CELTICS -at- LAKERS - 12/30 - Thoughts and :-(( Ratings

[DancingBarry]

Too Tight and Too Perimeter Oriented... Byron Scott. A.C. Green. Michael Cooper. Orlando Woolridge. Is that you? Kurt Rambis, with the trademark Clark Kent glasses and stache, I know that's you. Awesomely bad.

There were rumors about the short shorts for a couple weeks, and they finally targeted this game for the debut. The Lakers played tight, like their shorts, in the first half. They missed a lot of easy ones and didn't try to work the inside-out opportunities they had. Kobe lost his mojo of the past couple games and they trailed by 8. So, at halftime, they dumped the old school tighties for their regular ones. Didn't help.

They stayed close until a 21-2 crushing run from the Celtics at the end of the third and start of the fourth. The Celtics than cruised to a 110-91 win.

They Lakers never established dribble penetration or the post, even though the Celts looked willing to collapse on post players. We settled for too many iso sequences and not enough working of the offense. With Kobe having a poor perimeter game, that kind of play didn't bode will for our success at all.

The refs were poor at times (in fact, I can only think of one game where they stood out more), the frustration led to a number of techs on both sides adding more fuel to a chippy atmosphere. The Lakers did not play smart ball at all...but also credit the Celtics for some strong play on both ends. Pierce was lighting us up. KG showed why he is one of the leading MVP candidates, the heart and soul of the Celts D.

The Lakers had a tough trio of games, taking two of the three is good...wish we would have given ourselves a better chance tonight by playing smarter. No inside-outside play at all. Drove me nuts.

"Some of the things we tried to do yesterday in practice, we didn't execute today at all -- and that had to do with penetration," Phil said afterward. "A lot of our shots came from not following the principle of getting penetration first then finding the shot." And with that...let's start with Kobe:


Kobe -- -- Too much iso ball by Kobe. The great passing in the last game was gone and Kobe missed a ton. His shot was flat, his perimeter game off, and he continually missed on pull-ups from outside. Phil said he hadn't seen Kobe shoot that badly in a while: "After playing two stellar games, shooting well, this was not a game we could put down next to those," he said. By "principle of penetration" -- that comes multiple ways, not just off the dribble, but Kobe didn't play well or smart. So while he set the tone in a good way in the last game, I think he did the opposite in this one. Bad game, but I still liked his comment about his "sexy legs." The Stats: Kobe went a poor 6-25 (0-6 from three, 10-11 from the line) for 22 points, 6 boards, 3 assists, 3 turnovers and 5 fouls in 37 minutes. The Action: He missed a wing jumper. He threw a lob way too high for Ariza. He swung through from the sideline and drew FTs on Allen, he made both. He posted up Allen, got contact, no call and wanted the foul. He posted up Ray Allen again, spun baseline and drew a foul while banking the jumper, he missed the FT and Allen had to sit. He made a tech FT. He missed an elbow jumper. He picked up his second foul when Pierce forced contact and hit an And-1 jumper, Kobe then compounded it by picking up a tech. He attacked for a layup on the next trip down, ticked off. He missed a three. He drew a foul on a jumper next trip down, he made both. He missed a wing jumper. He made a tech FT. He attacked from the wing, hung around KG and banked. He was fouled on a wing jumper for FTs, he made both. He missed a runner. He missed a three. He missed an easy one-hander from a couple feet away, he normally hits those. He attacked deep into the paint and drew more FTs, he made both. He missed a wing fade that rattled out. He missed a three. He picked up his third foul with 24 seconds left in the half and sat. He had 16 points, but shot a very poor 3-15 in the first half. He missed a three. He pulled up and hit the shot 7-footer on the baseline. He pushed out on the break and scored the layup. He missed a wing jumper. He and Allen traded shots as Kobe posted up and Kobe drew Allen's fourth. He got dribble penetration and kicked out to Fish for a three (rare-inside out play). Bogus call as Kobe had a shoulder past Pierce offensively on the perimeter and was called for a charge, his fourth. He missed a pull-up wing jumper. He shot over three defenders and bricked short. He missed a bank short. He missed a three. He attacked, drew the D and fed Ronny for an And-1. He attacked and dunked with both hands. He charged on an attack, looked like Posey was a step late, but that's his game. He missed a good look at a three in transition.

