All In

If the Boston Celtics want to win game 7 of the NBA Finals, they'd better be. I just hope they got all the bad juju out in that game 6 stink bomb, but this is an incredibly tall order. You kind of had to see an LA victory in game 6 coming, and although it's only happened a few times in NBA history I still firmly believe that if anyone can pull this off, it's these Celtics. I have no idea who will win, but if Boston continues to play defense effectively and goes from Arby's bad to just shit sandwich awful, they stand a really good chance of winning the title tonight.

In order to win, the Celtics need to take care of the basketball and win the rebounding battle. This will be tough without Kendrick Perkins, but perhaps his absence will inspire Glen Davis and Rasheed Wallace to step up and shoulder their share of the load. But it doesn't just fall on the bigs, everyone on the court has to box out and pursue the basketball tonight. Really, it comes down to playing with energy and being focused, decisive and aggressive, but rebounding is so hugely important to controlling the pace of the game and limiting the Lakers' opportunities.

Offensively, the Celtics just have to be in a higher gear than they were on Tuesday and move the ball with precision. Shots will fall if the Celtics take care of the other areas of the game, they just need to share the ball, protect it, and challenge the Laker defense to play well twice in a row (I don't think they have it in them).

I don't believe that Ron Artest and Lamar Odom are going to make the same type of shots they made in game 6, and I hope and pray that the Celtics can stifle the other Lakers and goad kobe into launching contested fade-aways while his teammates stand around flat-footed and watch. The Celtics have nothing to lose in this game, on paper the Lakers have every edge that matters. On the court, it's been even thus far and I don't see the Celtics being that bad or the Lakers being that good again.

Let's go.

The Ominous Return of the Mamba

And I don't mean ominous for the Celtics, either. You can't get on the internet or turn on the TV today without tripping over a story about how Kobe Bryant almost burned a hole through the parquet floor last night and almost singlehandedly carried the Lakers to victory, but almost completely lost in the adulation for what was truly an impressive virtuoso performance was any analysis of how poorly the Lakers defended during that stretch of play. Kobe Bryant scored 19 straight points for the Lakers on 7-9 shooting, but a 1 point game turned into a double digit deficit for Los Angeles in the process, and nobody seems interested in discussing why. Were the Celtics just executing great offense and weathering the storm by getting lots of buckets, or was it something else?

I say that it is both. The Celtics showed great mental toughness and refused to wilt in the face of Kobe's greatness or overreact to his hot streak by leaving other Lakers open, but I also noticed something about this stretch that influenced the course of the game on both ends for the Lakers. During the 3rd quarter as Kobe hit ridiculous fall-away after ridiculous fall-away, I saw everyone else on the Lakers standing around and watching flat footed. LA would get the ball over half court, give it to Kobe (if he didn't have it already) and then go stand around far away from him and wait for the "Black Mamba" to strike. The fact that Kobe proceeded to stick just about everything he threw up there makes the point that this kind of offense is much easier to defend against totally moot, but the fact that this attitude permeated the Lakers' "defense" is worth discussing at length.

Basketball is a game of rhythm, and the players on the floor can lose their way quickly if they aren't involved in the flow of the game. When Kobe decided to take over the game offensively, he may have very well doomed his team to failure by removing all of them from the action and essentially releasing them from ownership of what was going on out there. If Kobe is going to do it all anyhow, why bother staying involved when I could passively watch the show from the best seat in the house? Despite the incredible production of Kobe for this stretch of the game, the Lakers' offense was incredibly stagnant and they let that infect their defensive game too. It's hard to stay focused on moving, rotating and running when half the time you're standing there and watching a teammate freelance for 20 seconds at a time.

Am I too harsh? Maybe. Am I simply a hater who is looking for any excuse to deride Kobe? Probably, but I still feel like my point here is valid. It's one thing to score 23 points in a row for your team by working within the flow of the offense and relying on your teammates to help you get open looks, but it is a completely different animal to pound the air out of the ball, take one screen from a teammate and launch an off-balance 20-footer with a hand in your face. Is it ridiculously impressive that Kobe scored so many points while averaging a 9.8 on the degree-of-difficulty scale? Absolutely, but the whole time it was happening I was saying to the Fox "it's ok, this is what we want. It's fool's gold, they won't win like this." And it's true, those shots are fool's gold. The Celtics gave Kobe those shots two years ago and won the title because of it, they're doing the same thing this year and Kobe is obliging them. This time around he's made more shots and his teammates have gotten better, but as long as the Celtics can get Kobe to take these shots, I like their chances to win the title this year.

