With the Boston Celtics playing iceberg to the Lakers' cruise ship Sunday at the TD Banknorth Garden, ABC cameras showed Lakers fan Leonardo DiCaprio looking on anxiously while analyst Mark Jackson exclaimed, "If you're DiCaprio, you're thinking, 'This is 'Titanic' right now.' " . . .
You're also hoping the Lakers aren't soon "The Departed." . . .
The only teams that rallied from 2-0 deficits in the NBA Finals to win titles -- the Celtics in 1969, the Portland Trail Blazers in 1977 and the Miami Heat in 2006 -- featured Hall of Fame centers. . . .
Pau Gasol is not Bill Russell, Bill Walton or Shaquille O'Neal. . . .
The discrepancy in free throws between the two teams was so pronounced in Game 2 that the Lakers coach later said of his harsh comments to the officials, "I've never used so many four-letter words in my life." . . .
Phil Jackson? . . .
Actually, it was Pat Riley, 25 years ago, after the Philadelphia 76ers took 32 free throws to the Lakers' five in the 76ers' 103-93 victory at Philadelphia. . . .
No team has shot fewer free throws in the Finals. . . .
Noted the next-day headline in The Times: "76ers Send Lakers Home Crying." . . .
Moses Malone and the 76ers swept that 1983 series. . . .
Kobe Bryant & Co. are hoping history won't repeat. . . .
No team has been swept in the Finals more often than the Lakers, who also went 0-4 against Isiah Thomas and the Detroit Pistons in 1989 and, in their last season in Minneapolis, 0-4 against Bill Russell and the Boston Celtics in 1959. . . .
Yes, teams featuring Magic Johnson were swept twice. . . .
With apologies to Reggie Theus, Paul Pierce has ended the debate over who is the best NBA player to ever come out of Inglewood High. . . .
Theus, now coaching the Sacramento Kings, was a flashier player but played for a series of mostly bad teams and never was in a position to rise up out of a wheelchair to provide inspiration in a pivotal playoff game. . . .
Only once did Theus play on a team that won a playoff series. . . .
In his first nine trips to the Finals as a coach, the first six with Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, Jackson never lost more than two consecutive games. . . .
Now Jackson has lost five in a row dating to 2004. . . .
Bryant hasn't helped, shooting horribly in all but one of those games. . . .
