Place Your Bets: Back to Beantown

The Lakers still have a shot, but beating the Celtics twice in a row in Boston seems unlikely. (AP Images)"]

Thank goodness for the 2-3-2 format. Without it, we'd likely be looking at life with no basketball, no hockey and no football. With it, we can treasure at least two more days until baseball is all we've got, save for Tiger-less golf tournaments and soccer games between Turkey and Croatia.

The Los Angeles Lakers, now trailing the NBA finals 3-2, beat the Boston Celtics 103-98 on Sunday at home to force Game 6 back in Beantown on Tuesday. And while any win is a good one, when the fans in Staples Center bid their team good luck after the final horn had sounded, not many could possibly be thinking the boys in gold had much of a shot to take the series in seven.

"We'll probably have to play better," Kobe Bryant said following a game in which his Lakers nearly blew another big fourth-quarter lead. "We've won on the road before. We shot the ball like crap back in Beantown the last time, so we're due."

Bryant's confidence aside, the thought of winning two straight in Boston is a daunting one for Los Angeles. The Celtics have covered all five point spreads so far in the finals – testament to their unexpected success against the favored Lakers – and have lost just once in the postseason on their home court.

The Celtics do have one big concern and that's the health of big man Kendrick Perkins, who missed Sunday's game with a sore shoulder. Boston coach Doc Rivers said he's doubtful for Game 6 too, and that, as the Washington Post's Michael Wilbon writes, is bad news for Boston: "With Perkins out, the Celtics might be out of whack. The Lakers suddenly have room to maneuver. Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom seem to stand taller. Kobe has room to drive... His very presence allows Garnett to play forward, not center, a not-so-subtle distinction that favors Garnett's frame and personality."

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