LOS ANGELES — Even when Lamar Odom was a kid with limitless imagination growing up on New York's playground courts, he thinks he might have dismissed Thursday's season finale as a bit too extravagant.

When the Los Angeles Lakers take on the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, Odom realizes it's a fantasy come true for any basketball player with the audacity to dream this big.

Another memorable chapter in the NBA's best rivalry will end with a coronation at Staples Center, where the defending champion Lakers will try to earn their 16th banner while denying Boston its unprecedented 18th title in the clubs' second Finals meeting in three years.

For the fifth time in their 12 Finals meetings, Boston and Los Angeles need all seven games to decide it. Each previous time it went to Game 7, the Celtics won — but when the current Lakers and Celtics take the court for the NBA Finals' first Game 7 since 2005 and just its second in the past 16 years, most will try awfully hard not to think about the history and pressure heaped on their shoulders.

It's fine for kids and historians to savor this scenario, but Kobe Bryant knows it's not a good idea for players to get caught up in it.

Although Boston has the rivalry's Game 7 history on its side, the Celtics have plenty stacked against them after an embarrassing 89-67 loss in Game 6 Tuesday night. Most glaringly, Boston won't have starting center Kendrick Perkins, who sprained multiple ligaments in his right knee in the first quarter.
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