CELTICS -at- LAKERS - 12/25 - Thoughts and :-)) Ratings

[DancingBarry]

The Path to Retribution... For weeks the heavy downpours, fierce winds, snow and hail hammered all that were in the storm's path. Today, the green storm clouds arrived in the city and with it came a stench -- the air reeked of Sewage, Vomit and Garbage.

You gag as you drive down the highway. The thicker the stench, the closer you get to the battle. The cell phone rings. It's her. "I'm here. Are you close?" she yells these words over gusts of wind.

"Getting there," you reply, grimacing as you get another deep whiff of putrid air. "What is that god-awful smell?"

"It's them, the Green Menace. You think they smell hideous? You should see the minions they travel with. They revel in the filth."

"What about little Larry O'Brien?" you ask. "Can we get him back?"

"Larry isn't in play today," she yells over the whipping winds. "We can only learn about tomorrow. About what it will take to get him back. Get here soon." With that, she hangs up. Transformers blow in the distance, lightning flashes overhead -- they light up the city like giant flashbulbs. You step on the gas as the explosions and thunder roar around you.

Finally you pull up to a field of tall grass. The stench here is nearly unbearable. You run through the tall grass blindly, toward the sounds of pain and victory. Above you, the skies have cleared, but you still feel a chill. Have they won the battle or are you merely in the eye of the storm?

You come to a clearing. They are gone. The tall grass has been trampled and crushed like crop circles. In fact, the shape around you is eerily similar. You drop to a knee and examine the ground. You see footprints facing each other, a defensive struggle. The Four Horseman appear to have held the line. You see tracks of a final surge. You follow them and your eyes catch something.

Across the field, a woman in white walks slowly. Is she real or an apparition? A breeze catches her hair as she turns and looks at you. She stops for a moment, smiles, then disappears into the tall grass.

In an instant, that chill you felt has been thawed. Did she do that or is it the blue skies that have now punched through the clouds? You've been belted, knocked out, driven off the road. Little Larry has been taken. A lot of crap has happened to you lately. Maybe it's happening to everyone. You take this. This is yours to keep. You close your eyes, breathe in deeply and let fresh air fill your lungs.

The Four Horseman put a smile on your face.

From the deep grass you see something hurling through the air. It's green and arcs right toward you. You duck your head just in time as a porecelin green leprechaun shatters on the ground. Inside is a balled up piece of paper. You unravel it. DancingBarry:

The Four Horsemen were here. They went toe-to-toe with an opponent who had rolled over everything in their paths. The Four Horsemen dug in. They held strong. They imposed their will in the end. The one on the pale horse, Death, rode as conqueror hell-bent on conquest, and they drove the enemy from the field.

You wonder what might have been had the one called Destruction been here last year. Had the Four Horsemen been ... the Four Horsemen. Little Larry O'Brien might be safe. Little Larry O'Brien might be home.

I will continue to track them.

P.S. Merry Christmas."

Pau Gasol started the game off in a funk. He missed jumpers he usually makes. He started to second guess himself. His game fell apart and it was probably his worst few quarters he has played all season. Despite that, the Lakers held the line.

"In the first half it felt like he was thinking too much," Kobe said. "I had to remind him, you're one of the best in the world. Just go out and play."

With both teams struggling to gain control in the final minutes, the Lakers went to Pau. The Celtics had been protecting against the Kobe screen-roll with typical over-playing. This would leave a gap for our other bigman if we worked it correctly. On several consecutive plays, we ran a Kobe/Bynum two-man sequences and looked for Pau. He didn't hesitate. He went for the kill.

Meanwhile, Andrew Bynum and Trevor Ariza became a factor for the Celtics. Bynum anchored the paint. Ariza gave hustle and athleticism at the SF. They held the Celtics to just 16 points in the fourth and finished them off 92-83 -- snapping a franchise-high 19-game win streak and giving Phil Jackson his 1000th win.

"I think the players got back to playing with high energy on the defensive end," Phil said. He added that the team seemed to forget that they have to out-work opponents. The Lakers had 9 blocks, and they gave up just 8 freethrow attempts as the refs seemed to let the teams play. They hustled. They fought. They took a very difficult statement-game win.