Lamar -- -- Lamar got frustrated late after getting rejected by KG and dumped Allen into the sideline for a flagrant. Hopefully, there isn't any additional bonus penalty on that one. Lamar looked like the rest of the team. He rarely got the ball in a space where he could work and didn't go into the post with any regularity. Not a very good defensive game no matter who he was on. The Stats: He shot a poor 6-17 for 14 points (he went 2-3 from three, didn't get to the line...which might be why he was a little frustrated), he had 10 boards, 1 assists, 1 steal and 2 blocks in 41 minutes. The Action: He hit a 16-footer straight away. He got tapped on a layup, then drew a foul. He missed a runner, but Bynum cleaned it up. He drained a corner three on a kickout by Sasha. He missed a layup. He picked up his second foul late in the first. He missed a layup and a tip in. He airballed a wide open 16-footer from the wing. He sank a three quickly on the next trip down. He missed on a drive. He missed a three. He had 8 points on a poor 3-11 shooting to go with 6 boards in the first half. He got Perkins on a switch, attacked to his left and scored. Good quick first step and he dunked past Pierce. He blew past KG and scored going to his right. He missed an open midrange jumper. He posted up (what's this?) and hit Bynum for FTs. He missed a finger roll on the break. He got rejected by KG, then he took a hard flagrant on Ray Allen who took exception and got a tech himself.

Bynum -- -- It looked to me like the Celtics were eager to collapse on Bynum on the couple of touches he got. If that's the case, keep feeding him. Penetration and collapsing the D on a simple post entry can lead to some smooth flowing, inside-out ball. We never looked for it, even though the Celtics appeared ready to overplay him. Bynum struggled with foul trouble, picking up a few on dribble penetration, particularly by Pierce. He fouled out in short minutes. He didn't control the boards and he has played a couple of his weaker games this season against Perkins. On the shorts: "I thought we were both going to do it," Bynum said, referring to Boston not wearing them. Ha, ha...he probably felt a little odd. The Stats: He scored 8 points on 2-2 shooting (4-4 from the line), just 2 boards, 1 assists, 1 block and 6 foulsin 22 minutes. The Action: He was called for a foul sticking his hand into a swing through. He went after an LO miss, kept it alive, got it and finished. Good challenge on dribble penetration to force a miss. Finally some guard penetration off the pick and roll and Bynum got pushed on the lob throwdown to earn FTs (he popped KG in the head on his way down, causing a bloody gash), he made both. He got called for a cheap foul swatting Perkins easily on a drive, wow, poor call (ball don't lie, Perkins missed both FTs). He posted up and hit a 9-foot turnaround. He picked up his third foul on Pierce's penetration with a minute left in the half and he had to sit. He picked up his fourth foul challenging Pierce's penetration again and had to sit with 7:34 in the third. He drew FTs off an interior feed from Lamar. He picked up a couple more fouls quickly and fouled out with 9:36 left.

DFish -- -- He didn't have to deal with Rondo's speed in this game. Instead, he went up against Tony Allen, who played a solid game from that spot. Seemed like an average game from Fish. He and Bynum weren't able to connect like they had been in previous games. Credit some of that to the Celts help D and man D. We certainly missed a more traditional PG, though, as we were settling for perimeter shooting without getting the Celtics on their heels. Fish connected on a couple of threes, including one at the halftime buzzer that gave the Lakers a little life. The Stats: He scored 11 points on 4-10 shooting (2-4 from three, a poor 1-3 from the line), he had 2 boards, 3 assists and 2 fouls in 25 minutes. The Action: He swung through and hit the baseline jumper. He attacked in transition and drew FTs, he made one. He missed a tech. He reached and picked Tony allen. He back-rimmed a layup at the front of the rim. He sank a long wing jumper with a man on him. He got tapped on a long three. He drew an offensive foul on the perimeter. He picked up a moving screen on Pierce. He missed an open three. He swished a long wing three at the halftime buzzer (your NBA TV No. 3 play of the night). He missed a jumper from the FT line wide left. He swished an open three on some rare inside-out play by the Lakers as Kobe got dribble penetration. He missed a baseline jumper.

