Let's take a look at the 2010 NBA Finals:
- Game 1: Lakers out-rebound Celtics, 42-31, win game
- Game 2: Celtics out-rebound Lakers, 44-39, win game
- Game 3: Lakers out-rebound Celtics, 43-35, win game
- Game 4: Celtics out-rebound Lakers, 41-34, win game
- Game 5: Celtics out-rebound Lakers, 35-35, win game
Noticing a pattern? I bet you can guess how Game 6 finished.
The Lakers destroyed the Celtics, out-rebounding them, 52-39, and, not surprisingly, also destroyed them on the scoreboard, 89-67, holding Boston to the second-lowest point total ever in an NBA Finals game.
So, yes: the team that has won the rebound battle in the 2010 NBA Finals has also won the game. Every time. If the Celtics want to bring home Banner No. 18, it's going to have to start on the glass, a point driven home by our CelticsBlog.
It is going to be tough to rebound without our starting center in the game, but that's why we paid the big bucks to get Rasheed and that's why we hung on to Glen Davis, for moments like this. In fact, since the series began, we've been anticipating Perkins missing a game due to picking up his last technical. So the team is prepared. Now they just have to go out there and do it.
It will take 100% effort from everyone from Rondo to KG to Pierce to the guys mentioned above. Everyone's got to chip in. And honestly, if you can't lay everything on the line for Game 7 of the Finals vs. the Lakers, then you have no pulse.
If the Celtics are going to raise a banner, they'll have to dominate the glass.