Contrasting Kobe's all out barrage of shots, the Celtics once again played a balanced game and came away with a win, thanks to inspired play from Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Rajon Rondo, Tony Allen, Nate Robinson and Rasheed Wallace. Everyone chipped in on both ends and played a role in the Celtics' win, and despite some sloppy play and a late game scare, it was beautiful to watch. The Celtics need to take care of the ball and focus a little bit more on running better offense, but they are well on track to capturing the 18th title in franchise history. Prior to game 5, neither the Celtics or the Lakers had won back to back games in this Finals, so winning three in a row seemed ridiculous. After watching Kobe go into mamba mode for the past two games and seeing the way the Celtics have played, I think that Boston could very well wrap up this series on Tuesday. They pretty much have to, because as good as the Celtics have been thus far I don't know if they can win a game 7 in LA.

Though each game of the 2010 Finals has been maddeningly different than the previous contest, the correlation between winning the battle of the paint and the glass and winning the game has remained constant. Without a healthy Andrew Bynum, it seems as though the Lakers will have a tough time winning those battles and the ball games. Although the Celtics only won the rebounding battle by one board, they had a field day in the paint unlike any of the other games in this series thus far. Some of those points in the paint came in transition (which was great to see), but lots of them were made possible by the fact that the Lakers were missing Bynum's physicality and shot-blocking on the interior. Without their young and talented center, the Laker bench hurts (because Lamar Odom has to start) and their interior defense and offense struggles mightily.

As a Celtics fan I hope that Bynum is still hobbled after a long flight to Los Angeles and that the Celtics come out with twice the focus and intensity that they displayed yesterday. It is so on right now I am running out of hyperbole to conjure, so I shall leave it at that. You owe it to yourself to watch game six on Tuesday, so don't make excuses!

We're just a little bit more than an hour away from the tip off of the 2010 NBA Finals and I still have no idea what is going to happen. The Lakers have been unstoppable offensively, but the Celtics have been playing stifling defense and have already closed out two of the best teams in the NBA this year (as well as 3 of the 4 best players in the league). The Lakers haven't played great defense and haven't seen a defensive team like the Celtics, but the Celtics haven't had to stop a team with as many weapons as the Lakers. Cleveland and Orlando aren't chopped liver on offense, but both of those teams relied an awful lot on one player to make things happen. The Lakers have a slew of those guys, and they utilize a system that is much harder to defend than your average screen & roll. Either team could win this series, it's just going to come down to who can play a more complete basketball game 4 times. I may not know the outcome of the game, but I do know what the Celtics need to do to win this game.

First of all, I would like to see Rajon Rondo in attack mode early and often tonight. The Lakers have been terrible at defending the pick & roll for a long time now, and with an injured Andrew Bynum out there the Celtics need to make the Lakers defense rotate and move to open up opportunities all over the floor. Rondo is the engine that makes the Celtics go, and he is going to need to be focused, aggressive and determined to make the Lakers pay for leaving him open.

Secondly, I want Ray Allen to be in constant motion when the Celtics have the ball on offense. His movement creates lanes, angles and scoring opportunities for everyone on the floor, and its also a great way for the Celtics to physically punish the Lakers and tire them out. Either Kobe Bryant or Derek Fisher is going to have to chase Ray all over the floor, and they will pay for staying close to Allen.

On the same note, I also want the Celtics to set good, hard, LEGAL screens tonight. Derek Fisher especially sells calls very well (read that: flops) and is almost always protected by the refs, so it is important for the Celtics to curtail that portion of their game and not waste too many fouls on those kind of plays. It's important to find the middle ground and make sure that the Laker defenders take bumps when the Celtics have the ball, but the margin for error is so thin in a series like this that every call potentially counts (especially if you're Kendrick Perkins and 1 T away from a suspension).

I also need the Celtics to play with pace tonight and get easy scoring opportunities when they arise. If Kobe is going to defend Rajon Rondo, he is going to have to find him in transition and that could open up opportunities for the Celtics. Boston also does a great job of getting good perimeter looks off of the secondary fast break after dribble penetration by Rondo, and those shots being there or not could be the difference between victory and defeat.

I would also like to see the Celtics focus on taking Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol out of the game. As good as Kobe Bryant is and as important as he is to his team, the key to victory for the Celtics are the other Lakers. Overcommitting to Kobe leaves other Lakers open, hurts your chances on the glass (where guys like Odom and Gasol and the other Lakers generate a lot of good shots) and gets five guys involved in the offense instead of just one or two. If the Celtics can get Kobe to keep taking those hero shots and finish those possessions with rebounds, I am prepared to live with the results. If Boston lets Odom and Gasol run wild, we have no chance in this series.

