Celtics two wins away from more Lakers tears

There's not enough Kleenex for all of the crying coming out of the Los Angeles Lakers after two games of the NBA Finals.
The Fighting Kobes find themselves down 2-0 to the Boston Celtics after another defeat on Sunday night, a 108-102 loss at TD Banknorth Garden. The fact that the Lakers cut out 22 points from their 24-point deficit in the fourth quarter doesn't matter. Los Angeles was badly outplayed for most of the second half and deserve to be behind in the series as it shifts to Hollywood for Game 3.
And stop right now if you want to point to the disparity in free throws in the series. Boston had 38 attempts from the line in Game 2, 28 more than Los Angeles, but even Kevin Garnett was taking his chances to go to the basket and pick up some cheap fouls against what has truly been a soft Lakers' defensive effort. Paul Pierce hasn't been shy either and Rajon Rondo is killing Derek Fisher with his quickness, getting into the paint at will and setting up dunks for Leon Powe (21 points, 6-for-7 from the field in Game 2), Kendrick Perkins and the rest of Boston's secondary offensive options. Aggressive teams get those calls. The Lakers have done nothing but take jump shots for two games.
Lakers' fans should be feeling a sickening sense of deja vu this morning. The source of it stems back to 2004, when a heavily favored Los Angeles team was humbled by Detroit in the Finals and hadn't been back since. The Lakers were a squabbling mess of dysfunction, with Kobe and Shaq at odds, Karl Malone hating his role between two bickering stars and Gary Payton's skills eroding against Tony Parker in the Western Conference and Finals MVP Chauncey Billups.
The similarities now are shocking. Rondo has 23 assists and just four turnovers in two games, using his superior quickness and size while Fisher does his Payton impression while looking old and slow. Boston made 36 field goals in Game 2 and had assists on 31 of them, playing the sort of team basketball that the Pistons used to neutralize Los Angeles' edge in individual talent. The Celtics' team defense, the best in the NBA during the regular season, has kept Kobe out of the paint and hounded him into 20-for-49 shooting in two games, a miserable percentage for a guy who must carry his team's offense.
This is what Kobe wanted -- to be the main man on a championship contender. The fact that his teammates do nothing but defer to him is what he demands, and that's how you end up with just 20 assists on 41 field goals like Los Angeles had in Game 2. Kobe ran Shaq out of town, demanded a trade himself when he didn't think the Lakers had enough pieces to make a title run and screamed at his teammates to start playing harder while the Celtics were going through a glorified lay-up line in the third quarter.
So what if Boston almost gave up its big lead? How quickly we forget that after a fairly even first half the Celtics pulled away late in the second quarter and crushed Los Angeles in for about a 25-minute span during the middle of the game. All of Phil Jackson's mind games can't make up for the fact that his team hasn't played up to snuff in this series. He can question Paul Pierce's knee injury and the officiating all he wants and try to play mental gymnastics with the other chess pieces in this series. Jackson's players have performed so far like they want to surrender their king and go home for the summer, allowing the Celtics to take the crown.