas Day.”
“The Celtics are playing better on both ends of the court,” said Johnson. “You can just tell that they really want to repeat. The Lakers have been struggling big time on the defensive end, so they’ve got a lot of work to do to come up to where the Celtics are.”
The truth hurts.
With the Christmas showdown a mere three days away, the Lakers are currently on a two-game slide. As for the C’s, they’ve won 18 (!) in a row, tying a franchise record.
Suffice it to say, the Lakers will have a lot to prove this week.