As always, I'd like to see the Celtics take care of the basketball.

And lastly but perhaps most importantly, I want to see the Celtics come out and remind the Lakers what physical playoff basketball is all about. The Lakers have played the Celtics tough since losing in 2008, but this Celtics squad looks possessed and determined to take no prisoners in this series. If the Celtics can play their brand of basketball and take the LA "fans" out of the game early, I think they can win tonight and three more times in the series to capture the championship. We shall see, get psyched!

Know Your Enemy

Oh yes, it's officially on! The Lakers and the Celtics are just two days away from tipping off what promises to be a hard fought, close series to decide the NBA championship, and in the spirit of the Finals I thought it might be nice to get to know the Lakers a little bit so we can all appropriately hate them once game one of the Finals tips off on Thursday evening. Before we get too far into dissecting their roster, let's try and remember that this is not 2008, even though many of the faces on the court are the same. Both teams are different than they were two years ago, so I'm going to try and avoid drawing from that series to predict what will happen this time around. With that being said, let's get right to it.

The Los Angeles Lakers have perhaps one of the deepest and most talented teams in all of basketball and along with the Boston Celtics are one of the most balanced, dangerous teams in the NBA. Their roster features plenty of guys who can kill you on any given night, and they play a brand of basketball that maximizes their talents and presents opponents with match-up nightmares all over the floor. While they are still a finesse team that likes to outscore their opponents rather than relying on stifling defense for victories, these Lakers are not the same cream puffs that the Celtics eviscerated in June of 2008, especially when it comes to playing the Celtics.

Like most of Phil Jackson's teams that run the triangle offense, the Lakers do not feature a traditional distributor/dribble penetrator type of point guard. Instead, the Lakers have the time tested Derek Fisher, a left handed guard who has made a career of spotting up on the perimeter and hitting big shots in high pressure situations. Fisher punishes defenses for over committing to Kobe Bryant and always seems to hit one or two momentum changing shots per series. At this point in his career, Fisher is a defensive liability, especially when it comes to defending the pick & roll, which favors Boston immensely due to the emergence of Rajon Rondo as the Celtics' best player. The Celtics' coaching staff would be salivating at that match-up if they were likely to see it much in the Finals, but the truth is that Kobe Bryant (more on him soon) is going to spend the most time guarding Rondo, but fear not because Fisher will still have to try and guard somebody.

Next to Derek Fisher in the backcourt, the Lakers feature some guy named Kobe Bryant who is supposedly one of the greatest players of this era. If you look at the numbers for this postseason, Kobe has been playing out of his freaking mind and has performed well above even his own lofty standards. Kobe has gone for more than 30 points in 10 of his last 11 playoff games with far greater efficiency than normal and has also been stuffing the stat sheet with around 8 rebounds and 8 assists per game as well. Some extra rest before the playoffs seems to have revitalized him, and the challenge of beating a boston team that got the best of him two years ago is more than enough motivation for Bryant to stay extra focused during these NBA Finals. This is trouble for the Celtics, but it may not be as bad as it initially seems.

Yes, Kobe has been on fire from the field and is playing with incredible efficiency, however if you watched the Phoenix series you know that his shot selection is still questionable at best. Kobe unleashed a barrage of contested two point jumpers against Phoenix and just happened to make an astounding number of them. It happens. The shots he took are still, by and large, terrible for his team over the long run. Although Kobe makes more of those shots than anyone else in the league, he is selling himself short by settling for those looks, and if he doesn't hit at such an astonishing rate during the Finals the Lakers could be in deep trouble. In 2008, the Celtics gave Kobe those shots and lived with the results and I fully expect them to follow the same strategy this year. Although James Posey is gone and Kobe has grown as a player since 2008, the 2010 Celtics were able to disrupt LeBron James and Dwyane Wade in these playoffs with their current personnel, so it's not out of the question that they could do the same to Kobe.