Kobe -- -- Defensively he started on Rondo like the switch we eventually made in the playoffs. People forget this was one of the adjustments that worked for us. He can roam off Rondo and stall the Celtic offense. He gave up a couple layups early, but Rondo was a non-factor. Kobe put together an excellent two-way game. He was in on the boards, which always helps. After hitting his jumpers early, he executed the offense perfectly down the stretch to set up others for scores. "That was their game plan," Kobe said. "Once I got hot, they were going to send everybody over and it was important for us to just stay spaced." Excellent floor general work in the final few minutes. The Lakers need to bottle this and go on a run. "The key for us is consistency," he said. "We have to build on these last few games." Kobe made Magic's Fave Five at the half. The Stats: He scored 27 points on 13-23 shooting (1-3 from three) to go with 9 boards, 5 assists, 1 steal, 4 turnovers and 2 fouls in 43 minutes. The Action: He missed a sideline three. He picked up a foul going for an offensive board. He cut backdoor and scored the lob from Pau. He missed a pull-up jumper. He swished a turnaround from the midpost. He flashed to the ball and swished an open elbow jumper. He faced up and swished another wing jumper over Allen. He missed a short fade. He stepped past Allen and scored a layup down the middle of the lane. He sank a 21-footer. He sized up his man and blew past him easily in early offense. He swished an elbow jumper before a double could come. He missed a wing jumper. He airballed a three. He threw away a pass at the end of the half (Vlad was wide open on the other side). He had 16 points on 8-13 shooting in 22 minutes. Second Half: He missed a wing jumper and wanted the foul. He tried to tap ahead a defensive board instead of gathering it when he could have, it went to a Celtic. He back-doored his man, rose up and threw down off the Luke bounce pass. He missed a jumper in the lane. He swished a wide open three off the kickout from DFish. He hit Pau for a dunk on the jump pass when he drew a double. He missed a tough fade. He was stripped and argued the no-call instead of getting back in transition. He missed a baseline turnaround. He missed a difficult one-handed, fading runner. He threw a pass away to start the fourth. He didn't challenge a Tony Allen jumper at the FT line. He swished a jumper after a defender flew by. He stepped out of bounds on a baseline attack after a great job getting to the offensive board. He sank a fading baseline jumper. Working off Bynum screens he set Pau up for a couple of scores. Again, Bynum screen, Kobe attacks, hits Gasol, And-1 score. He ran the clock down, attacked, missed, got it back and scored the layup.

Gasol -- -- He shook his head going to the first timeout after missing two open looks at jumpers. From the onset, Pau started second-guessing himself after those early misses. Later, he was passing up shots. He was also making poor decisions on both ends (the easy lobs to KG were frustrating). He struggled badly. Finally, in the final minutes, we started running the Kobe/Bynum two-man game to free up Gasol when the Celtics rotated. Pau killed the Celtics on several straight clutch scores. Then, on the defensive end, he had a few great rotations and challenges in the final minutes. For all his struggles earlier, he imposed his game on the Celtics when it mattered most. Frankly, had he shown up earlier, I really don't think this game would have been as close as it was. "I was really tight for the first two, three quarters," he said. The Stats: He scored 20 points on 7-14 shooting (6-6 from the line) to go with 3 boards, 5 assists, 1 steal, 3 blocks, 3 turnovers and no fouls in 36 minutes. The Action: He missed an open 10-footer on the pick and pop. He quickly lobbed to Kobe on the backdoor for the layup. He missed an open 17-footer. He missed a face-up elbow jumper. He missed a point-blank layup. He was left open and this time he finally hit the wide open FT jumper. Nice rotation on House to contest a jumper at the end of the quarter. Back in, he got back-doored on a lob. He was blcoked on a layup, probably fouled. He threw down a putback jam off a Sasha miss. He gave up another back-door lob dunk to KG. He blocked a jumper, but got blocked on a layup on the other end (he wanted the foul). He dunked off the drive and dish from Fish. He tried to drive but did it right next to a guard, stupid play that he should know better and the ball was stripped off him. Another dumb play next time down, he threw a pass into a crowd for another turnover. He hit Luke for the open three. He scored 6 points on 3-9 shooting, had 2 boards, 3 assists and 2 turnovers. He was a -5 in the first half. Second Half: He was hit on a jumper working the two-man game, he made both FTs. Kobe drew a double, Pau cut, got it and dunked. Finally a nice challenge on KG and we get a miss. His hook was blocked by KG. Allen scored a layup right over him (need to challenge that harder, Pau). He was fouled as Sasha made a jumper, Pau made the FT. Another good challenge on KG to get a miss. No challenge on a pick and pop and he gave up a wide open jumper (someone probably needs to help on those). He returned to the game and wasn't looking for his shot on the first few possessions. He missed an And-1 layup, he made both FTs. He sagged too far off KG and gave up a jumper. He ws stripped in the post by KG, dunk the other way. Finally he knocked down the open elbow jumper playing on the weakside. He hit a jumphook in the lane when Kobe worked the two-man with Bynum. He sagged off KG to help Bynum in the post (no need), KG hit the jumper. Kobe again set Gasol up off the two-man with Bynum, Gasol attacked and scored the And-1 layup, he made the FT. Great close-out on Allen to block his three, it led to an Ariza dunk with a minute left. Another good challenge on Pierce.

