Missing the late-night NBA action

The NBA playoffs finally got me. Fighting sleep, I clicked off the Lakers-Jazz game around 11:30 p.m. — and missed a great finish.

These playoffs have had their share of great games — the two Celtics-Bulls showdowns in Boston, the Orlando-Philly opener — but also have had a bunch of duds. So any chance to see a great game I’ll take.

But Thursday was a long day. I got up early to go to Duncan for a funeral, then on the way home I ran out of gas. I was driving my wife’s car, and for some reason I never checked the gauge. While I’m certainly capable of running out of gas because I think I can make it a little bit farther, this wasn’t the case. I just never looked.

Anyway, I also had a Big Brothers banquet Thursday night, went by to see my granddaughter, we ended up bringing her home with us to spend the night and by the time the Lakers had a nice lead in the third quarter, I had lost faith in Utah.

I missed a great finish. From 80-80, both teams kept scoring in the final two minutes. Utah would retake the lead, then the Lakers would tie it. Finally, at 86-86, Deron Williams’ short jumper with two seconds left gave Utah the lead, then Kobe missed a long 3-pointer at the buzzer.

The NBA playoffs are much like the NCAA Tournament in terms of late-game drama. You need a large pool of games to get a decent amount of great finishes. I hated to miss this one. But sometimes, lack of sleep trumps the unlikelihood of a rally.