The House that Boom Built

That was pretty close. It might not be as easy as everyone said it would be for the Lakers. More after the jump…

To start off, I want to concede or change my mind about a couple points.

First of all, I really have to hand it to the Celtics defense. Before this series I really thought that there was no way a Celtics team who played against inferior talent all year could keep up with this Lakers’ explosive offense. However through this whole game I got proved wrong. In the first half, everytime the Lakers tried to set up their offense it was Garnett pressuring Gasol in the post making life difficult for Gasol (more on the schmuck of the night late). When ever the Lakers started to get a little roll offensively, its was the Celtics defense as a team who made them uncomfortable and forced them to take bad shots. I don’t think it was a coincidence as well that once the Celtics got complacent (I prefer lazy) defensively Kobe went off. Its clear that Kobe is being bothered by this kind of defense which is actually startlingly similar to the way the Spurs defended, except for the fact that the Spurs are about 84 years older than the Celtics.

I am willing to give the Celtics defense some credit.

Also, something else that I have been hesitant about is Sasha Vujacic. The Machine was someone who I traditionally thought of as one of those guys who looks a lot better than he actually is. (Kinda like those chicks who look great from some angles…) However, he showed me something tonight. When the rest of the Lakers were moping around the floor, he and Kobe were the only ones who had no idea what the score was. Typically, I gave Vujacic a hard time because he seemed to have an elevated conception of himself and his role on the team. Yet, it was exactly this type of player that the Lakers need in this game. In the end, what came out of such an attitude was hustle and competitiveness when it actually matters.

Nonetheless, The Machine was nowhere near as influential to what transpired in Boston tonight as the league MVP was. Criticize him all you want about the number of shots he took and about the trouble he was having with the Celtic defense, Kobe was the only one who got dressed to play 48 minutes of basketball. When the Lakers got steamrolled coming out of half time, it was a couple timely baskets and Kobe making it look easy that calmed down the rest of the Lakers. After the Celtics responded to this run by just releasing the floodgates offensively, it was Kobe again who never believed the scoreboard and it was the Celtics on the side of the court who looked way too much at the scoreboard. Whenever the Lakers made a little run, we can look at Kobe asserting himself on both sides of the ball that rallied them. I thought he could have done more, but the Celtics were rolling tonight with a rocking Boston crowd behind them.

In the end, the Lakers as a whole and Gummy Bear Gasol specifically are going to have to play better. I have yet to see his stats, but Gasol’s performance tonight was a joke. It was like after he dunked on Gasol, he said to himself, “Well, I got my revenge. I think I’m good for the night.” But he wasn’t good for the night, not anywhere close. Just as Kobe led the Lakers offensively in that it was his grit and determination in getting to the hole that rallied and calmed the Lakers offensively. It was the sloth like performance by Gasol in transition, in the paint, and on the glass that paved the way defensively for the indolent laziness of the rest of the team. (main culprits: Lamar Odom, Radmanovic, Luke Walton, and even a little bit of Ronni Turiaf even though usually he’s all about the hustle)

I could write a whole other section on Odom, but it would go on in much the same way and I would probably have to pull out a thesaurus to find more synonyms for lazy.

Anyways, I said from the beginning that the only way Boston could make this a seven game series would be if they took both at home, so in my eyes this was must win for them. I’m still calling for Lakers to win, though 6 looks like a bit of a stretch.

Game 3: 112-101 Lakers

-E

Edit. Pau Gasol’s stats for the night were decent, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. His lack of fire and heart meant he was always behind on the defensive end, getting him lost on defense, forcing fouls on the other Lakers. This loss is STILL on him.

Edit 2. Officiating was terrible, not the worst I have ever seen, but it this was definitely a hall of lame performance by the black and white. The did not consistently call any of the off ball fouls, part of the reason the foul discrepancy was so high. And then it was like they tried to make up for it by letting a crucial travel go in the final moments. Had the Lakers won it, Radmanovic’s travel on the dunk late in the game when every point was monumental would have been complained about by every Boston sports media outlet in the city.