Bynum -- -- Yeah, we missed him in the finals. It just changes so much of the game in the paint. "We definitely showed the ability to lock down and get stops in the clutch," Bynum said. He was out there on the floor in crunch time. He shut down the lane and made guards think twice about attacking. And when they did, he was hounding them. Just having him there made a world of difference. There was still plenty he could improve on, however. He was not reacting fast enough on secondary plays. Contest a shot, get back in there and get the board. Offensively, he wasn't much of a factor, but the Celts had to play him honestly or they would pay. He and Kobe ran that two-man game and it set up Pau down the stretch. We need to run a little two-man action with our PFs to set up Bynum, too. The Stats: He scored 9 points on 4-7 shooting (1-2 from the line) to go with 7 boards, 2 blocks, 1 turnover and 2 fouls in 36 minutes. The Action: He missed a jumphook on the first possession. He had his back turned and didn't challenge a dunk when Pierce blew past Luke. He drew FTs on an interior feed from Fish, he made one. After securing a board on one end, he ran the floor, took the pass and threw down (beat his man down court). He sank an open 16-footer from the elbow. He had 5 points on 2-3 shooting, 4 boards and 1 foul in the half. Second Half: Weak kickout pass, turnover, points the other way. He grabbed an interior pass from Gasol and dunked over defenders. He gave up an offensive board, then a dunk on some sluggish reaction. He missed a turnaround jumper on the baseline. He erased a drive from a guard on iso. No help on the two-man game and House hit a jumper. He erased another drive with a good challenge. He cleaned up a fumbled ball on the Ariza drive and dunked. He went up soft and missed with his left. Back in, he swatted Rondo's drive on iso D.

Luke -- -- In case you didn't notice, Luke played a great game. Yeah, he had his first three attempt sail a mile long, but he eventually connected on a couple. He moved the ball well and set up some good looks for others. With an anchor behind him defensively (and good wheels), he was able to do a much better job defensively against Pierce. The Stats: He scored 8 points on 3-6 shooting (2-3 from three) to go with 4 boards (3 offensive), 5 assists, 1 steal, 2 blocks and 3 fouls in 28 minutes. The Action: He pushed out the break off the Bynum steal, spun and scored the layup. Great D on Pierce to force a bricked jumper. He heaved up a three and airballed by two feet, not even close. Nice block on Perkins under the hoop. He was left open as his man sagged, this time he swished the three. He bricked a short bank. He drew a push-off foul on Pierce's drive. He swished an open corner three off the pass from Pau. He had 8 points on 3-5 shooting. Second Half: He blocked a Rondo jumper. Great bounce pass to Kobe for the throwdown on the back-door cut. He smothered a Pierce pass, turnover. He missed a floater in the lane.