In 2008, Paul Pierce and the Celtics feasted on the Lakers' small forward corps. Luke Walton and Vlad Radmanovich had no answer for Pierce defensively and barely made him work on both ends of the floor, and the mismatch was a major reason that the Celtics won the series. Unfortunately for the Celtics, the Lakers now feature Ron Artest at small forward who still remains an elite defender and has a long history with Paul Pierce. Though Artest has lost a step since his peak, he is still more than capable of shutting down more physical wing players thanks to his incredible strength and tenacity. Paul Pierce doesn't have the quickness to exploit Artest and has no hope of winning the physical battle, so despite his success in the Conference Finals against the Orlando Magic I am worried about Pierce's production in these Finals. Also, it is impossible to underrate the effect of having Artest on Pierce instead of Kobe Bryant, who should have much more energy for offense and will be free to defend Rajon Rondo. I'll live with whatever offense Artest can give the Lakers in this series, but I am terrified of the potential effect he could have on the defensive end.

Up front, the Lakers feature one of the biggest and longest tandems in all of basketball with Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol. Bynum provides all of the rebounding and interior toughness that the Lakers were lacking in 2008 (he missed the Finals with a knee injury) and was a big key to the Lakers' championship run last year. Fortunately for the Celtics, Bynum is once again battling a knee injury, and although he has played and will participate in the FInals, he has been inconsistent and isn't moving at full speed. The Celtics should go right at Bynum and involve him in the pick & roll, which will force him to move on defense and takes him out of his most effective role as a help defender and draw him away from the hoop. The Lakers have always been terrible at defending the pick & roll, and with Bynum hobbled, I expect to see a healthy dose of it in this series.

Pau Gasol is another matter completely. Gasol may be the most skilled big man in the NBA along with Dirk Nowitzki, and his passing, post game and soft touch with either hand are sure to give the Celtics some problems this year. While the lanky Spaniard was soft in 2008 and got ruthlessly picked on by Kevin Garnett in the Finals, he has used that bad memory as motivation and has worked on his toughness, defense and rebounding in the two years since then. Having Bynum to protect him has helped a lot, but Gasol is a different player than he was in 2008, especially when it comes to playing against the Celtics. Gasol's length won't bother the Celtics too much, however he is a dangerous player who may very well be the key to the series.

The Laker bench is not incredibly strong, yet it is also not weak and does have the potential to give the Celtics problems. Lamar Odom is a versatile forward who has unparalleled quickness and a reliable handle, though he lacks a jumper and sometimes disappears in big games. He has played better since getting punked by the Celtics in 2008, and like Gasol has used the lingering embarrassment as motivation to stick it to Boston every time they play. A healthy Garnett should be able to contain Odom to some degree, but his presence will be a major one in this year's Finals.

Flanking Odom on the bench is a shit sandwich composed of Shannon Brown, Sasha Vujacic, Jordan Farmar, Luke Walton, Josh Powell and DJ Mbenga. At times, Brown and Farmar have been effective, but overall the Laker bench is weak aside from Odom. While the Celtics' bench isn't exactly the deepest in the NBA, they should be able to handle the Laker reserves. Glen Davis, Nate Robinson, Tony Allen and Rasheed Wallace will all have favorable match-ups at times and will need to play big in order for the Celtics to win the championship this year.

Overall, this match-up is very even across the board. The Celtics have a distinct advantage at point guard and are even just about everywhere else, so I expect this series to be very close and hard fought throughout. In my mind, Kobe is likely to get his no matter what the Celtics try and do to stop him, and in most cases paying too much attention to Kobe just allows the other Lakers (many of whom are more than capable of creating their own offense) to get better shots. I would like to see the Celtics focus on shutting down Odom and Gasol and limiting Fisher in certain situations. As magnificent as Kobe Bryant is, he won't be able to bat the Celtics by himself (I wish he would try), so limiting the other Lakers and taking them out of their comfort zone will be key this series. Hopefully, Kobe will see single coverage and get the tunnel vision that has been a defining characteristic of his career and the Laker offense will sink into the muck against a tough, committed Celtic defense that is unlike anything Los Angeles has had to experience thus far.

Much like 2008, the Lakers have looked awfully impressive up to this point, but haven't had to play another elite defensive team in these playoffs. Without a healthy Bynum, this team slightly resembles the squad from 2008 that relied on simply outscoring its opponents to gain victory. The Lakers have learned since then and will play better defense this series, so I am more worried now than I was two years ago. I think Ron Artest could be a huge difference maker for the Lakers, but at the same time these Celtics are so balanced that they have been able to punish the best of the NBA even without stellar contributions from Paul Pierce. I'll have plenty more material tomorrow and on Thursday, just make sure you tune in and watch the games!

