the lake show

Watchin the lakers suns. The Lakers look fluid and confident. Gasol is getting whatever he wants whenever he wants. Kobe looks all world. Odom is playing great. Bynum aint movin real well. Artest is contributing.

If we do what we should it's going to be tough. I think we match up with them very well.

Perk?Bynum advantage Perk on d and Bynum on o...slight edge Lakers

Fisher/ Rondo clear Rondo

Ray Allen / Kobe advantage lakers though both are great

PP/ Artest Advantage Celtics

KG/ Gasol wash

Bench clear edge Celtics

Going to be a war.

Jeb

been watchin too

Is there ANY defense either way?
looks like about a 140-125 final

beat

Suns "held " the Lakers to 29 points in the second !
And they are keeping them to just under 60% from the field too!
The suns do have twice as many bloks though! 2-1
and the Suns starters have committed a total of 4 fouls...geesh Perk has that by 2 minutes into the second himself!

beat

Beat

I dont think we will allow them 60 points in a half. But they look very very good. I think the two teams match up exceedingly well. Sheed can help with Bynum though he is too slow of foot to guard Gasol. Kg needs to shut Pau down. Make him play with his back to the basket. I think Tony and PP guard Kobe and Ray guards Artest. Got to turn Kobe into a jump shooter and dont double on his drives cause he is passing to open guys behind the 3 point line and they are draining them.

I think Perk can guard Gasol for important stretches as he did in the 4th quarter of the second regular season game in lala

amare is worthless agin the lakes...they just dominate him

L.A. toyed with Utah and is doing the same with Phoenix.
Phoenix had 1 good quarter today, but that's about it.

jeb,
I don't think we can realistically analyze a Lakers/Boston series by looking at individual match ups.
What will Boston get from Ray Allen? He could go 9-13 for 27 points or could go 2-7 for 6 points.
The same could be said for Odom. He could put up 17 pts 15 rebs but he could also put up 7 pts 5 rebs.
If LA keeps their bench to Odom, Brown and Fisher, they are in good shape. Those 3 are playing at a high level right now.

LA won't score anywhere near 60 in most halves against Boston, but that is ok with them. They are the best half court offense in the NBA and need to keep a slower pace to try to contain Rondo.

The Lakers claim they can play both ways. From their series with PHX, they only have one direction to go going forward and that is down. Lakers play D, but not like the Celtics. If LAL v. BOS, I'd be surprised if anyone scores over 80 points for the victory.

Celtics can play both ways also. They can score and lock it down. Containing Rondo won't be an issue, so I would have to give the edge to Celtics there.

Finally, it appears the press is finaally moving toward what we all have hoped for.

But lets polish off ORL first.

It's 2-0 in both series....let's see what happens next.

dbrown,

LA has no reason to slow down the games against Phoenix.
If they wanted to they could win 105-90 instead of scoring over 120 points.
In last years playoffs (when LA was really challenged) their opponents scored over 100 points only 5 times in 23 games.

So, you think the LA/Boston games will be in the 70's?
There is too much offensive talent on the floor for that to happen.

OK, tj, you're right. I'll give a little. Irrational exuberance on my part. Mid 80's to lower 90's. Defense will still trump offense. Plus LAL won't have the edge on D we will have, especially coming off a series where they will have used none for 4 games. They will be a little rusty. Just rusty enough to lose Game 1.

I am sure we all will be analyzing the LA/Boston series to a large degree if both teams get there.
Defense does usually trump offense, but LA is a very good defensive team when they need to be. (No, not as good as Boston on D.)
When LA needed to step up their defense, they held OKC to 37% FG shooting in games 5 and 6.
A big question is, will Boston have enough offense to keep up with LA with Artest guarding Pierce for the whole series?

Watched last night's game and the second half of the first game.

If the Celtics are the Alpha Dogs of Defense, then Phoenix has got to be the Omega-5s. The defense last night was slightly better than game 1, but only slightly, and the Suns defense in game 1 was completely non-existent. I don't care how good and offense a team has, if you think you're improving by keeping them under 60% fgm, then your defense is a joke.

