Post Game Thread - Celtics put LA on the Edge 92-86 6/13/2010

[dboss]

Ok game 5 under the belt.

Once again Boston's defense stiffled the lakers offense despite Kobe's 38. A few mistakes by the Celtics kept the game closer than it was. The trend continues as LA cannot score enough points to beat Boston and things are not getting any better for them.

The Celtics won the rebounding battle by 1 35 to 34. PP had a great game with 27 big time points.

The difference between these two teams is clear as day. The lakers have a great scorer in Kobe and a good sidekick in Gasol and the Celtics have a team where they win as a team and lose as a team.

Once agian Phil jackson opened his big mouth and tried to convince his team the the Celtics are use to losing in the 4th qtr. like evrybody else he is shamefully attached to the regular season. Phil Jackson is a jerk.

The anouncers are morons picking LA to win the game.

It is us against them.

go Celtics

dboss

[worcester]

Ditto Dboss...Ditto

[gyso]

[gyso]

[bobc33]

Boston doesn't need any ammo to win it all, but Phil just gave them a ton with that comment. His first part was correct as the Cs have blown many a big lead (in the regular season) but the rest of it was dumb.

[jeb]

phil just being phil needs to see dr phil

[cowens/oldschool]

Classic Pierce was huge!!!!KG showed up both ends,Ray played as good defense as possible,Rondo was great when we needed it!!!!Sheed,Perk,TA,Mighty Mouse all did their jobs.Our defense was in their face whole game.Lakers scored over 100 in 11 straight games this playoffs,well other than game 1 they haven't been able to get squat on us.

[mrkleen09]

One More Boys!!!!!!!!!!!

[cowens/oldschool]

Fock Phil Jackson,were gonna take his lunch money

[Sam]

I think one factor that's not receiving a lot of attention is that KG has amped up his defense. The tipoff for me was in Game 4, when he got into that 4-point stance on the parquet as the Lakers were coming up the floor. I've said throughout the playoffs that the Celtics are still improving, and I believe this is just one more example. He's obviously "feeling it" at least as much as at any time this season—probably more.

Personally, I believe the #1 key to this game was the lack of fouls committed by the Celtics in the first half. It (1) allowed Doc to make his substitutions out of choice rather than necessity and (2) permitted the Celtics to remain defensively aggressive, without reservation, throughout the game.

Sam

[LACELTFAN]

I think one factor that's not receiving a lot of attention is that KG has amped up his defense. The tipoff for me was in Game 4, when he got into that 4-point stance on the parquet as the Lakers were coming up the floor. I've said throughout the playoffs that the Celtics are still improving, and I believe this is just one more example. He's obviously "feeling it" at least as much as at any time this season—probably more.

Personally, I believe the #1 key to this game was the lack of fouls committed by the Celtics in the first half. It (1) allowed Doc to make his substitutions out of choice rather than necessity and (2) permitted the Celtics to remain defensively aggressive, without reservation, throughout the game.

Sam

I got a little carried away earlier...and shot off the old mouth about Artest but he was startin to play hack ball...against KG that was bull....cheap shot and then to feign being hit by Rondo...pure BS!

[mrkleen09]

- Lakers coach Phil Jackson on the reaction to his team being down 3-2:

"Well, you know, if you look at it, they've come home and carried the 3 2 lead back. It's basically home court, home court. Now we're going back to home court to win it. That's the way it's supposed to be, isn't it? Unfortunately we couldn't get this win here but we got the one to count to bring us back home.

[Matty]

[jeb]

every word out of phil's mouth henceforth we should savor.

[gyso]

[bobheckler]

We needed two-in-a-row and we finally got it. Now, it's the Lakers who need two-in-a-row. The difference between us is that we had 7 games to put that mini-winning streak together, the Lakers now have to do it with only two games and we have proven we can win in LA. Their backs are against the wall. This is the first time in any playoff series this year where the Lakers have been behind. We had our gut-check time, now it's their turn.

1. Kobe's 3rd quarter offensively was amazing. AMAZING!! "Being in the zone" doesn't quite cover it. Oh, and by the way, not only did the Lakers lose the game, despite Kobe's performance, they lost the 3rd quarter. So much for that idiot columnist that said that the Celtics should be afraid because we're ONLY tied and Kobe hasn't gone off yet. I have more to say about this, but I'll do it on another thread.

2. LA's designated Pierce-killer, Ron Artest, couldn't stop the Captain. Pierce was 12-21. That's pretty much doing whatever he wants. You could just tell the second it left his hands how smooth his stroke was last night.