Fisher -- -- Defensively, he was given the Ray Allen assignment. Allen was 3-11 from three, but he didn't get a ton of great looks. This is a much better match up for us. Kobe can't roam off Allen, but can off Rondo. Fish doesn't have to deal with footspeed or Allen trying to do something in the post. DFish couldn't connect himself very well in this game. He missed some looks he typically hits. He also had to take some tough ones with the shotclock low. Some great passing, though, to set up others. A couple of his feeds led right to dunks. The Stats: He scored 6 points on 2-10 shooting (2-6 from three, 0-2 from the line) to go with 2 boards, 7 assists, no turnovers and 4 fouls in 35 minutes. The Action: He drained an open wing three off good ball movement. He set up Bynum for FTs with an interior feed. He missed a long three. He missed an open wing jumper. He drew FTs off an aggressive attack from the pinch post, he missed both, arrrgh. He sank a three off a kickout from Luke. He missed a tough wing jumper. He attacked from the three line and fed Pau for the dunk. He drew a charge to stop a break. He had 6 points on 2-5 shooting and 4 assists. Second Half: He missed an open corner three. He missed a floater in the lane. He attacked baseline and kicked to Kobe for three. He missed an open three. He missed an easy look at an elbow jumper. He missed a three.

Lamar -- -- LO stepped up and drained a couple big threes when the Laker offense was bogging down. Those were huge. Offensively, other than those big makes he was mostly quiet. We have to work team-oriented schemes to get him good opportunities and we didn't really look for that in this game. Defensively, he played extremely well. There were a number of good challenges and help D plays in the paint. Phil had to go with Bynum down the stretch, however, to help keep the paint under control. LO didn't get a lot of run in this game, just 24 minutes...but he was a huge +17 when he was out there. That's partly because Pau was just so horrible and partly because LO was balling on the defensive end. But consider, also, that LO wasn't in on that 13-2 run to close the game...which just shows how big of impact he was in his minutes to still get the game-high +/- despite missing out on a key run. The Stats: He scored 10 points on 3-6 shooting (2-3 from three, 2-2 from the line) to go with 7 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks, 2 turnovers and 3 fouls in 24 minutes. The Action: He was careless with a rebound, was stripped and gave up a hoop. He swatted the ball off a penetrator. He hit the floor for a loose ball and was called for a weak foul. He denied another shot under the hoop. He got tapped on an And-1 layup, cutting off Kobe, he made both FTs. Another good challenge under the hoop to deny a score. He had 2 points, 5 boards, 2 steals, 2 blocks and 2 turnovers. Second Half: He missed an open wing jumper. He swished a wing three. Next time down he rattled down another wing three. He attacked to his left and went soft off the glass for the layup. He missed a long three with the shotclock down. He airballed a baseline jumphook.

Ariza -- -- In the game to close down the SF spot on Pierce in crunch time. Sorry, Celts. We put an athletic defender on Pierce and have a true anchor behind us. That's a huge difference for us...and something Laker fans were well aware of. Trevor also didn't gamble, he tried to stay in front of his man and play tight on the shot. He had a couple of key hustle plays going for loose balls in this game that got Staples buzzing. That is the effort fans love to see. It picks up the team and inspires everyone. I think the Celtics napped on him a bit and we probably could have surprised them with some passes up at the rim for him. The Stats: He scored 2 points on 1-3 shooting, had 1 board, 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 turnover and 1 foul in 18 minutes. The Action: He tracked down a tip from Kobe, threw it back in to a hustling Sasha on the break for the And-1. He missed a dunk on the break (not sure if he was fouled or not). Second Half: He attacked and was hammered with no call, Bynum dunked it, though. His pass to Kobe was picked off, layup the other way. He missed an open wing jumper when left open. Great hustle back in transition to stop a break, he jumped back in-bounds to save a ball before falling out. He took a Pau Gasol blocked shot and threw down a reverse dunk with a minute left.