Ariza -- -- Trevor again with the start. He didn't make a big impact in the game, but he did seem to be in on a few of the bigger plays of the night. You could see the Celts sag off him a bit when he was out on the arc. Defensively, he didn't lock up anyone. He got into the short shorts, pulling up the socks old-school style to go with a couple of knee pads. The Stats: He scored 8 points on 3-6 shooting (2-3 from the line) to go with 3 boards, 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 turnover and 3 fouls in 25 minutes. The Action: He missed a baseline jumper. He threw an interior pass away. He picked up his second foul covering Allen midway through the first. He cut strong off Bynum, took the handoff and dunked on Pierce (your NBA TV No. 6 play of the night). He hit a short jumphook after cutting down the middle and taking a pass from Kwame. Great hustle, Kwame poked a ball loose, then Ariza dove for for it, came up with it and hit Farmar on the break for a dunk. He airballed a turnaround when the offense stalled. He attacked to his right from the corner, elevated, gave KG a shot to the groin with his knee and scored the And-1 (your NBA TV No. 8 play of the night), he made the FT. Phantom foul call on a good strip by Ariza. He drew FTs on an offensive board and made one.

Kwame -- -- Reasonable game from Kwame considering he has just gotten back into the swing of things. He's got all that gear on his ankles and knees, but seems to be able to move well. He did well on the boards in limited action. He was also another of the many players who got T'd up tonight. He certainly looked like the victim of some bad calls. The Stats: He scored 3 points on 1-2 shooting, grabbed 7 boards, had 1 assist and 3 fouls in 16 minutes. The Action: He drew FTs, cutting when LO drew the double, he made one. He found Ariza cutting for a score. He poked a ball loose, Ariza dove for it and fed Farmar, who dunked. He missed a left-handed jumphook. He was called for a tech arguing a call. He got low position and scored a hook with his left. He easily beat Pierce to the spot, total charge but Pierce got FTs...wow.

Turiaf -- -- He seems to be getting lost in the shuffle of Phil's rotations with and without Kwame back. Part of that is Ariza at SF and not having LO play there. Previously, he was back-up center and Phil was not wanting to play our only two bigs side by side. So, just 10 minutes for Ronny tonight from Phil, a chunk in garbage time. The Stats: He scored 7 points on 2-2 shooting (3-3 from the line), he had 4 boards, 1 steal, 1 block and 2 fouls in his 10 minutes. The Action: Good hustle, chasing down a guard from behind and swatting the shot behind Kobe to end the first quarter. He scored a layup running the floor. He scored an And-1 when Kobe got dribble penetration and found him, he made the FT. He was fouled on a throwdown attempt, he made both.

Luke -- -- Luke got into the game late in the second quarter. He had some turnovers and wasn't in sync. Defensively, he was actually better against Pierce than some of the other guys we threw at him. He crowded him on the perimeter and forced him into help a couple of times (including that Kwame block foul that should have been a charge). The Stats: The Action: He missed a point-blank layup off a nice attack. He drained a wing three. He missed a bank trying to draw contact, but got no call. He was stripped on a drive. He was stripped again, although it looked like there was contact. He threw a pass away trying hit Crit who wasn't expecting it. He missed a long three badly.