So It Goes

For those of you who don't already know, it appears as if Kevin Garnett will be out for the entire postseason.  I think I speak for everyone in Celtic land when I say "SHIT!"  Let me preface what I'm about to say by telling you that I am in no way abandoning these Celtics or giving up on their hopes to have success in the postseason, but I cannot in good conscience make the argument that everything will be all right for Boston this spring.  I would be a delusional liar if I believed that, and I've watched far too many Celtic games that haven't had Garnett in them to believe that this team can still win a playoff series on the road against Cleveland (not to mention LA).  Sorry if I'm bursting any bubbles out there, but you had to hear it sometime and in the end it will teach you a lesson about life.

Was that a lesson about life being unfair?  Or about triumphing over adversity?  Or about managing a superstar's minutes early in their career so injuries like this don't happen down the road?  No, the lesson is that all professional sports (and some of the college ones), not just the WWE and the NFL, are scripted.  Take a second to figure out where that truth blind sided you from (left field) and then think about it for a second.  I can go as far back as you like, but let's start in the offseason of 2007 to see this plot line fully develop...

After the end of the 2007 NBA Finals (where the Spurs dismantled LeBron James and the Cavs without even breaking a sweat), the NBA was in a panic about how to make their product relevant, compelling and interesting to the general public.  Stories about San Antonio and their machine like execution of an ingenious coaching system (post, slash, kick, hit the open shot and defend, how novel!) as well as the completely dull greatness of Tim Duncan were getting quite stale and it seemed as though nobody was anywhere close to challenging the Spurs for supremacy in the NBA.  The Spurs were so good, in fact, that they made the regular season into their preseason, and the playoffs into a formality.  Their methodical excellence and precision sucked all of the uncertainty and excitement out of basketball, which for everyone outside of San Antonio made basketball almost unwatchable.  

Counterbalancing the rise of San Antonio to new heights of dominance in 2007 were the Boston Celtics, who lost nineteen freaking games in a row in 2007 and were the league's worst team that year.  The Association's most storied and winningest franchise was on display with their pants around their ankles, making it hard to believe that the likes of Cousy, Russell, BIrd and Hondo ever donned the green and white.  Though they were well stocked with some tantalizing young talent, the Celtics were more than twenty years removed from their last title and still seemed to be years away from raising banner number seventeen to the rafters, despite the best shot at a top pick in an especially loaded draft class.  To make a long story slightly less long, the ping pong balls bounced with a sense of cruelty normally reserved for detainees in Eastern European prisons and Boston ended up with the fifth pick (the worst possible outcome for them) and we as Bostonians seemed to be doomed to only celebrate the three Superbowls and two World Series recently won by the Patriots and Red Sox forever.  Little did we know that David Stern had big plans for the Celtics during the coming summer.

Up until now, everything that I've described could have easily been coincidence and as unscripted as your average episode of "Reno 911."  What happened to the Celtics next makes it clear that the NBA is, in fact, as scripted as your average episode of "Survivor" or "the Hills."  Magically, Ray Allen fell out of the sky and into Danny Ainge's lap on draft night, costing the Celtics only Delonte West, Wally Szczerbiak's reanimated corpse and the number five draft pick (which turned into Jeff Green).  That was a lopsided deal to be sure, but there were questions about Allen's health and Seattle was currently acting out the movie "Major League" in real life, only without the Hollywood ending, so I wasn't that surprised by the deal.  Still, the Celtics weren't an over-the-top team with the tandem of Allen and Pierce together.  

And then, as Lloyd Bridges would say, it happened.  In the summer of 2007, a perfect storm appeared from a confluence of separate plot lines that fit together perfectly and created the ideal climate for the NBA's return to glory.  Kevin Garnett finally wanted out of Minnesota and had the nerve to say so.  David Stern needed some way to reconnect the current manifestation of the Association with its golden age.  Boston is a significantly larger media market than St. Paul and Minneapolis.  Minnesota's GM Kevin McHale and Celtics GM Danny Ainge were old friends from that era.  Boston had one legitimate young star left to trade (Al Jefferson), and the right combination of supporting pieces and expiring contracts to make the deal work.  And finally, with Ray Allen and Paul Pierce on board, the Celtics were talented and experienced enough to be a good fit for the Big Ticket.  Eureka!  

This is where, I believe, Stern at least coaxed both teams in the right direction and started scripting the Celtics' return to glory.  Using his influence, Stern pushed McHale to make the trade, lopsided as it was (how Ainge managed to hang on to Rondo in that deal I will never know).  Suddenly, the Celtics had a championship quality core in the weakest division in all of professional basketball and a legit shot to burn a swath through the 2007-08 NBA season.  Seeing the opportunity at their doorstep and with some coaxing from Commissioner Stern, no doubt, the Celtics went over the luxury tax and brought the final two pieces of the puzzle together in Eddie House and James Posey, and the Celtics were poised for an epic return to greatness.

