Anyone who saw the Lakers implode on Thursday night is now very well informed of the fact that basketball is a four-quarter game. Up by over 24 points at the half, the Lakers manage to blow the largest lead in an NBA final game. GIve props to the Celtics though because the Lakers lost wasn't causes solely by their own incompetence. Doc Rivers' team did a masterful job of defending the NBA's MVP and winning the game one point and one block at a time.

I'm sure that much will be made of the game in sports annals, and I'm sure that many will use the analogy to illustrate other points. Let me be among the first. Playing to the end with excellence is what wins basketball games. It's also an important lesson in business and life.

Businesses have a cycle. After the founders leave, most businesses go through a crisis. If this hasn't already happened, it usually occurs thirty or so years into the organization's history. What has been the organization successful no longer works. Times have changed and adaption is necessary. Just like the Lakers couldn't adjust to the Celtic's smaller line-up, businesses continue to try to offer the same products and the same service and at the end of the third quarter of their infancy, they find themselves in trouble. The same is true in life. Those who don't play strong until the end find themselves similarily in despair. Achieving your goals means playing every second with them in mind and not relenting when you have them in sight.

 The Celtics comeback will go down in the records book. At least until someone else overcomes an even larger deficit. Or the Lakers win the series and the Lakers achieve their own remarkable comeback. Because basketball is a four quarter game, but the series is still best of 7. And to achieve the ultimate prize, that's the statistic that matters.