This is what I don't get about the NBA: the game is physical and whistles are getting swallowed left and right because the players are playing the game. And then, out of nowhere, Garnett gets called for a touch foul when he's fighting for a loose ball in a tight game? It puzzles me, truly. Incidental contact had been ignored for the entire game, Garnett played within that standard, and yet even after getting fouled to create the loose ball, he's called for his sixth foul in competition for the loose ball just because Fisher acts like he's been mugged and spills all over the ground (conversely, Lamar Odom had five fouls for most of the fourth quarter and got away with far more than KG did). The vacillation of the refs tonight was just flat out mind boggling.
All I want is some freaking consistency from the officials. Oh sure, it's hard to make judgements so quickly and observe and judge such a fluid game and all, but pretty please, just suck slightly less at your job once in a while. I know that the Super Bowl just happened and you NBA referees are all antsy-in-your-pantsy to one-up the NFL Zebras, but that's no excuse to ruin a perfectly good game between two very equal opponents.
Whatever, to be honest, the Celtics didn't deserve that game anyhow. They were careless with the ball on offense (16 turnovers) and essentially gift wrapped the Lakers twenty-freaking-four points as a result. And even though the Lakers threw up enough bricks from the free-throw line to build house (17-29!!!!!!!!!!!), the Celtics still couldn't get it done without Garnett down the stretch. As soon as he was gone from the game, the Celtics lost all of their spacing, ball movement and much of their defensive tenacity. Had KG been available for overtime, I feel strongly that the game would have had a different result. But KG wasn't in there, and the Celtics played poorly throughout, so give the Lakers some credit for playing a good game (I just threw up in my mouth a little bit, ugh).
This loss is especially disappointing because it wasted some great efforts and it felt like the Celtics missed a lot of open shots that could have just as easily gone in as rimmed out. In particular, Leon Powe and Eddie House came up huge for Boston and made the most of their floor time (I was actually wondering why we didn't see more of those two down the stretch), combining for 26 points on 11-17 shooting and 11 rebounds to boot. Their energy was key for the Celtics, and both made big buckets when their number was called (House went 4-5 from downtown).
Paul Pierce deserves a great deal of credit for his defense on Kobe, forcing Mamba into many a contested jumpshot in crunch time, often working one-on-one. Unfortunately, Pierce also deserves his fair share of the blame for the loss, as he missed several late free-throws that would have given the Celtics a late lead and would have put more pressure on the Lakers. He also went 5-13 from the floor and turned the ball over five times. Sad trombone...
The implications of this game? LA is very deep and appear to still be sore from their humiliating exit from last year's Finals. They're much worse without Bynum controlling the middle of the floor, but unfortunately, the Celtics still seem behind without James Posey and PJ Brown. The Celtics need help, desperately. I'd like to see them add another long body to come off the bench and make life harder for the likes of Pau Gasol, who had a field day against the much shorter Glen Davis tonight, as well as somebody to handle the ball for the second unit and let Eddie House roam free on offense. I hate to say Stephon Marbury at this point, but there isn't a lot of promising talent out there at this point. Signing Marbury to a small contract and keeping him on a short leash would be a low risk option that given Marbury's talent could be very rewarding for the Celtics. I feel dirty just writing that, but Boston needs to get better if they want a shot at defending their title against the Lakers in June.
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