Stern had laid the groundwork for the NBA's return to glory, but still, there was that pesky problem of San Antonio's stranglehold on the Western Conference.  Though it was true at this point that the Celtics would compete with the Spurs in the Finals and thus improve the quality of the postseason play overall, Stern was dreading another rehashing of the 2005 Finals where Detroit and San Antonio slugged it out in a brutally defensive series, that despite being close close throughout was largely unwatchable for most casual basketball fans.  Clearly, the Commissioner would have to take more drastic steps if he was to save his league from itself.  

Enter Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers.  Here's where the coincidences go from being plausible to outright ridiculous.  Why?  Because during that offseason, Kobe Bryant was doing everything he possibly could to get out of Los Angeles.  Unsatisfied with the quality of teammates around him and too impatient to wait several years for their young talent to develop further, Bryant made several trade demands in between publicly demeaning his teammates and sulking throughout the course of the summer.  Rumors swirled, but the Lakers stood fast and resisted trading the league's best player for cents on the dollar in spite of threats of a holdout from their star player.  

The rift between Kobe and the Lakers seemed wider than Eddy Curry's fat ass, yet somehow Bryant came into training camp happy and dedicated to sharing the basketball and making the teammates he had around him better, even if it meant sacrificing some of his own personal glory.  How could this have happened?  My theory is that David Stern came to Kobe with his preliminary idea for the upcoming season, which included his Lakers toppling the Spurs and heading to the Finals to face off with the new "Big 3" of the Boston Celtics.  Having already engineered Derek Fisher's release from the Utah Jazz and reunion with the Lakers, Stern assured Kobe that his days of playing with Smush Parker and losing to the Suns in the first round of the playoffs were over.  Stern guaranteed him an easy path there and an even shot at claiming his first title as the center of his team, an offer too rich and tantalizing for Kobe to pass up.  At this point Stern also revealed to Kobe that he'd gone back in time and stolen Kareem's mojo Austin Powers style and injected it directly into Andrew Bynum, transforming the thus far unproven youngster into a beast of a center capable of going toe to toe with the best big men in the Association.

There was just one problem with all of this: the Celtics were too good.  Like way too good.  Playing perhaps the best defense the NBA has ever seen, the Celtics burned a swath through the regular season General Sherman style (yes, a civil war reference.  Finally, my history degree is paying off!) and transformed into an unstoppable force that was poised to make the Finals as boring as they were with the Spurs dominating, only this team was backed by a horde of insufferable Bostonians instead of rowdy Texans (not sure which is worse, and I'm one of the insufferable Bostonians, what does that say?).  The Celtics easily handled the Lakers twice during the regular season, in addition to becoming the first team in a while to sweep the dreaded Texas Triangle of Dallas, Houston (ending their 22 game winning streak in the process) and San Antonio on the road.  In order to make the postseason more than a formality, the Lakers had to get better in a hurry.

Enter Pau Gasol.  After losing Andrew Bynum for the year with an unfortunate knee injury (the jury's still out on whether or not this was scripted or just an unfortunate occurrence), the Lakers pulled off perhaps the most lopsided trade since acquiring Wilt the stilt from Philadelphia back in the 1960s.  I know that the Grizzlies are a cost-conscious team and famously inept, but even so, there is no way that they would have traded their best player to the Lakers for nothing (Kwame Brown????????) unless David Stern somehow had a hand in the deal.  

It's not very subtle, I know, but then again, subtlety has never been Stern's strong suit.  Seeing the giant, gaping hole in the middle of the rotation, Stern had one of those moments where he said to himself, "my god, I'm going to have to go so far beyond the shenanigans 2002 Western Conference Finals or the 2006 Finals to get the match-up I want unless I can fix the Lakers.  I know, give them Gasol!"  And so it was that Pau Gasol came to Los Angeles and the Lakers were back on track to meet the Celtics in the Finals in what would no-doubt make for great television.  This plan worked so well, in fact, that Stern only had to fix one game against San Antonio (no call on Derek Fisher's foul of Brent Barry, horrendously crappy officiating or conspiracy?  You decide) for the Lakers to claim the Western Conference crown.

