Who will be more remorseful, Lakers or Celtics?

Regret Game?

That’s what Game 4 was called by ESPN.com’s J.A. Adande: “The most intriguing possibility left in the NBA Finals is the chance it might be the Celtics who lost the Regret Game.

“The Regret Game is the one that comes back to haunt you for years after the series ends. The one that represented your best or last shot to win it. The one that was tantalizingly within reach.

“For now and quite likely forever that game is Game 4. The Lakers had a 24-point lead in their building and couldn’t bring it home, couldn’t refresh the series at 2-2 and couldn’t keep the historical odds from stacking up against them.

“But Boston had just as good an opportunity to finish off the series in Game 5 – the Lakers won, 103-98 – and now the Celtics have left the door open for all of their little things to turn into one big problem.”

High ratings

Television ratings for the NBA Finals were up from the last time the series went five games… .

ABC on Monday said the Lakers’ 103-98 win Sunday over the Boston Celtics to avoid elimination averaged a 10.1 fast national rating on the network.

That’s an 11% increase over the 9.1 for Game 5 of the Dallas-Miami series in 2006.

Prices up in Boston

According to coasttocoasttickets.com, a third-row courtside seat for tonight’s game is being sold for more than $4,000.

Hot jerseys

Brendan Gallagher of the British newspaper Telegraph.co.uk writes that the Celtics’ All-Star forward Kevin Garnett leads the lists of the NBA’s most popular jerseys for the 2007-08 season based on combined sales at the NBA Store in New York City and NBAStore.com… .

The Lakers’ Kobe Bryant ends the season at No. 2 and the Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James moves up one spot to No. 3. The Denver Nuggets’ Allen Iverson holds the No. 4 spot, followed by the New Orleans Hornets’ Chris Paul, who makes his debut in the Top 5. Paul Pierce came in at No. 14, and Pau Gasol was at 15.

Coach-to-coach

Telegraph.co.uk reports that former Chelsea soccer coach Avram Grant spoke with Phil Jackson after the Lakers blew their 24-point lead in Game 4. “We talked about what happened with Chelsea in the Manchester game, the disappointment John Terry had missing the penalty,” Jackson said.

“And I wanted to know the support Grant gave his players. We talked about what kind of character Terry had and we exchanged ideas about coaching.”

More comparisons, or lack thereof with his ‘Airness’

Tim Keown of ESPN.com: “Where [Michael] Jordan showed his superiority by demanding the ball and taking over the game, Kobe has a tendency to disappear. And not only that, but there’s a willful manner to his disappearances. They’re intended to prove a point.

“He’s not being stopped by the opposition – I’m not sure that’s possible – but it seems he’s intentionally pulling back to emphasize how much better he is than anybody else on the court. This was never more in evidence than Sunday’s Game 5, when he scored 15 points in the first quarter and then spent most of the next two quarters deferring to guys like Derek Fisher and Jordan Farmar.”

Jay Leno last night

“Congratulations to the Lakers. They won last night. To be fair, I knew the Lakers were going to win because the refs told me before the game. But still, you know, that does not mar the victory. Did you see all the celebrities in the audience? My God, in fact there were so many stars there last night, today the Staples Center was officially declared a rehab facility… . In my hometown of Boston, we have a lot of celebrities. In fact, a lot of Boston celebrities flew out to the game. Show some of the famous Boston celebrities. There’s Paul Revere. The Gorton’s fisherman. He came to the game, and of course, my favorite, where is he? The Boston Strangler… . Congratulations to Tiger Woods. He won the U.S. Open today, beating Rocco Mediate. It was pretty exciting. Sudden death. Tiger and Rocco. I love Tiger and Rocco. Do those sound like golf names? Don’t they sound like male strippers at Chippendales or something? … Why do the golf announcers always say the same thing? You watch these tournaments, you know, and whenever a guy hits the ball onto the green, they always say, ‘Oh, he would have liked to have gotten that just a little bit closer.’ Really!? Just a little bit closer? How about in the hole?”

And Jon Stewart on Tiger

“He won it by one stroke, so I think maybe it’s time for him to hang it up, because seriously, one stroke on a recently operated-on knee? I remember when Tiger Woods would have won that by 10 strokes just by using his tongue.”