Vujacic -- -- "It's our time. It's our year. We want to take it all the way," Sasha said. Sasha had a couple big plays in the first half. Defensively, it makes a huge difference for Sasha when teammates have his back. Also, he has usually guarded Eddie House well when they match up. The Stats: He scored 10 points on 3-9 shooting (1-5 from three, 3-3 from the line), to go with 2 boards and 3 fouls in 19 minutes. The Action: Great hustle down court to follow Ariza who had to save a tip out, Sasha grabbed it on the fly and scored the And-1 layup pounding his chest, he made the FT. He swished a sideline three off the kickout with a man closing on him. He missed a wide open three. Good hustle to a loose ball, then he picked up Rondo's third foul, he made both FTs. He missed a pull-up jumper. Second Half: He swished a pull-up jumper coming off the screens out of a timeout. He bricked a pull-up jumper badly. He missed a good look at a three.

Radmanovic -- -- He came in with 13 seconds left in the half. That was it. The Stats: No stats. The Action: No action. Second Half: He did not play.

Phil -- -- Phil Jackson got his 1000th career win on a huge stage and against an opponent that was rolling over people. He ran a masterful final few minutes tonight. Defensive subs on one end. Exploiting the Celtics soft spots when they overplayed the screen-roll on the other... The Lakers trailed 24-23 after the first quarter. Any kind of normal shooting game from Pau and they would probably have a 6-point lead at this point. The Celtics made 11-18 shots, but had 6 turnovers... The Lakers pulled out to a double-digit lead. They brought Pau back and immediately gave up a couple easy hoops so Phil called a timeout... Some more ridiculously bad play by Pau, turnovers at the end of the half, but the Lakers led 51-45. Kobe said they did a better job on the boards, not allowing extra attempts at three and also held the line in transition D... The Celtics made 9-24 in the second quarter. They had only 2 trips to the line in the half, the Lakers 6-9. The Lakers shot 49 percent. The Celtics had a 28-16 advantage in the paint... The Celtics tied up the game 62-62 and Phil went with Lamar, Ariza and Sasha to go with Kobe and Pau. The offense was sputtering, taking difficult shots but also missing the easy ones they had. Phil sat Kobe with over 2 minutes left in the third and the offense stalling... The Lakers closed on a 9-2 run to lead 71-67 going into the fourth. The Lakers were out-scored 22-20 in the third. The Lakers are the top team when it comes to winning third quarters, winning them 71 percent of the time. The Celts are fourth, winning 67 percent of their thirds... Phil called the Laker defense "okay". He wanted the pace off the game to speed up in the halfcourt offense rather than try to grind it out... We had a 77-75 lead when Pau came back in with 6:46 left for Bynum... Bynum returned about 2 minutes later with the same 2-point lead. Phil went with Bynum, Pau, Luke, Kobe, Fisher... With 3 minutes left, the score tied, we went to a timeout. Pau hit an elbow jumper. Next time down, Bynum two-man game set up Pau for the jumphook... Next timeout with 2 minutes left, the Lakers were up 85-81. Celts ball. Lakers ran the Kobe/Bynum screen-roll again, Pau an And-1 score... Lakers led 88-83 with 1:28 left and another timeout... Up by 7, he subbed Lamar in for Bynum to defend the three... "They made us play their pace of a game and we were able to survive it," Phil said... Once again, the Laker fourth-quarter D has appeared. They held the Celtics to 16 points. Niether Pierce nor Allen scored. They have closed out games quite well lately on the D end...

Game Flow -- LINK -- The Lakers closed with a 13-2 run. Huge. Check out Lamar's +/-.

[City_Dawg]

MERRY CHRISTMAS DB!!!!!!! GO LAKESHOW!!!!!!!!
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*sighs*

!...

[koolmo23]

great recap as allways

[SweetP]

Great game to watch, great read too.
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“There is always light if only we're brave enough to see it, if only we're brave enough to be it.” --Amanda Gorman

[Critical Beatdown]

Excellent win, excellent recap.
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!
Per 100 possessions, we're winning 118-102 with LO on the floor, and losing 109-111 without him. (updated: 4/1/09; source: 82games.com)

[Texas_Pete]

Thanks DB! Great win. My Laker hating, Celtic loving cousin didn't even answer his phone!