3. Speaking of Artest, did you see the way he acted like Rondo just ran into him with his car when Rondo gave him a shove? Even JVG, who's not a big Celtic fan, commented about the Lakers' acting yesterday. In fact, JVG was actually taunting Artest by calling on him to "say Queensbridge NOW", a reference to the fact that Artest likes to talk about how tough the neighborhood he grew up in was, after putting on that pathetic acting job.

4. The Lakers only had two players in double figures yesterday and Pau Gasol only scored his 10th point with less than 3 minutes left and the Celts up by 9. His last bucket were with a meaningless 10 seconds left. This is the first game this series Gasol has been totally irrelevant, but what does it say about the Lakers that NOBODY else did anything.

5. Perhaps the biggest difference between 2008 and 2010 that I see is that the Celtics are more of a running team now than the Lakers. Once again, we had more fast break points than them. So much for us being old and slow.

6. Rondo's judgment was off yesterday. Seven turnovers a lot of them just over-aggressive passes.

7. The Celtics only took 13 fts in the whole game. That's not good. We need to attack more and make them commit fouls. This game, we shot 56%, next game maybe we won't and we'll need those fta.

8. Andrew Bynum played 32 mostly invisible minutes, except for the 1st quarter. He only got 1 rebound. This is very bad for LA. Not just because he had a bad game, but because he played that many minutes, they lost and now he has to play again in two days and maybe one more after that with just two days rest again. It is obvious that young man is trying his best but is struggling with his knee. If 3 days rest and having his knee drained didn't help him much for yesterday's game, what will he be like Tuesday?

Please God, one more, just one more.

bob

.

[worcester]

Bob, You forgot to comment on the Celtics' great defense during last night's game and actually during the series overall, except for game 1. It seems like Kevin is back to his old form - his 5 steals were awesome - and the rest of the Celtics are clamping down. Yes Kobe had an amazing third quarter and made many very difficult shots, but he still missed half his shots throughout the entire game. Credit the Celts' D for that, esp. Ray and Tony with not too much help from their friends.

[bobheckler]

Bob, You forgot to comment on the Celtics' great defense during last night's game and actually during the series overall, except for game 1. It seems like Kevin is back to his old form - his 5 steals were awesome - and the rest of the Celtics are clamping down. Yes Kobe had an amazing third quarter and made many very difficult shots, but he still missed half his shots throughout the entire game. Credit the Celts' D for that, esp. Ray and Tony with not too much help from their friends.

worcester,

yes, our defense was outstanding and I should have mentioned it specifically. Good Lord, I hope I'm not taking our defense for granted!! As far as Kobe missing half his shots, wouldn't we love for any of our players to shoot almost 50%?

Kevin is back. You can see it in his eyes. Whatever fears and demons were eating at him because of his knee are now behind him. He's back to being confident in his body's ability to do what his mind tells it to do.

Ray played good defense, Kobe was just ON. Tony has done a great, great job defending every offensive force throughout the playoffs. DWade, LBJ and now Kobe.

bob

.

[worcester]

Bob, Regarding Celtics shooting almost 50%, you actually got your wish.
Paul was 12-21
KG 6-11
Perk 2-2
Ray 5-10
Rajon 9-12
Rasheed 2-4. and Nate 2-4.
Only Tony (2-6) and Glenn (0-1) didn't shoot 50%. Now THAT's amazing, only surpassed in amazing by how few free throws the refs awarded us!

[beat]

Bob

Re Kobe, That third quarter was amazing, for the most part we did get a hand in his face and made him make really tough shots, but the funny thing is the Celtics actually increased the lead during this One man show. The C's scored on 12 of their first 13 possessions in the third quarter thus voiding anything Kobe was doing.

Even Barkley stated after the game the Lakers would be better off with Ariza. Artest was wetting his pants most of the game. He had no clue. With a chance to make 2 foul shots he choked, when he had to catch Rondo 2 times he to comment a foul he couldn't. First was the tough catch and pass from PP to a cutting Rondo for a reverse layup, second just a bit later R. Allen passes to Rondo in the backcourt and before Ronnie could make a swipe at Rondo the ball was off to KG. Game over.

Ron is a thug, please Rondo 100 punds lighter sends the tough one reeling like a fake wrestling move? Get real Ronnie. Gasol and Fisher were flopping all over........thank god no one with a whistle was taken in with the theatrics. Fouls were close to even but the Lakers took 2x the foul shots.

Agree with Rondo. Passes up a couple of 18 footers to attempt bounce passes to Perk in traffic........duh not a good move. Rondo can make the 18 footer half the time now anyway.