Kobe is "on". He's shooting well but, as with most shooters, if you give them open looks and they find their rhythm early, they all shoot well. Phoenix started double-teaming him, showing complete lack of confidence in Richardson's ability to guard him one-on-one, and Kobe made assists. I believe I'm the guy who coined the name "KoME" for when Bryant goes into his schoolyard ballhog stuff, but I gotta give it to him last night. He made the right plays consistently, setting his teammates up. Career high 12 assists.

Phoenix doesn't have the height to compete against the Lakers, nor do they have the beef. Gasol and Bynum and Odom should be running wild.

Assuming that the Lakers and the Celtics both make the Finals (odds are looking like it), I'm almost hoping that the Lakers start feeling good about themselves and their play this series. And then they run into a green buzzsaw.

We are not the young, first-time-at-the-show, run-and-gun Oklahoma City Thunder. We are also not the depleted Utah Jazz, playing without their starting center and starting SF and we are certainly not the no-defense Phoenix Suns. Our defense has become ferocious and our offense has become efficient, albeit not as prolific as OKC or Phx.

We are the underdog, but I'm starting to like that.

bob

.

As soon a Gasol, Odom and Bynum are met with physical resistance - it will be an entirely different game. Phoenix plays no defense at all, and no one has laid the wood on any of these guys. Period.

The Lakers are a very good team - but they better rest their bodies now - because the Celtics are just as big, just as mobile, and WAY MORE PHYSICAL.

Mrkleen

bynum is certainly not playing "hard" although right now they do not need him too either. His minutes have been linited.

And we think Perks knees are sore.

I'll give Bynum credit for playing but if by doing so he is well off his best there does come a point that he may hurt the team more than help them.

Perhaps the Suns can find a bit of hope in heading home if only to prolong the series a game or 2.

beat

A similar story can be told of the big men Boston has faced in the playoffs.
J. O'Neal: Completely washed up. Only in the NBA because of his contract.
Varejo: No offensive skills.
Shaq: No mobility, strong, bad shooter.
Big Z: Old, weak inside player, good shot from 15 feet.
Howard: No offensive skills, not a smart player, foul prone.

Boston has not had to play against a big man that has any offensive skills throughout the playoffs.

Tj

Man was Kobe passing well last night. when he does that and plays unselfish you guys are really tough.

Pau and Bynum dominate against shorter front lines but struggle when confronted with size and physical power and determination and the Celtics have that in spades.

inre individual matchups and your poining out that Ray scored 6 points in ONE game I concur that it does not tell much but you got to start somewhere. If yalls game plan involves Ray scoring 6 you might want to reconsider.

Both teams have 5 or 6 guy that can seriously hurt you night to night and that is balance and very scary to defend.

The Lakers are playing great defense right now. The Celtics are playing defense from another planet against a GREAT team.

Who the hell knows TJ? I dont...it sure looks like we may find out and settle some old scores. Both teams are healthy and we will find out who is better. The best team wins a 7 game series every time.

Beat

Los suns are toast. They dont BELIEVE they can win and it is all over their body language.

I think this is why a celts lakes matchup is so appealing ...the teams hate each other and both DEEPLY BELIEVE they can beat each other.

Anyway the Magic are goin to be pissed and that series is far from over.

The beauty of the Celtics [team stats] is they understand what wins basketball games. Most of the time, it’s not what the public is buying or what the media is selling.

Reputations do not win games at this time of year. Superman capes do not win games. Being a witness doesn’t either. Dwight Howard, meet LeBron James.

Howard, the towering center of the Orlando Magic, seemed to get a handle on this late Tuesday night, not long after his team had lost its grip on the Eastern Conference finals. He seemed to grasp what James never did: What wins in the playoffs is often not what is glorified every night on “SportsCenter.”

in the herald this morning...PERFECT!