After months and months of meticulous planning and manipulation, Stern and the NBA had achieved their goal, a reprisal of the league's greatest rivalry, Celtics v. Lakers.  Only Boston was way too good for the Lakers and proved it in the world's first six game sweep.  Despite the predictions to the contrary from nearly everyone with a soapbox to stand on (Timmy Legs and Simmons, my hat's off to you for seeing the light), the Celtics dominated LA, burying them in game six with a barrage of relentless defense and three-pointers.  If these Celtics had so thoroughly exposed Kobe as a flawed player and beaten LA so resoundingly without any experience playing together, the prospects of having a competitive NBA for the next three years were grim.  

On the surface, the Lakers seemed to make a series of it, and the television was outstanding to be sure, however the 39 point loss in the clincher and the 20 point fourth quarter choke by LA were strong warnings to Commissioner Stern that something had to change.  The Celtics were far too good to lose to this Laker squad, and to make matters worse, their fans got even more obnoxious and full of themselves, leaving David Stern scrambling for a solution.  Using all of his cunning, Stern came up with yet another ingenious plan to take his suddenly revitalized league to the next level: let's have our two best players play each other the title! (like I said, subtlety isn't his strongest suit).  And thus, the chain of events that culminated in KG's lingering injury were set in motion to secure a Cavs/Lakers Finals.

Cleveland's acquisition of Mo Williams along with Andrew Bynum's recovery and the Celtics' loss of James Posey (Stern engineered this one too, he made Ainge put the checkbook away) set the stage, but unfortunately it seemed as though the Celtics were determined to play even better than last year despite the improvements made by the rest of the elite teams in the Association.  One mysterious knee injury later, the Celtics are now officially underdogs heading into this year's postseason.  Despite getting the best basketball from Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and everyone else on the Celtics, the Celtics don't appear to have enough to beat the Cavs a seven game series that features four games in Cleveland.  

For now, it appears as though Stern will get his wet-dream of a Finals, Kobe vs. LeBron.  They've been at the center of the MVP debate this year (rightfully so) and it seems like a force stronger than fate is pushing them closer to a match-up in June.  Boston will still compete valiantly and be spared a humiliating defeat in the Conference Finals at the hands of NBA officials, losing instead to a team that is legitimately better than the Celtics are.  The deck has already been stacked, there will be no miracle ace on the river to save Boston's hopes of repeating as champions.  I was skeptical all year long based on the quality of the opposition, but now it seems that I have almost no hope at all.

Am I angry at David Stern for writing us out of the drama so early?  A little, but I understand that we had our shot last year and benefitted greatly from it.  Now it's time for us as Celtic fans to root hard for our team and accept the inevitable defeat with grace and dignity (look those words up sometime before the Conference Finals).  We're playing with house money at this point, expectations for success couldn't be lower.  It's time to make the most of it, and for the Celtics prove that ubuntu is more than a word.  This team has thrived on adversity and the past, and I expect nothing but their best effort for as long as they're in the playoffs.  But it is already written that we are not to taste sweet victory again this June.  So it goes.  

Knee-Jerk

I'll probably feel differently about this game tomorrow, but as it stands I can't help but feel like the Celtics got hosed just a little bit tonight against the Lakers.  I'm probably just frustrated about the way the Celtics played the game (terribly), but seriously, I have no idea how or why Kevin Garnett fouls out down the stretch in a game that was that physical.  Oh yeah, and the "foul" was an obvious flop by Derek Fisher (or was it just "selling the call?") and Gasol practically hacked bone to get the ball loose in the first place, but you know, no big deal.

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.

Injury Implications

Sorry for my extended absence over the weekend, but I had to go make some money to pay the bills (believe it or not sharing your infinite basketball wisdom with the masses isn't quite as lucrative as you might think).  Fortunately, the Celtics kept right on rolling through the weekend after yet another convincing victory over Detroit (the Iverson for Billups swap is quickly gaining ground on Jason Varitek and Derek Lowe for Heathcliff Slocumb as one of the worst trades of all time) and wins against Minnesota on Sunday and Philadelphia last night.  

Boston's' winning streak is now at 12 (in case any of you were counting), though it will be put to the test against the Lakers this Thursday in Boston.  While the circumstances for this Thursday's contest against LA are quite similar to the two teams last meeting on Christmas (nationally televised, Celtics riding double digit win streak, another brutal road trip looming), this match-up will have a dramatically different feel because of the personnel involved.  

