woo what a game
1 more to go!!!
The Lakers have no one to blame for that loss. That was unbelievable.
The die-hard in me remembers that they just as easily could be up 3-1 after those two tight games in Boston. But, the basketball fan in me knows when to admit defeat, and to recognize the superior clutch performances from the Celtics, as well as the overall tenacity, toughness and indefatigable will power that got them here.
Going into this series, I looked at the Celtics as being a bought team. All talent, but none of the intangibles that truly make a team shine. Meanwhile I saw the Lakers as being a true team in every sense of the word, coming from little and by their own cohesion and competence making it to the top.
But, the Celtics have earned my respect, if for nothing else, that they have shown they are champions.
[quote]tmoney1 wrote:
Lamar Odom had a good first half, but basically did nothing the second half. Posey was HUGE off the bench with 18 points for the Celtics.
[/quote]
Let’s not sweep this under a rug. Odom had an incredible first half, some of his best play all year.
[quote]Malevolence wrote:
tmoney1 wrote:
Lamar Odom had a good first half, but basically did nothing the second half. Posey was HUGE off the bench with 18 points for the Celtics.
Let’s not sweep this under a rug. Odom had an incredible first half, some of his best play all year. [/quote]
I agree, but Odom had 15 points in the first half on 7-7 shooting, which was phenomenal. However, Boston’s D bottled him up in the second half, and was held to four points.
But I agree, I thought after the first quarter he was gonna go for 30+.
Did anyone else notice Bryants legs looking like he left ‘em in game 3? He turned it on late, but he had that killer up and under with a wide open lefty finger roll where he had no lift and barely grazed the rim from point blank. The Lakers need the rest for Sundays game, but we all know their confidence is shot and this series is pretty much done. As crazy as this sounds though, I’m not gonna count a team with a motivated Kobe Bryant out until the final buzzer sounds in the Celts’ favor.
[quote]Malevolence wrote:
The Lakers have no one to blame for that loss. That was unbelievable.
The die-hard in me remembers that they just as easily could be up 3-1 after those two tight games in Boston. But, the basketball fan in me knows when to admit defeat, and to recognize the superior clutch performances from the Celtics, as well as the overall tenacity, toughness and indefatigable will power that got them here.
Going into this series, I looked at the Celtics as being a bought team. All talent, but none of the intangibles that truly make a team shine. Meanwhile I saw the Lakers as being a true team in every sense of the word, coming from little and by their own cohesion and competence making it to the top.
But, the Celtics have earned my respect, if for nothing else, that they have shown they are champions. [/quote]
Well said MV.
I had been out of town for a wedding this weekend so I’m not going to rehash Game 4 any further.
But again, this series is not over until Boston has four notches in the win column. Period.
Now, I don’t think LA has a very good chance of coming back to win the series. But at the same time, this isn’t typical “it ain’t over till the fat lady sings” lip service either. Boston is beginning to get banged up.
While Pierce’s knee is okay enough to play on for now, it’s obviously not 100% and he might just be one tweak away from being done for the remainder of the series.
Rondo’s ankle clearly hampered him at the end of Game 3 and all of Game 4, and he’s the only reliable ball-handler Boston has at PG. House, and Cassell to a degree, are bigger offensive threats than Rondo, but Boston is just daring LA to bring full-court pressure when they’re in the ball game. Their on-the-ball defense isn’t as good as Rondo’s either.
Perkins now has a banged up shoulder to match his banged up ankle. He’s probably the least essential Celtic of the three injured guys, but it never hurts to lose a fairly talented big man to injury.
Without Perkins, P.J. Brown and Big Baby are going to have play more minutes than they’re used to. Those two also aren’t as quick as Perkins, so the Lakers can exploit them for easy fouls and missed rotations.
This is an opportunity that the Lakers should not just piss away. How many times during the past few years would you Lakers fans have wished that all you needed to win a title were three straight W’s against a seemingly superior but banged up opponent? And Boston just isn’t that much better to boot.
Again, the Lakers odds are honestly pretty small of coming back to win this thing, but they have no shot if they roll over and die.
I’m prob still shellshocked about that 2nd half of Game 4 – and that it had to happen in the Finals vs BOS, no less – but I am looking fwd to today’s game.
I’m actually anticipating a good game today and I just don’t see LAL allowing themelves to get closed out at home. Hope that doesn’t turn out to be more misplaced optimism.
Good post Gunslinger. Another point that I would raise is that this might be the last game the Lakers play together as a team until October. They have no excuse for not going completely all out, balls to the wall, do or die, slaughter. I think we will know pretty quickly if the Lakers are playing to win tonight.
[quote]Malevolence wrote:
Good post Gunslinger. Another point that I would raise is that this might be the last game the Lakers play together as a team until October. They have no excuse for not going completely all out, balls to the wall, do or die, slaughter. I think we will know pretty quickly if the Lakers are playing to win tonight. [/quote]
Agreed. Lakers have no other choice but to go all out. Even if they are staving off the inevitable, they have to show what they are made of as a team.
On the other hand, Boston can’t come out lazy either. They are up 3-1 and can close out the series on the road tonight, they have to be on point.
Either way, should make for a good game.
We’ve talked about the players, but not much has been said about the coaches.
With all due respect to Doc Rivers, I don’t think he is outcoaching Phil Jackson. In fact, I don’t think either coach is outcoaching the other. This series has come down to the players. I don’t think PJ’s strategy is better than Doc’s, or vice versa, but the ability to EXECUTE the game plan is obviously in Boston’s favor.
We all know PJ’s cred, but as for Doc, he has down a phenomenal job with the team. Not only was he given a great team, but he has them in the Finals, and one win away from a championship. Unlike Flip Saunders, who has had great Pistons teams, he couldn’t get them past the Eastern Conference Finals, Doc did a good job of not only keeping a good thing together and playing as a team, but he has them playing excellent ball at the right time, and isn’t messing up the chemistry of the team.