Farmar -- -- Farmar led the bench in scoring, but still had another turnover-prone game like the last one. He chucked up a lot of threes, 7 of his 9 shots were from behind the arc. The Stats: He scored 9 points on 3-9 shooting (2-7 from three, 1-1 from the line) to go with just 1 assist, 1 steal and 3 turnovers in 23 minutes. The Action: He missed a wing three. He forced a pass into traffic and it led to a layup the other way. He dunked when Ariza dove to the floor to steal a ball and hit Farmar busting out. He bricked badly from distance trying to beat the shotclock. He missed a three. He swished a wing three. He sank another three from the left wing. He missed a heat-check three. He lost the ball around his back. He got rejected badly by KG. Ouch.

Radmanovic -- -- He barely played...which is what he has done of late regardless of minutes. The Stats: Vlad got just 4 minutes and missed his only shot. He had 1 board, 1 assist, 1 turnover and 1 steal. The Action: A pass from Kobe bounced off his hands out of bounds. He swiped a pass. He missed a three. He got KG to walk on a post up.

Vujacic -- -- Sasha got a little run despite the ankle injury. He did little out there. The Stats: He didn't score, missed his only shot and had 2 assists in 7 minutes. The Action: He attacked and hit LO for the corner three. His man went right around him for a layup. He airballed a corner three.

Crittenton -- -- With Sasha injured, Javaris got some early minutes in the thick of the action. Offensively, he was able to get to the line a number of times. He had a couple of turnovers trying to maybe do a little too much. Defensively, he showed some active hands and played solid. Much better activity from him than in the past one. The Stats: He scored 6 points on 1-3 shooting (4-7 from the line), had 3 boards, 1 assist, 3 turnovers and 1 foul in 16 minutes. The Action: He got some early second-quarter action to start his first stint. He missed a runner after taking his man off the dribble. He fouled on the other end. He attacked, got contact, no call and lost the ball. He drew FTs, cutting to the hoop and taking a pass, he made both. He attacked in transition, drew a foul and got back to the line on the next trip down, he made one. He found Ronny in the middle of the floor for a layup. He tried to thread the needle and turned it over. He lost the handle trying to create. He split a double and drew FTs, he made one. He attacked from the wing, nailed a defender to the ground with his dribble and scored an And-1 layup, he missed the FT.

Phil -- -- Phil was disappointed with the Lakers not executing the game plan and said they could have played a lot better. The team could have used a better floor general. Kobe wasn't executing and no one else can fill the void when he's not... No surpassing Auerbach's win mark for Phil in this one against the Celts... Four minutes into the game and the Celtics were called for an illegal D. That could have been the third or fourth. Seemed like they came out and zoned in the paint quite a bit... Ariza picked up his second foul midway through the first, but Phil left him in on Allen. He dunked on the next possession. He subbed Ariza out for Sasha a minute later after Ariza picked up a tech... Celts had a 4-point trip late in the first when Kobe was called for an And-1 and a tech... We trailed 32-23 after the first quarter. We missed a lot of decent looks and didn't play inside-out... The Celtics pulled out to a 17-point lead, but the Lakers hung tough, cutting it back to 5 and forcing the Celts to call a timeout... The Lakers trailed 53-45 at the half, shooting just 32 percent (Kobe went 3-15)... Phil had a Kwame, Walton, Ariza, Sasha, Farmar lineup out there at the end of the third... He went with a Bynum, Lamar, Vlad, Crit, Farmar lineup to start the fourth. A 14-0 run for the Celts between quarters to blow the game open. It ended up being a 21-2 run... We shot 35 percent for the game and had just 17 assists. Those stats are like the chicken and the egg. Which came first? The poor shooting that didn't lead to assists or the lack of ball movement that didn't lead to the good looks. It looked and felt like the latter to me...

GameFlow -- LINK -- You can see the huge run at the end of the third and start of the fourth by the Celts. It started on the tail end of the starters first stint and continued by the Celts bench.

[10scott10]

sorry you had to watch that till the end.

i felt critt had a horrid game, as did the rest of the team.

to fancy, and trying to hard.

