Kobe's Lakers in Boston For Rondo's Celtics

The Los Angeles Lakers (5-14) face the Boston Celtics (5-11) on Friday evening at TD Garden.

The Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers have combined to play 35 games this season. Each has won only five games, and at the moment, neither team is in line to make the playoffs, let alone win an NBA title.

However, none of that matters on Friday evening in Boston. It's the Lakers versus the Celtics, a matchup that adds up to 33 NBA titles.

After arriving in Boston late Wednesday night, Kobe Bryant found time to join Rajon Rondo for breakfast on Thursday morning. Pictures splattered across the internet, and Bryant's respectful quotes about Rondo were flung around cyberspace.

For a moment, forget the inevitable trade rumors that will sprout from the toast, hash browns and eggs that were consumed at the diner. Bryant's last NBA title came against Rondo's Celtics, and Rondo's only NBA title came against Bryant's Lakers. The level of respect these two men share for one another is impossible to fully comprehend, but they probably understand one another better than most.

After all, both players have been labeled as difficult guys to deal with in the locker room and on the court. Both are champions, and both won titles at a young age. Bryant blew out 22 candles only a couple months after winning his first NBA title way back in 2000. Eight years later, Rondo was barely 22 years young when the Celtics beat the Lakers in six games in 2008.

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Fast forward another six years, and Rondo and Bryant are the only connections to the last time either team won a title.

The Celtics got younger. Six players on the Celtics are either rookies or in their second year in the NBA. The Lakers only have three guys that fall in that category. Unfortunately for the Lakers, one of those guys is at home recovering from a broken leg, another is rehabbing his torn hamstring and the third is the last man on the Lakers' injury ridden bench.

Regular season rivalry games are tough to come by in an 82-game NBA regular season, but the Lakers and Celtics offer that rare matchup that holds greater meaning than simply a win or a loss in the record books. These banner hoarding teams only play twice per season: once in Boston and once in Los Angeles.

On Friday, the Lakers take Boston's famous parquet floor for the one and only time during the 2014-15 season. Tip-off is 4:30 p.m. Pacific Time.

Notes: Nick Young was suspended during the Lakers' trip to Boston in the 2013-14 season. This will be his first time playing the Celtics in Boston since joining the Lakers.

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