Who will be more remorseful, Lakers or Celtics?
THE DAILY CHATTER
ESPN.com's J.A. Adande says Game 4 appears to be choice for Regret Game in NBA Finals, given Lakers' big fall, but Celtics' inability to come all the way back in Game 5 may be momentum shifter.
Regret Game?
That's what Game 4 was called by ESPN.com's J.A. Adande: "The most intriguing possibility left in the NBA Finals is the chance it might be the Celtics who lost the Regret Game.
"The Regret Game is the one that comes back to haunt you for years after the series ends. The one that represented your best or last shot to win it. The one that was tantalizingly within reach.
"For now and quite likely forever that game is Game 4. The Lakers had a 24-point lead in their building and couldn't bring it home, couldn't refresh the series at 2-2 and couldn't keep the historical odds from stacking up against them.
"But Boston had just as good an opportunity to finish off the series in Game 5 -- the Lakers won, 103-98 -- and now the Celtics have left the door open for all of their little things to turn into one big problem."
High ratings
Television ratings for the NBA Finals were up from the last time the series went five games. . . .
ABC on Monday said the Lakers' 103-98 win Sunday over the Boston Celtics to avoid elimination averaged a 10.1 fast national rating on the network.
That's an 11% increase over the 9.1 for Game 5 of the Dallas-Miami series in 2006.
Prices up in Boston
According to coasttocoasttickets.com, a third-row courtside seat for tonight's game is being sold for more than $4,000.
Hot jerseys
Brendan Gallagher of the British newspaper Telegraph.co.uk writes that the Celtics' All-Star forward Kevin Garnett leads the lists of the NBA's most popular jerseys for the 2007-08 season based on combined sales at the NBA Store in New York City and NBAStore.com. . . .
The Lakers' Kobe Bryant ends the season at No. 2 and the Cleveland Cavaliers' LeBron James moves up one spot to No. 3. The Denver Nuggets' Allen Iverson holds the No. 4 spot, followed by the New Orleans Hornets' Chris Paul, who makes his debut in the Top 5. Paul Pierce came in at No. 14, and Pau Gasol was at 15.
Coach-to-coach
Telegraph.co.uk reports that former Chelsea soccer coach Avram Grant spoke with Phil Jackson after the Lakers blew their 24-point lead in Game 4. "We talked about what happened with Chelsea in the Manchester game, the disappointment John Terry had missing the penalty," Jackson said.
