Paul Pierce looked absolutely unstoppable Sunday night in his team’s loss to the Lakers, so much so that he may have already sealed the fate of Los Angeles. If it wasn’t for his team’s poor 1st quarter performance along with the outrageous amount of foul calls by Dick Bavetta and his crew, Pierce and the Celtics would be celebrating their first championship in 22 years. And without a doubt, Paul Pierce would be the MVP of the NBA Finals.

After the Celtics’ 24 point comeback on Thursday, I began wondering who would be MVP of the Finals for the Celtics. There really was no clear cut winner due to the Celtics’ fantastic all-around team play. Garnett had played alright, Ray Allen has played very well(especially compared to the series against the Pistons), and Paul Pierce has had a solid showing like usual. There were also a couple of long shots in James Posey and Leon Powe if they had another break out game, but overall no real no-doubt choice. But after watching Pierce dominate the Lakers single handedly, Pierce will be that no-doubt choice if the Celtics can prevent a Laker comeback.

It looked as if Pierce was driving against children in Game 5. In a stretch in the 2nd quarter, Pierce scored 11 straight points. Jordan Farmar, Sasha Vujacic, and even the almighty Kobe Bryant at times could not handle the strength of Paul Pierce driving to the basket. It just looked way too easy for the Celtic guard. Even after he broke down the Laker backcourt, not even the stronger Lamar Odom or Pau Gasol could step up and stop Pierce. It seemed as if every drive by Pierce took on 4 Lakers, and he easily finished every time.

All the hype coming into the series was Kobe taking the torch and becoming Jordan. Kobe hasn’t lived up to the hype, and the only one plaKying Jordanesque is Paul Pierce. Throughout this series, you haven’t seen Kobe drive, dominate the key, and get to the free throw line anything like Pierce.

If Pierce has a game half as dominating as game 5 and the Celtics decide to play before they’re down by double digits, Kobe and the Lakers simply don’t stand a chance. Pierce will be in Celtic lure along with Larry Bird and even Bill Russel for bringing the Celtics back to glory. But hey, I’ve been talking about Kobe all playoffs and I’ll never doubt what Kobe is capable of, so Pierce needs to take care of business tonight because it’s not over ’till the ring’s on the finger.

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Never has Jordan disappointed any of his fans in a Finals game like Kobe did last night. With five minutes to go in the fourth quarter after the Lakers squandered a 24 point lead, the game was tied. The Lakers were shooting just awful, and the game was just begging to be taken over by Kobe. He did not takeover. The Lakers ended up losing in what will go down as the biggest collapse in NBA history.

Everyone calls Kobe Bryant the best “closer” in the game. That superlative deemed untrue last night when Kobe failed to take his team under his wing in the biggest game of his life. Throughout the entire game Kobe was no where to be seen, but players such as Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol were stepping up enough to give the Lakers a 24 point lead. At halftime the Lakers had an 18 point lead and looked to have the game easily in hand. The scariest part was that Kobe hadn’t gotten going yet. He never did either.

Kobe just straight up didn’t play up to his potential. In no way should a player of his status allow his team to give up such a substantial lead in a game of this magnitude. It’s shocking really how he never took over this game. I’ve always seen parrallels in both Jordan and Kobe. The way the shoot, the way they drive, and their desire to take over a game late when their team needs them the most. But after last night’s performance I have to say he is no where near Jordan’s level. This just makes me think that there will never be another player like Jordan, and it’s really disheartening.

Sure Kobe is the scapegoat for this loss. And people can cry and moan that the team around him didn’t help, but whenever Kobe has a great game, no body talks about his teammates then. It’s just Kobe this and Kobe that, so he gets it both ways. But who really has kind of flown under the radar for this loss is Phil Jackson. Now I’ve heard Jeff Van Gundy announcing the game and forever praising how Phil Jackson takes time outs at the perfect time to stop momentum. When ever Van Gundy would say this I always agreed and was shocked at how correct he is. But yesterday, Jackson just wasn’t the coach he used to be. How do you allow the Celtics to come back into the game like that? He took timeouts at the right time but it seemed as if nothing was being done in the timeout to change the forecast of the game and I think Jackson should receive as much or even more blame then Kobe for this loss. Laker fans, Kobe Bryant fans, and NBA fans deserve better and now we might not get to see an epic game 7 that everyone was praying for.

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