In 2009, the Los Angeles Lakers ended a title drought that seemed much longer than it really was by winning the NBA championship.
Still, there was something deeply unsatisfying about it, as it came against the Orlando Magic.
Even after the team added to its hardware collection that summer, the sting of being embarrassed by their arch-rival Boston Celtics in the previous year’s NBA Finals remained.
As the 2010 playoffs opened, Kobe Bryant and crew were still determined to get revenge on Boston.
The Lakers got past the young and talented Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round and swept the Utah Jazz in the next series. Bryant shook off a bad knee and an avulsion fracture on the index finger of his shooting hand to deliver some of the best ball of his career.
L.A. took the first two games of the Western Conference finals versus the Phoenix Suns, only to drop the next two in Arizona.
Thanks to some heroics by newcomer Ron Artest, the Lakers took Game 5 and headed back to Phoenix with a chance to wrap up the series.
The Suns stayed on the Lakers’ heels down the stretch, but Bryant went off, hitting a series of tough, contested baskets that Suns star Steve Nash called “best-player-in-the-game type shots.”
Thanks in large part to the Black Mamba’s 37 points, L.A. held on to win 111-103 and advance to the championship series for the third time in a row and the seventh time in the past 11 years.
Just as the Lakers hoped, the Celtics were waiting for them there.