[DancingBarry]

[hoopschick29]

The booty shorts kinda helped choked down this bad loss for me.

But aside from that, Boston is a damn good team. No sense in being in denial about it anymore. 26-3...statistically the best defensive team in the NBA. They are ELITE.
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So glad we gave you your flowers while you were here, Kobe.

[hi_ma]

DB- should have saved yourself time (though appreciated) by simply typing

Celts>>>>>>>Lakers by a mile. We arent beating the celtics unless we play them 10times and even then we will be lucky to get one
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The lakers will get prince.

[limchrc]

Thanks for the recap. The only positive is seeing Critt getting some minutes even though he made some mistakes.

[AndrewBynum17]

Bynum sucked. He needs to be more agressive and (bleep) take more shots when he gets the ball. He neds to stop worrying about missing a shot.
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www.andrewbynum.com

[hoopschick29]

[jd2k]

That was such a horrible game. I got all pumped up for it too. But I have to admit that the celts are THAT good. Blow the Lakers out on a back to back too.

HD highlights(more like lowlights) coming soon. Includes Lamar's secret football move.

[AndrewBynum17]

[1hu2ren3dui4]

horrible execution. kobe was off. odom was off in lala land. bynum was going through the motions. fisher was clearly intent on handing out another career night. the rest of the lakers looked lost and there was nobody to restore order.
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-Most people learn by saying mother, numb, horse, angry... I learned mine by saying Lakers, add gas. - HRD.

[DancingBarry]

[Mr. EiGhTy-OnE]

PHIL JACKSON IS OVERRATED.

-turiaf is buried on the bench
-J-crit is finally freed against the best team in the league
-sasha subs in for ariza and has to guard pierce(right after the double t, trevor cooled down. no need to pull him)
-we dont play til friday, even on a bad shooting night, kobe needed to be out there. (every time he sat, Boston pushed the lead)
-poor lineups to start the 2nd and 4th quarters


REFS 7 techs?


this loss hurt, all the emotions of losing out on KG this summer has re-emerged
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"When (Kobe) gets you on life support, he won't give you mouth to mouth. HE PULLS THE PLUG." -stu

[Christopher C]

[AndrewBynum17]

DB do you think Bynum not being more aggressive on the offensive end is because of himself or the players and coaches? He passes it up too much and seems afraid to miss a shot or take one in traffic. He seems to be holding himself back in fear.

[10scott10]

I think what happened tonight is that when nhe got the ball with good position the celts ould throw Kg and sometimes another defender to help perkins. and since the lakers weren't hitting from outside, the celts felt no pressure to get back to their guys.

he can't handle being double or triple teamed inorder tos core off of it when his teammaes aren't knocking down shots to keep the defense honest.


BTW, did it seem like the lakers went ou of their way tp not execue the triangle tonight.

[oneofthesedays11]

As Phil said the Laker players did not execute the game plans they laid out in practice. Nobody's fault but the players. Quite frankly nobody really stepped up to play tonight, including Kobe.

And Bynum struggled tonight because they have the best interior defense in the league. Nobody is going to get easy lobs and put backs against them. It's going to take a Dwight Howard like player to get any sort of production in the paint area against the Celtics. Guess how many Dwight Howard like players there are in the league?

To really beat the C's you need to play a true inside-out game. Force them to double down low and make them pay with deadly outside shooters. Our shots just weren't falling tonight and they understandably sagged off and let us keep raining bricks.

[10scott10]

I am suprised noone has mentoined this at all tonight, but guess which former lakers was the honorary captain tonight.

Jerry west.

i hope buss was trying to get gim back in some capacity, he might give mitch the balls to keep being bold.

[1hu2ren3dui4]

[coop-a-loop]

Granted Bynum had difficulties tonight against a team that plays excellent interior defense. But it is extrmely difficult to have a good game against Perkins and KG when your teammates do not make it a priority to look for you in the low post. Several times I see him with good position and the passer can make the entry pass but instead the passer opts to instead dribble into a shot, go one or one, or reverse the ball to the other side. He had no rhythm. And to make matters worse, the refs called him for a questionable foul on a Perkins shot attempt he blocked.

