Good News/Bad News

Marc Stein sums it up thusly:

The good news for L.A.: Gasol (19 points, 13 rebounds, six assists) and Odom (20 points, 11 rebounds, four blocks) at least have the chance now to prove they can win that kind of game on the road, after Rivers publicly conceded that the Lakers were Game 5's "more physical team."

The bad news for L.A.: Boston has been the tougher team so far -- by far -- and showed more grit here than Rivers was willing to acknowledge publicly. The Celtics wiped out those two big deficits with that skeleton crew and refused to allow Kobe and Co. any comfort in the game that should have been the easiest for them to win, hanging around all the way until the final few ticks after Eddie House heaved in one last triple with 14.3 seconds to go.