NBA Finals History: The 10 Best NBA Finals series of all time

#5 2010 - Lakers beat the Celtics 4-3

NBA Finals Game 7: Boston Celtics v Los Angeles Lakers

The Celtics and the Lakers faced off in the NBA Finals for the second time in 3 years. The Cs held the edge with their win in the 2008 Finals, but the Lakers as a squad had become deeper and improved their cohesion ever since. They finished the regular season as the top-seeded team in the West, and went on to beat the Thunder, the Jazz and the Suns in the Western Conference.

The Celtics had to deal with a multitude of injuries in the regular season and finished with the 4th seed. But they revved up the intensity in the playoffs to dispatch the Heat, the Cavaliers and then the Magic in the Eastern Conference.

The Lakers won Game 1 102-89, but gave away homecourt advantage with a 103-94 loss in Game 2. They took it right back in Game 3 with a hard-fought 91-84 win at the TD Garden, but dropped the next 2 games to go 3-2 down in the series.

Kobe and the rest of the Lakers squad stepped up on the defensive end to hold Boston to just 67 points in Game 6, and they repeated the performance in an ugly Game 7 which was won by the Lakers 83-79 on the back of poor shooting performances all around the court.

Kobe, who averaged 28.6 points, 8 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game, won Finals MVP honours. Neither team shot the ball particularly well as this was a defensive grind through the length of it. The Lakers shot worse than the Celtics from all ranges, but their superior rebounding and defense allowed them to score off freebies more often and finish the deal off.