If the Los Angeles Lakers do not repeat as NBA champs, don't blame Kobe Bryant.  Bryant tried everything last evening, including scoring the first 19 points of the 3rd quarter.  But it wasn't enough as the Celtics held home court with a 92-86 victory.  Overall Bryant scored 38 points but the Celtic defense held the remaining Lakers to 48 points.  The Lakers try to even the series on Tuesday in Los Angeles.

After Game 4's conclusion with a Boston victory, to the naked eye it could be said that the teams have each held court, splitting the first four games, with game 5 being the pivotal game in Boston.  This becomes a must win for Boston before heading back to LA for game 6 and a potential game 7.

Bust what we have seen is that each team can win on the other's floor.  Will Bynum's knee isn't getting any better.  While Nate Robinson energized a geriatric Boston offense in game 4, what chance is there for him to implode in LA with a vocal crowd?  And then there's Kobe.

It will all come down to what we know.  Derek Fisher getting Kobe the ball and Kobe exerting his will over the other 9 players on the court.  He has nothing to prove, just win.  Regardless of all the free agent frenzy, he is legitimately the premier player in the league and therefore the world.  And the championship will going through him and his will.

Game 5 is important because it puts one team one win from the trophy.  But they will still have to get that last win on Tuesday or Thursday night.

The defending NBA Champion Los Angeles Lakers came into Boston last night and restore order by defeating the Boston Celtics 91-84 to take a 2 - 1 series lead in the best-of-seven.

While Boston point guard Rajon Rondo is making a name for himself in this year's playoffs, is there any greater under-appreciated player on any NBA champion than Laker point guard Derek Fisher?  All he does is win (of course it helps kicking it out to Kobe for the finish).  But last night he went for 16 points, 11 in the deciding 4th quarter.  He never has been nor will be spoken in the same breath of some of the ball magicians that are the eye of the fans, but when it comes down to it, he has the rings on his fingers while others just the hype.

The NCAA this week played politics with its own people, the sports media, Vegas, and anyone that has ever filled out a bracket sheet.  After opting out of its current television package with CBS, it re-upped with a CBS / TNT combination that will allegedly allow for all tournament games to be viewed on television.

It was also thought that the NCAA would expand the number of teams in the tournament to 96 from its current 65.  However, after much argument on the campuses and in the media, the sly politicians set us up for a minor bump, expansion to 68.  And its brilliant.

Now don't get us wrong - there will still be an argument as to the 69th team that doesn't get in.  But, what it does is allow for a "play-in" game that would most likely continue the current format where the winner would play the 1 seed in the region.  Where it gets sticky is does this put three more lower D-1 conference winners as sacrificial lambs to the #1 seeds?  Shouldn't #'s 65, 66, 67, and 68, regardless of what conference, have to be the "play-in" teams, matched against the lower seeded D-1 conference teams (usually your Southern Conference, Ivy League, etc.?  To permit another SEC, ACC, Pac-10, Big-10, Big East team in to quiet all the outcry is not what this should be about.  It should be about the best tournament field possible.  Say what you want, but this past year's tournament, so equally balanced, was exciting.

AND . . . the new structure permits the renewal of the oldest tournament, the NIT.  Everyone wins.

The Knicks and Nets are on the clock.

With the passing of their seasons, both clubs are now officially looking towards the July 1 opening of the free agent sign period.  Unless you have been in a cave in Afghanistan for the past several years, you know that this is the summer of super star free agents, headed by LeBron James and Dwayne Wade.

Both metropolitan teams have cleared considerable cap room in anticipation of signing one, if not two of the free agents available.  There has been much speculation that both teams will land neither of the big names, and potentially no one.

If you were the GM of the Knicks, who would you sign?  Go to left column on this page and vote for the free agents you would sign in our latest Game Over Poll.

Unless you had the volume down the whole tournament you would have had to been deaf to the constant chatter regarding the proposed expansion of the tournament field from 65 to 96.  The addition to the tournament will all but assure the retirement of the granddaddy of the tournaments, the NIT (also owned by the NCAA).

The arguments are that expansion would assist coaches in keeping their jobs as they will be able to reference their tournament appearances when they are being considered for replacement.  Another argument (the real reason), is that another round of games on CBS is worth vast amounts more to the NCAA than an ESPN-driven NIT.  The NCAA funds a vast majority of its other sports with the rake from CBS.

For the fans it means more potential upsets?  Who are they trying to fool here?  In the 1st round #33 would play #96, with #'s 1 - 32 getting 1st round bye.  The "upsets" at this level would have less of an impact.  And what-if #96 beats #33, are we really going to anticipate a greater opportunity for # 1 to have a greater chance of ever losing its 1st round game to #96 than to #64?  This is just a ploy to suck in more dollars, not create a better competitive tournament.

What do you think?  Should the tournament expand or stay as is?  Go to http://www.gameovernyc.com/basketball/gonews/ and vote in the Game Over Poll.  We'll announce the results for all to see.

The best team in college basketball this past season was not a men's team.  The University of Connecticut women's team, now two time defending champs with a 78 game winning streak will attempt to accomplish something next year that borders on the absurd: break the all-time winning streak of 88 collegiate basketball wins of UCLA.

What Coach Gino Auriemma has accomplished is nothing short of a dynasty.  And this comes at a time in a converging dynasty of Pat Summitt's University of Tennessee teams of the past 15 years.  What makes the UConn women's team hard to embrace where Tennessee is loved is Auriemma.  His "us against the world" mentality creates the maelstrom that he orchestrates.  Great teams, Wooden's UCLA squads and Summitt's Tennessee teams have accomplished the unimaginable success with those that would otherwise cheering for the opposition because they make it about their teams and wanting to see the accomplishments they can achieve and new, higher bars they set.  Auriemma is right, it will be UConn against the world next season as he pushes to accomplish the next goal, but it will be he, not the team, that is against the world.

Either way, at least for this past season, the best collegiate team dressed in a different locker room then the men, at every arena in the land.