Bynum is an enigma. Is he hurting the Lakers more than helping them at this point by even being out there? Problem is Odom is being featured on milk cartons today, and beyond that..............bench (what bench)

The Kobe (one man show) is perplexing. No doubt he can score. But how does one get the other lakers touches and shots when Kobe is shooting and scoring? 12 assists for the Lakers won't get it done against us.

No x's and o's or chalk board talk can create a change in style now.

Since when does a triangle have only 1 side (or angle)? For the Lakers it did last eve.

Jackson stated we could not close out games! That is true, but that was then.........................this is NOW and Phil has no one but his own ego to blame. He had his team ill prepared for these games.

Can the Lakers win..............sure. But there will have to be an awfull lot of things falling in place for that to happen and I just can't see enough of them falling that way.

beat

[bobheckler]

Bob

Re Kobe, That third quarter was amazing, for the most part we did get a hand in his face and made him make really tough shots, but the funny thing is the Celtics actually increased the lead during this One man show. The C's scored on 12 of their first 13 possessions in the third quarter thus voiding anything Kobe was doing.

Even Barkley stated after the game the Lakers would be better off with Ariza. Artest was wetting his pants most of the game. He had no clue. With a chance to make 2 foul shots he choked, when he had to catch Rondo 2 times he to comment a foul he couldn't. First was the tough catch and pass from PP to a cutting Rondo for a reverse layup, second just a bit later R. Allen passes to Rondo in the backcourt and before Ronnie could make a swipe at Rondo the ball was off to KG. Game over.

Ron is a thug, please Rondo 100 punds lighter sends the tough one reeling like a fake wrestling move? Get real Ronnie. Gasol and Fisher were flopping all over........thank god no one with a whistle was taken in with the theatrics. Fouls were close to even but the Lakers took 2x the foul shots.

Agree with Rondo. Passes up a couple of 18 footers to attempt bounce passes to Perk in traffic........duh not a good move. Rondo can make the 18 footer half the time now anyway.

Bynum is an enigma. Is he hurting the Laker more than helping them at this point by even being out there? Problem is Odom is being featured on milk cartons today, and beyond that..............bench (what bench)

The Kobe (one man show) is perplexing. No doubt he can score. But how does one get the other lakers touches and shots when Kobe is shooting and scoring? 12 assists for the Lakers won't get it done against us.

No x's and o's or chalk board talk can create a change in style now.

Since when does a triangle have only 1 side (or angle)? For the Lakers it did last eve.

Jackson stated we could not close out games! That is true, but that was then.........................this is NOW and Phil has no one but his own ego to blame. He had his team ill prepared for these games.

Can the Lakers win..............sure. But there will have to be an awfull lot of things falling in place for that to happen and I just can't see enough of them falling that way.

beat

beat,

You're absolutely right. We were up by 2 at the half and up by 4 after Kobe's HUGE 3rd quarter.

A triangle has one side when the other sides don't show up (or, depending upon how you look at it, they all show up but one side won't let the others play too).

I went on and on at BDC last summer about how I thought the Artest-for-Ariza trade (I know, it wasn't technically a trade, but it worked out like that) was not a clear upgrade for LA. I said, back then, that I thought it made the Lakers older and slower and it replaced a player that fit beautifully within the triangle and the other "personalities" on the Lakers and was a great fullcourt defender as well as a good halfcourt defender with a player that is primarily only a halfcourt defender. I think the pretty few fastbreaks you see coming from the Lakers says they have gotten much slower. Most of their fastbreaks come from defenders spacing out and forgetting about their man or a player on top releasing on the shot and getting a few steps on his man for the pass. So, Gasol will get downcourt and get the fullcourt pass with KG nowhere in sight for a fastbreak dunk or Fisher will keep heading downcourt after a Ray Allen shot and he's already at halfcourt before anybody knows it. As far as classic 2-on-1 or 3-on-2 fastbreaks though, we haven't seen many from the Lakers because that requires 2-3 Lakers running. The Celts have been doing that though. Rondo has been dishing to Pierce, KG and Ray Allen and even Perk on the break.

Yeah, Phil shot his mouth off. Again. Think that's gonna come up in the next Celtic team meeting?

LA can definitely still win this. It ain't over 'til it's over, but I'm liking our position right now (certainly a helluva lot better than if we had lost yesterday). Their advantage is that the next two are in LA. Our advantages are that we're playing well and they're not, Bynum's knee will only get worse with the few days of rest it will be allowed and we only need to split.


bob

.