[lakerjoshua]

Keeping my Lakers holiday high going and going Thanks DB almost as good as watching the game again.

[Laker7]

Awesome recap as usual DB.

Question for you though. I felt the Lakers, from the beginning of the fourth quarter until about 4 minutes left, allowed themselves to be pushed out of the paint to the perimeter. They did not try to impose there will and go inside until late. Did I mis-interpret the game or is that what you saw?

L7
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Darvin Ham is an idiot!

[DancingBarry]

L7 - You may have seen it, but I said it elsewhere at the time that I thought they needed to run the two-man game to set up their other bigman. We weren't getting into the paint and weren't getting easy looks. But if we ran the two-man sequence, the Celtics would rotate to help on Kobe and a big...that would allow our other big to find some good looks.

At the end, we went to Pau for those. But earlier, we could have ran a Kobe/Pau two-man to get some above the rim action for Bynum if we wanted. We ended up springing it on them to take the win.

[Laker7]

Thanks for the answer back DB.
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Darvin Ham is an idiot!

[LakerFan1972]

DB, another great write up.

I especially liked your comment about Ariza's defense:

[JUST-MING]

The Four Horseman

[Bas]

Thanks DB.

What a way to top off the Xmas day. Great great game. Exciting to watch form begining to end. For me this had a playoff feel to it.

[LakerSanity]

Great win and great write-up DB... your opening gave me chills, seriously. I agree that had Gasol been the Gasol we've been used to this year, it would have easily been a double digit win. LO's 3s were huge... you hate to count on him hitting those, but loved that it happened. You could just tell how much we missed Ariza and Bynum in the finals last year from this game... and this is a Bynum that still has so much more to give us too.

Now the only question is whether this team will take this win and build from it, or all themselves to become complacent again.

I have a feeling they'll look at this win and realize that had it been on the road, it would have likely been a loss. Still much improvement to be found, but I am loving our renewed commitment to defense we've had the last few games. I really think this game might help Bynum to come back to form as well.

This was definitely a needed win both because it was the Celtics and to make up for that disappointing road trip.

Great win.... made me proud.
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[BigE32]

Thanks as always, DB. That was an intense game considering it was only a regular season game. I loved the effort and intensity we played with tonight. I loved what I saw tonight on the defensive end of the floor. I was screaming "Defense" the final two and a half minutes. We played at their tempo and got a W. I loved the final three minutes from Pau. He was absolutely huge. Kobe also made a big basket on the baseline over Perkins to tie the game @ 81. It was an incredibly difficult shot IMO. Getting a W tonight was a great Christmas present.

[VujacicFan]

Great intro DB. Amazing how quickly you can whip these up.

[Texas_Pete]

Props to PJ today. 1K wins is nice and all but I really liked how he used Kobe and Fish. Fish guarded Ray Allen and Kobe frustrated Rondo and got him into foul trouble. Since Posey is gone, Kobe will have many more nights like tonight. With 2 7-footers in the starting lineup, Kobe can get up more high percentage shots - figuring that we should get the rebound (Although we were outrebounded by 5) if/when he does miss.

I even heard the commentators talking about Doc. Doc basically admitted to them being "bothered" by our length and that they were settling for jumpshots instead of "making the Lakers block shots in the paint."

Best part is, Pau and Drew are still a work in progress. By the time we meet them again in February Drew should be closer to 100% and Pau/Drew's chemistry will be even better. Our frontcourt should be the difference in every game. I thought they played well today with a lot of room for improvement. KG had 22, but only 4 or 6 of them were in the paint. Alghough our leading rebounder should never be Kobe.

I'll take this win though.

[IPK]

What up DB!


P.S. - I LOVE lil Larry!!! Our mission: to bring him home, safe 'n sound!
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Our tribute to Phil, the man behind LG

[Dr. Laker]

We need a cigar icon . . .
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On Lakersground, a concern troll is someone who is a fan of another team, but pretends to be a Lakers fan with "concerns".