Has Phil Jackson lost his touch? No way, and probably never will, but credit should be given to him for what he’s done with the team this year. Along with an internal house cleaning and making Kobe a better team player, he led the Lakers to the 1 seed and a chance to play for a title. I think of all the years he coached, this is one of his better coaching performances, and he deserves credit for that.
Wait wait, why is the series 2 in Boston, 3 in LA, and 2 in Boston? That’s different than usual…?
[quote]msd0060 wrote:
Wait wait, why is the series 2 in Boston, 3 in LA, and 2 in Boston? That’s different than usual…?[/quote]
The Finals changed to a 2-3-2 back in the 80’s. I personally dislike it, as I don’t think it’s as fair to the home-court team. The standard 2-2-1-1-1 they use in the other three rounds is about as fair as can be done in my opinion.
As for the game tonight, LA came out firing on all cylinders and built an early 19 pt lead. But just like in Game 4, Boston came roaring back.
It’s currently halftime, and Boston has whittled the lead down to 3. It’s a bad sign for the Lakers that Boston did this largely with reserves, as Garnett, Rondo, and Perkins all playing either zero or minimal minutes.
Boston took the Lakers’ best shot on the road twice in a row, and won Game 4 and has shrugged it off so far tonight. If you held a gun to my head, I’d pick the Lakers to hold on tonight because I’m a natural pessimist.
But based on what I’ve seen in the first half, Kobe is either going to have to be Superman in the 2nd half and do it all by himself or Boston will be celebrating in about an hour and a half.
Here we go.
well lakers forestall the inevitable today. They are going to have to play like they have in the first quarter that last two games the WHOLE game to win the next two. I do not see that happening at all, but hey crazier things have happened and with kobe you always have a chance.
NBA FINALS GAME 5 RECAP:
- Lakers defeat 1) Celtics 103-98: Kobe Bryant had 25 points, Pau Gasol had 19 and 13 boards, Lamar Odom had 20 and 11 rebounds, and the Lakers stave off elimination and head back to Boston down 3-2. Paul Pierce had a monster night, finishing with 38 points and 8 assists, Ray Allen had 16 points, and Kevin Garnett had 13 points and 14 rebounds.
Stud of the Night: Kobe Bryant. 25 points, including 15 in the fourth quarter, and a critical defensive play and dunk late in the fourth quarter proved to be critical, and his Lakers get a huge win at home and head to Boston behind 3-2.
I was wrong on both counts. Kobe was not superhuman, but LA held on to win by five.
There are two schools of thought here:
1.) A win is a win is a win. You don’t get bonus points for “pretty” wins, nor do you get docked for “ugly” wins. That’s one down, two to go for LA.
That’s two straight strong starts for LA. If they can do that in Boston, that’ll go a long way towards neutralizing the home court edge.
or
2.) This game was similar to Game 3 in that it was a demoralizing win for the Lakers. Now five games into this series, and it’s beginning to look like Boston can shut down LA’s offense at will when they dial in the D. It was pretty obvious that Boston knew they had two games back home after tonight as it looked like the Celtics toyed with LA tonight before getting bitten in the ass in the final minute by their lack of focus.
In all, LA’s back-against-the-wall, last hurrah home finale left something to be desired. While you hate to fail to close out the series, this game seems to point towards Boston’s being a better team more than the Celtic wins do.
[quote]shizen wrote:
well lakers forestall the inevitable today. [/quote]
My sentiment exactly. We’ve now seen five complete games and it seems quite obvious (to me) that one team is simply better than the other.
[quote]tGunslinger wrote:
I was wrong on both counts. Kobe was not superhuman, but LA held on to win by five.
There are two schools of thought here:
1.) A win is a win is a win. You don’t get bonus points for “pretty” wins, nor do you get docked for “ugly” wins. That’s one down, two to go for LA.
That’s two straight strong starts for LA. If they can do that in Boston, that’ll go a long way towards neutralizing the home court edge.
or
2.) This game was similar to Game 3 in that it was a demoralizing win for the Lakers. Now five games into this series, and it’s beginning to look like Boston can shut down LA’s offense at will when they dial in the D. It was pretty obvious that Boston knew they had two games back home after tonight as it looked like the Celtics toyed with LA tonight before getting bitten in the ass in the final minute by their lack of focus.
In all, LA’s back-against-the-wall, last hurrah home finale left something to be desired. While you hate to fail to close out the series, this game seems to point towards Boston’s being a better team more than the Celtic wins do.[/quote]
Good assessment, I agree with both points.
Lakers lack of consistency is killing them. It is incredible to me that they’ve gone on these tremendous scoring runs, offensively and defensively firing on all cylinders, and really looked like a championship team. But, they’ll only do it for 10 minutes… maybe.
Meanwhile, Boston has just held on and plowed through and scraped by and gotten it done down the stretch. They’ve been far more consistent, far tougher, and generally played the better game.
It is not the way I wanted this to go down, since the Lakers can be so brilliant, and when it clicks it is just a joy to watch.
Tonight’s win was hard fought, however, I really liked that LA came out so strongly two games in a row, and maybe if they can dial in on that some more they’ll stretch it to 7. I got to admit though, my faith in this one is pretty much worn out.
When I saw Boston coming back from a 19 point deficit I thought “Here we go again…” I thought the same thing again when Boston had a lead a couple of times. Lucky steal (foul?) by Kobe in the late fourth sealed it for them though. Boston is gona be pumped when they go back home. I thought that Perkins being out of the game(s) would have a bigger impact on Boston however they held their own, this shows the depth of the team.