It happens alot, but when will the lakers realize that they are at their best when it is inside-out (starting with either KObe or Bynum) and they pass the ball around when the defense collapses? Phil drills this idea to them every game but they have lapses in executing it every time out.

KObe had his most success posting up both Allens. They both got in foul trouble and it forced Boston to double team him in the second half. I do not know why the Lakers ran screen and rolls with him and have him attack the basket off the dribble and take difficult shots.

Boston is a very good defensive team..but the Lakers helped them a ton by not moving the basketball, settling for too many perimiter shots off dribble drives or one on one moves, not looking into the post, and taking a shot off 1 or 2 passes. They did not make the Celtic defense work.

I am sure the Lakers did not execute Phil's game plan. I guess the hype and someone silly idea of having them wear short shorts made them lose focus before tip off.

[Richcbt]

[A Mad Chinaman]

DB - Thanks for your observation

Reputation - Celtics' record and players (KG, Pierce, Allen, etc.) got it from the refs which resulted in favorble calls

Experience - Celtics knew how to play through all the questionable fouls - even at home?!?!

Transition - That fans believe that the Lakers can be the elite teams (the best - record-wise being the Celtics - is a good transition where everybody thought that the Lakers would barely make it to the playoffs.

Court General(s): With Kobe/LO/Luke not able to effectively lead the team - Farmar/Critt shown that they are not quite there at the top level of the NBA (though getting there)

Court Spacing/Passing: It appears that (for whatever reason) that they weren't spacing the court effectively enough that allowed KG (and others) to free-lance on defense. Why didn't the Lakers do some "counters" to force KG to stay at home defensively?

1 Out of 82 - As Norm Nixon/Michael Cage stated, it was 1 game and they (hopefully) will learn from this game what it takes to win at the very highest level. They seemingly have a tangible game plan against the Spurs, Suns, Mavs, Pistons, etc. - now they have to develop one for the Celtics (which shows how far they have come this season).

NOTE: Michael Cage added a lot of needed energy and passion to the broadcast. Does anybody know what he has done in the past within the broadcast booth?

Shooting Percentage: Does anybody know if Kobe is injuried and how dies this game rank (shooting percentage-wise) with his other few sub-par games? Does anybody have the stats on how many layups that the Lakers missed in the 1st half and your explanations on why this happened.

[Christopher C]

Thanks for your response, Richcbt. Good read. I'm sorry you had to pay for those tickets to watch this game. Hopefully the integrity of the game can be kept. Some rules need to be adjusted; the refs have too much power to persuade the outcome of games.

[TooCool]

It seems like the refs can easily kill us when they keep Bynum in foul trouble.

I still see the Celtics as nothing to be honest. Big 3, and nobody else. The only problem is, we don't show up against these teams. Lakers mailed it in when they were in Boston from the beginning of the game.

Then the Lakers choose to distract themselves in the 1st half with short-shorts. 2nd half, they took the night off again.

When the Lakers vs Celtics happen in the NBA Finals, I hope the Lakers will show up... that's for sure.
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[targetman]

I thought the Lakers looked tight in the first minutes of the game and never loosened up. Gone were the great passing and fast break opportunities of the Utah game and instead we slowed the game down (giving an unnecessary advantage to a team playing their 4th game in 5 days) and stood holding the ball waiting for teammates to make their rotations. It was one of the worst games I've seen Kobe play. I couldn't believe he was still chucking threes late in the game. The shorts were a further embarrassment -- there's a reason no one wears them anymore.

Ref #56 was way too ubiquitous in this game. The refs seemed like they were warned that it could get out of hand and wanted to dish out enough techs to keep it controlled. The early inconsistent fouls took away any chance of getting into a rhythm, although our rhythm last night was more akin to Mark Madsen than Showtime.
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