Thanks to an inspired effort by Paul Pierce and solid contributions from Rajon Rondo and Kevin Garnett the Boston Celtics find themselves one win away from an NBA championship. Although, don't expect Kobe and the Lakers to roll over and just let that happen. With tonight potentially being the last game of the NBA season I figured I better get posting. Here are some thoughts about the series thus far and some things to look for tonight.
- I stated before that I thought Kobe would have a huge game 5 and he did, but did it really matter for the Lakers? There is no question Kobe needed to take over game 5 for the Lakers to win in Boston, but here lies the problem with Kobe taking over games it makes the rest of the Lakers stagnant. At one point Bryant scored 23 straight points for the Lakers, in that span the Celtics lead went from being up 1 to up 13. There is no question the C's are playing great defense, and that is contributing to some of the Lakers offensive woes, but let's face it no other Laker besides Bryant has stepped up his game to a championship level. The Lakers offense in game 5 was 4 guys standing around watching the 5th guy (Bryant) do all the work. And those were not easy shots that Bryant was hitting. In fact it is probably the 1st time in the 2 Finals series' against the Lakers that he truly got hot for an extended period of time. So, with no supporting cast help Kobe could have gone for 50 and it still would not have mattered. Speaking of the Lakers supporting cast.
- I don't what else I can say about Ron Artest on the offensive side of the ball other than he was getting cheered and encouraged to shoot the ball by C's fans every time he touched the ball. That's not a good sign. There is no question Artest has been a huge upgrade for the Lakers on the defensive end, but don't you think they would love to have Trevor Ariza back for his offense. It's just not that he is missing jump shots, it's that Artest has taken the 2nd most 3 pointers for the Lake show throughout the playoffs and is hitting at a 27% clip. Ouch! And that was the knock on Artest and a big reason the Rockets let him walk. He is settling for 3's when in reality he is a below average 3 point shooter. The other night in game 5 Pierce was lighting up the scoreboard and even at one time Kobe barked at Phil he wanted to guard him, so if Artest can't even do the job on Pierce then there is no reason for him to be out on the floor. Of course having typed all this watch Artest comes out tonight on fire and goes for 20+ points. Stranger things have happened.
- Another Lakers player that has disappointed is certainly Pau Gasol. It seems like Gasol has regressed again to the player we saw in the 2008 Finals and not the Gasol we saw last year in the Finals or throughout much of these playoffs. Some of that has had to do with the C's being able to double Gasol because the Lakers can't hit open shots. Another thing the C's have done a great job of is pushing Gasol off the block, but with a player of his caliber Gasol should not let that happen. Gasol needs to be more aggressive and step up next to Bryant to give the Lakers a legit 2nd scoring option and create some easier scoring opportunities
- On the Celtics front I would still be a little worried about Ray Allen's shooting woes since game 2, which have not seemed to get any better. However, Allen has resorted to posting up or cuts to try and get himself going, but sooner or later he will have to hit another big 3 for the C's. The C's also need the Paul Pierce of game 5 to show up to close out the Lakers. When Pierce is going that just makes the C's offense that much better, which at times in this series has really struggled. I mean the Lakers played pretty poor in game 5 and yet had a chance to win that game down the stretch save for a couple of missed FT's, lack of stops and bad call against them on 24 second violation. The C's need to make sure they keep moving the ball, attack the rim and don't just settle for 20 foot jump shots.
So, then onto some game 6 predictions...
- Will Boston's bench show up in LA? I don't think so. We saw some luster wear off in game 5 when Nate Robinson was clearly outplayed by Jordan Farmar. Tony Allen will still probably provide solid defense, but he continues to be a liability on the offensive end. So, it will come down to the play of Big Baby Davis and Rasheed Wallace, both of who can be a real wild cards for the C's in a good or bad way.
- The Lakers need the Lamar Odom that showed up in Boston to win this series. Odom was a non-factor in games 1&2, but played pretty solid in Boston. Odom was the only Laker that was a solid plus player in Boston (+16 +/-) and they are going to need that same effort from him if they plan on continuing their season.
- It will be interesting to see how the schedule works for both teams. Boston has won 2 of their games when there has been 2 days rest between games and are only 1-2 when there is one day rest between games. It seems the Lakers have the advantage, but I think the C's will be out for blood tonight and realize that they would be in trouble of this series goes 7.
- What Kobe will we see tonight? It seems that Kobe has been playing the role of facilitator in the early going of games to get his teammates involved, but I think tonight we will see him coming out gunning. I think in Bryant's mind he either takes the rest of the Lakers on his back to a championship or at least he will go down guns blazing.
- I think tonight will be an absolute battle and tonight's game will be the best game of the series. I think its imperative for Boston to weather the early momentum the Lakers will come out with and try and win this game in the 4th quarter with Pierce and Rondo. On the other hand the Lakers need a fast start and some shots to fall from the outside. If the Lakers can get some energy and shots from either Farmar or Shannon Brown or any other guards then I like their chances.
Prediction for tonight...
Once again I will be doing a running diary for tonight's game that will go up right after the horn sounds or Jeff Van Gundy says Queensbridge. Till tonight...
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