Kevin Garnett has sat out the last two Celtic games with the flu, and while it isn't a certainty that he'll play on Thursday, I imagine he'll do whatever he can to be back in the line-up against the Lakers.  Even if KG suits up, I'm not sure how effective he'll be with the flu affecting his energy and intensity on the court (though it apparently wasn't a problem for Ray Allen last night, who is suffering through the same sickness).  Garnett is key for the Celtics, who need his length, quickness and physicality to match up with Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom.  If KG isn't there or isn't able to contain those guys, the Celtics defense will have to double team, leaving them constantly out of position and susceptible to ball movement and dribble penetration.  On the other side of the ball, Garnett is a tough cover for the Lakers, who can't match his length and quickness with just one defender, forcing them to commit more focus on KG and leave the other Celtics free to operate in single coverage.

The Lakers, on the other hand, have much bigger injury issues (literally and figuratively) after Andrew Bynum tore his MCL on Saturday against Memphis.  The initial prognosis was 8-12 weeks of missed action for Bynum, which should keep him out for the remainder of the regular season and possibly into the playoffs (12 weeks would be almost through the Lakers first round playoff series at the end of April).  Additionally, 8-12 weeks is an exceedingly optimistic time frame for such a big player to be able to recover fully from such a serious injury, not to mention the amount of time it will take Bynum to work himself back into playing shape.  And when you consider his injury last year and the way his return kept getting delayed, I seriously doubt that we'll be seeing Andrew Bynum again this year. 

This loss is unfortunate and must be very disheartening for Bynum and the Lakers, and not just because Kobe was the one who hit Bynum's knee after apparently trying to sell a call on a drive to the hoop and flopping on the ground.  No, this injury is unfortunate because Bynum was playing his best basketball of the season (much like last year when he hurt his other knee) was finally on the floor to provide the length, defense and toughness that LA was so sorely lacking in last year's Finals against Boston.  Although Bynum's injury is beneficial to the Celtics as well as every other team in the West, even somebody as morally corrupt and twisted as myself wouldn't wish this on anyone (except maybe A-Rod, a Manning or possibly Kobe).  

Though the task was daunting, I was actually interested to see how the Celtics would try and react to this incarnation of the Lakers, who not only had enough offensive weapons in their arsenal to blow the doors off just about anyone, but could lock you down on defense as well with Bynum patrolling the paint.  After watching the game on Christmas and seeing some of the other signs throughout the year that exposed Boston as behind where they were last year and showed the Lakers as noticeably better, I wasn't sure that the Celtics could handle LA in a seven game series.  But now that the Lakers are essentially back to the rotation (although they have a healthy Trevor Ariza for now) that went belly up last June against the defense of the Celtics, I'm back to only being scared shitless of LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, who are now 23-0 at home this year (yikes!).

To make matters worse, there isn't another Pau Gasol out there for Mitch Kupchack to hijack this year, so the Lakers will have to make do with what they have (not that this will be a problem for them).  Although the Lakers still have plenty of depth on their roster, they are starting to look a little bit thin up front, especially without Ronny Turiaf to bring energy and size off the bench.  For most of the year, LA was playing either Gasol or Bynum at all times to give them a constant post presence with both units, however without Bynum some minutes will have to go to the likes of Chris Mihm or DJ Mbenga, who have played 75 minutes combined this year and have contributed only 27 points (all of them scored by Mihm).  And when you consider the PTSD flashbacks Mihm must have every time he has to play against the Celtics, the outlook for LA is especially grim.  

But hey, if you look on the bright side for LA, they should be well acclimated to playing without Bynum already and now there are just that many more shots for Kobe to take.  And Kobe does seem to want to atone for his unfortunate part in Bynum's injury, judging by his 61-point outburst against the Knicks (and Mike D'Antoni's New York Knicks aren't just anyone, you know...).  Mamba seems determined to carry the Lakers during this difficult period with his scoring or go out shooting.  As a matter of fact, this is just what the Lakers needed: for Kobe to go back into the mode where he shoots 30+ times per game and carry the totality of the load himself.  It's not like his sacrifice and focus on playing team basketball was what enabled the Lakers to become such a deadly team in the first place, right?  

I mean, so what if there's no shot-blocking, intimidation, rebounding or interior toughness on the Lakers anymore?  It's not like that was what was missing during the Finals last year.  As somebody who owns the Collector's Edition DVD set, I can honestly say that the Lakers didn't suffer from Bynum's absence (trying to keep typing with a straight face).  I hope that everyone in LA recorded the Christmas game on TiVo, because I imagine that's the last time you'll se the Lakers physically dominate the Celtics this year (sad trombone).  

Next time: Jameer Nelson's shoulder!