[dbrown4]

Didn't I see 7 Celtic blocks to 1 somewhere, too? So much for the twin/triple towers. Also, all our layups that didn't fall in Game 4 finally fell in Game 5. It was just somewhat overshadowed by the TOs.

To date, Sam, I agree this has been a constantly improving team, especially within this series. I'm still looking for one last great closing performance. As good as Rondo was last night, he has one last stellar 3D performance waiting for us in Game 6 @ the Staples Center. I know the Lakers think this is going 7, but if past performance has taught us anything, and it hasn't, it's that going home ain't going to change the the writing on the wall. it certainly won't be easy, but 6 is the limit.

[worcester]

This series reminds me of that song from the Sound of Music, "I am 16 going on 17," only now it should be "I am 17 going on 18!"

[jeb]

Gasol has been flopping the whole series...including the CRITICAL AND OBVIOUS flop that won game 3. I maintain that the refs do not like floppers and they really dont like being made to look bad in that way under that kind of microscope. That play was shown quite a bit on sportscenter and the like.

I said on my facebook page that Gasol would pay for showing up the refs like that at a critical point in the series. He did pay...last night he and Fisher both acted and acted and nobody went to the movie.

Now we need to go into la flop free and just lace em up and play.

[Sam]

I just want to say that no newspaper in the U.S. features the quality of analysis that this thread collectively does. I'm really overwhelmed!

A couple of things could be seen two ways. I think it was Bob who was hoping we'd get more free throws. I'd usually agree, but I'm not sure I would in this series. Yes, the Lakers got more FT than the Celts, but the important thing to me was that, overall, the refs let them play. I believe that what won this game for the Celtics as much as anything else was the relatively small number of fouls called on them, especially in the first half. The Lakers have a knack for drawing fouls. If the Celts had been called for more fouls, I believe the Lakers probably would have drawn commensurately more than that, leaving Doc in a substitution quandary and making the Celts less defensively aggressive toward the end. I'll gladly accept a tradeoff of a few more calls going the Lakers' way in return for a loosely called game in general.

Second, I question how much of an advantage going home will be for the Lakers. They obviously have some issues right now, and it's actually much easier to focus on such issues on the road than at home. There are far fewer distractions such as family needs on the road. Yes, the Staples Center crowd will be rooting for them, but the L.A. crowd is notoriously easy to quiet down; and the Staples Center is not a particularly intimidating place for a good road team to play.

Third, I finally got my wish and saw Kobe take over his team's offense yesterday. I don't think that makes him egomaniacal; no one else was doing anything, and he had to do something. Perhaps, against other teams, it works well for the Lakers to have Kobe dominate. Against the Celtics, it can be fatal to focus the offense so much on one player that the Celts can triple-team him, safe in the knowledge that all or most of his Lakers teammates are mesmerized.

Fourth, one has to admire the grit of Bynum for hanging in there for so many minutes. But he was giving them very little, and STILL Phil stuck with him, suggesting to me that Phil felt any alternative was worse than a hamstrung Bynum. It's very tricky when a player perseveres through pain because it always raises the question of whether a wounded warrior is a better alternative than a fresher but less talented alternative. Names like Gene Guarilia and Glen MacDonald will live in Celtics history as guys who weren't as good as people they replaced but who were, after all, in the NBA and had much fresher legs than those they replaced and those they faced.

I agree with everyone that, despite all the hopeful things all of us have posted, the Celtics face a real struggle in L.A. The Lakers surely won't quit. They're an exceptionally good team, and they will have the crowd behind them. But Phil seems to be lacking confidence in his non-starters (even in Odom), and adjustment options become more limited when a coach's realistic alternatives are few.

When handicapping the Celtics' chances, I don't usually like to place much weight on bulletin board material. And I'm sure any Celtic who's asked about Phil's "fourth quarter losers" quote will either deny knowing about it or say it means nothing. But, IF the Celtics are fortunate enough to win this championship, I bet we'll find out something different in the post-game remarks of players and/or Doc. I believe this team is now jazzed to the hilt because they need only one more win; but, if they need another burr under their saddles, I hope that comment will nicely fill the bill.

I'm thinking of Fedexing Doc a roll of duct tape and suggesting that he plant some firmly on the mouths of Perk and Sheed. They just need to avoid techs in Game 6 (unless there is a Game 7 and either of them gets two techs). In fact, they've held off well enough to thhis point so that, even if either got a tech in Game 6, they'd still be allowed to play that entire game because the techs would not be final until they were reviewed after the game.

The plot thickens. The stomach churns. These are the Playoffs!!!!!! Ain't it great?

Go Celtics!

Sam

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