ESPN's Nichols has got the beat

Rachel Nichols honed her journalism skills working for the Washington Post as the beat writer covering the Washington Capitals.

Now in her fifth year as a reporter for ESPN, Nichols will be imbedded with the Celtics for the NBA Finals for "SportsCenter." The New York City resident will shuttle between Los Angeles and Boston for the duration of the championship series, which began last night at TD Banknorth Garden.

"It's kind of like being a beat writer again," she said. "I get to employ all my old Washington Capitals experience. Usually at ESPN, we bounce around from city to city, and when we cover these playoff teams, you end up being with a team which ends up being almost a month or longer. You see the same coach every day, the same players, you can follow story lines really well and watch things develop. This is the fourth year that I've done this."

Nichols said she has great balance in her job because she hasn't had to give up writing.

"What's cool for me is I do some writing for 'ESPN The Magazine' also," she said. "If I wasn't writing anything anymore, I think I'd really feel it. Being able to write for the magazine is really cool and they're big, meaty pieces, which is something I was getting into at the Washington Post but I can write even longer for the magazine. In a way, it's kind of the best of both worlds."

She got a taste of covering the NBA during her time at the Post, covering Michael Jordan's tenure with the Washington Wizards. That helped her make the transition when she was hired by ESPN.

"Pretty soon after I got to ESPN, not right away, but pretty quickly, I started doing NBA stuff," she said. "I had all the contacts already. [The Jordan stories] were a good primer for doing the stuff here."

In addition to her other duties at the network, Nichols reports for news magazine "E:60."

For now, though, it's all NBA Finals all the time.

"I really like covering the NBA," said Nichols, who also covered the Celtics' series against the Cavaliers and the Pistons. "The two sports I cover the most are the NBA and the NFL. I really like both because they're pretty different. The cultures of the sports are a lot of fun to cover. I cover enough of the NBA and the NFL regularly that I have a real good insight into both sports."

During her time with the Celtics she said she's been impressed with how the team has handled itself during its roller coaster playoff run, two series going to seven games and the Eastern Conference finals going six.

"The public perception right now is that if a team loses one game, everything is lost," she said. "If a team wins one game, they're going to be champions. The swing is so big. The perception of this team in the first couple of rounds was they would be taken to seven games. They'd win big games at home and it would be, 'They're going to win the championship,' and they'd lose on the road and it'd be, 'This is a disaster.' The team has been able to stay consistent through all of that and [coach] Doc Rivers has stayed consistent through all of that. I've been impressed with that. I think it's going to serve them well."

If the national media appear confident the Lakers are the team to beat, Nichols said it was based on playoff performance heading into the Finals.

"The fact that the Celtics lost more games on the way to get there [going 12-8]," she said. "The Lakers were 12-3 getting there. There is almost an all-or-nothing mentality of this series. I can't really think of a matchup that would be more fun than this."

They've got it covered

Like all the local stations, NECN will have its own version of Finals coverage. Most notable is the live postgame coverage after every game on "Sports Late Night." Chris Collins and Mike Giardi will handle the duties . . . "NESN SportsDesk" will coincide its broadcasts with the end of each Celtics-Lakers game, providing highlights and analysis. The station will also host a live chat with Bruins defenseman Aaron Ward at noon Monday on NESN.com . . . Showtime has picked up "Inside the NFL." The popular program, which was on HBO for 31 years before ending in February, will be produced by CBS Sports and NFL Films. The new season begins Sept. 10 . . . NBC's broadcast of Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Wednesday night earned a 4.4 overnight rating and 7.0 share, a 100 percent increase over Game 6 of the 2006 Cup final. It was the best overnight rating for a Cup final Game 6 in eight years (2000 New Jersey-Dallas 5.2/11).