JEB

jeb,

LA can't plany on Ray scoring 6 points but he has had terrible games in 3 of the last 6. He seems to be either really on or really off/ineffective. I think he is the difference maker in every series. When he is on, it doesn't matter who is guarding him and with Rondo playing as great as he is, it is hard for teams to put their best defensive guy on RA. That leaves too many good looks for Pierce and Rondo.

I don't like to match up players or compare this upcoming Finals to the 2008 Finals. LA has added Artest, Bynum is playing, Rondo is SO much better, and some other players games have gotten worse or better due to age, injuries or experience.

tjmakz wrote:A similar story can be told of the big men Boston has faced in the playoffs.
J. O'Neal: Completely washed up. Only in the NBA because of his contract.
Varejo: No offensive skills.
Shaq: No mobility, strong, bad shooter.
Big Z: Old, weak inside player, good shot from 15 feet.
Howard: No offensive skills, not a smart player, foul prone.

Boston has not had to play against a big man that has any offensive skills throughout the playoffs.

TJ,

Jermaine O'Neal's stats:

career: 46.7%fgm, 71%ftm, 7.5rpg, 1.5apg, .5spg, 1.9blks/gm, 14.2ppg.
2010: 52.9%fgm, 72%ftm, 6.9rpg, 1.3apg, .4spg, 1.4blks/gm, 13.6ppg.
playoff: .205%fgm, .429%ftm, 5.6rpg, 1.0apg, .8spg, 2.0blks/gm, 4.2ppg.

He played a lot fewer minutes/game in the playoffs, which helps to explain some of it.

If you go to basketball-reference.com and look at his production per 36 minutes of play, you'll see that 2010 was perhaps his most productive year in the last 3-4 years.

We, here, are giving credit to Perk for excellent defense on O'Neal. Admittedly that has no effect on his atrocious ft shooting, but his ineffectiveness really got into his head, that was obvious, and we attribute that to the physical, good position defense from Perk. He consistently forced O'Neal to take shots that were outside of his comfort zone. If you think it was just O'Neal shitting the bed in the playoffs, that's another perspective with perhaps some validity, but I don't think you can say that he was "Completely washed up. Only in the NBA because of his contract." His play throughout the 2010 regular season disputes that.

bob

.

TJ

I concur. I also have no ideal who will win if both teams get through. Neither do you. Neither does john Hollinger the "insider" (whatta douche) The Lakers showed glaring holes all year that have just buck ass dissappeared in the postseason and all the "experts" wrote the Celtics off to the point of mocking them. But the two teams hd more heart and just aching DESIRE to defend what they both can rightfully claim as their own the nba title.

Who will win? The team that wants it more.

and tj to call ray ineffective because he dont score is really shortsighted and tweaked towards only understanding one facet of the game (shootin) and you are better than that.

Ray 's guy can never leave him. Not once ever. he gets respect from players he does not from the media cause the players know he is a stone killer.

Ray brings a good floor game and a brilliant understanding of the game and his role withing the TEAM every single night.

He also did a GREAT job guarding two of the three "golden boys" of the nba that sportscenter drools so heavy over and spends so much time selling and comin up with cute phrases like "doin work" for. Ray played lockdown d on the King and his man "d-wade" so to say he was terrible or ineffective is not very smart.

bob,

Good points about J. O'Neal. After your post, I can see that I was wrong in saying he is washed up. He is a shell of the player he was due to his knee injury but he is not as bad as he was in round 1.
Perk has been a beast on D. He stood body for body with Shaq after we watched Shaq push around Miller and Noah like rag dolls.
He has also dominated Howard in the low post. I wonder if Howard will figure out a way to score on Perk?

Following is my comprehensive analysis of the future in these playoffs:

I hope the Celtics win the first quarter in Game Three against the Magic.

Then I'll hope they win the second quarter.

Then I'll hope they win the third quarter.

Then I'll hope they win the fourth quarter.

Get the idea?

Focus. Focus. Focus. Focus. Focus. Focus. Focus. Focus. The stuff of which champions are made.

Sam

i predict there will be more predictions