[hellsling]

Great Game and most importantly it was great to see the Celtics being rattled by the Laker's D and intensity. For example, there was a scene where Ray Allen and Rondo were arguing with each other and then you see Paul Pierce step in and push Rondo toward his man and telling him to get back on D. Another instance was Pau and Lamar shutting KG up by pushing back anything KG threw at them. The shove by Lamar and Pau confronting KG head on and only to have KG throw up his arm up like nothing was happening and Refs please save me

[dna.]

Thanks DB, great post as usual!

I wanted to point out that there are no stats for Sasha in his paragraph after "The Stats:" though, just FYI

Great game, great win, let's build on this... As I said in another thread, I feel that we haven't come close to playing our best game yet, while the Celtics are playing at their highest level...

[Bench]

Thanks, DB!

Great win, great post!

[Tony Almeida]

Excellent recap, DB.

This game from the start had a playoff/NBA Finals atmosphere to it. A lot of hype, I think it's safe to say, the game lived up to it.

Many positives, but something in particular concerned me.

Kobe was shredding that vaunted Celtics defense almost the entire game (without getting any calls either). For much of the game, I felt that Kobe had finally figured out the defense that gave him so many problems during the Finals. Thought that the difference was of course the Laker lineup, the Celtics D didn't seem quite as uncrackable this time around. But in the 4th, the Celtics went with tough ball denial and often when he finally got it, went to hard doubles.

My concern during the 4th was the inability to get him the ball in the mid to high post. It was only after Kobe went out to the three point line did he get the ball. Good ball denial, yes, but this was another instance where I felt the shaky post entry passing hurt the Lakers.

As far as the individual players --

Kobe: Impact beyond the numbers. Skying for rebounds, tapping out loose balls, working the post, getting to the basket, dishing to teammates, patented key fadeaway in the clutch, and disrupted the Celtics offense. He was locked in today. You know he's been pissed off about the loss to the Celtics for six months now. Brought that intensity and had a vintage Kobe game.

Pau: Forgettable performance on both ends for the first three quarters, but the Spaniard arrived when it mattered. Really hope that much of his struggle can be attributed to a mental block, and he gets it together in the future matchup(s).

Bynum: Another candidate for impact beyond the numbers. Big difference between Bynum anchoring the paint and Gasol trying to anchor the paint. I like how he played on the defensive end towards the end of the 4th, should help him in the trust department with Phil.

Lamar: "NO, NO, NO, YES!" "Don't do it, not again, don't push your luck, BANG!" That about summed up my thought process on those two huge threes. Good to see he had the confidence to take AND make them. More importantly, he played well on the defensive end.

Luke: See: Lamar. Seriously, after that three point airball that I thought was going to injure someone in the second row, I was shocked to see him hit his other two three point attempts. A rather steady game from Luke.

Ariza: He just makes plays. I've often noted how I like how Ariza plays 100 MPH. Sometimes, gets him on trouble, both ends. Other times, he ends up making a momentum shifting play. Tonight was the latter.

Sasha: I'm gonna put it out there, if you like it, you can take it, if you don't, send it right back. The Machine likes to shoot. Anyways, he finished one of the plays of the year. And he always is good for a quote, e.g. "I don't like them at all".

Anyways, loved the intensity of this game. Right from the tip, you could tell the Lakers wanted this one real bad. Defense was good for the most part. Rotations and man D were better, but transition D still an issue, also thought the interior defense wasn't focused early on. Rebounding could also see some improvement as I felt the Celtics outworked the Lakers on the glass today. Still, overall, great game.

[Prometheus8]

Great writeup, especially the opening, DB.

I thought that this was the first game in the past year or so that it didn't feel like the Celtics were the physically stronger team. I thought that with Drew at the 5 and Pao at the 4 we matched them in that regard. I think this improves our playoff chances against them. Do you agree?
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"Every time he got an offensive rebound, it was deflating," Hornets coach Monty Williams said ... "I thought Bynum decided the series. He was that good."

"...one of the most valuable players in the league…"– Phil Jackson about Ron Artest in 2005

[Jeffs]

Thanks DB! Hours after the game, I'm still stoked!
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Jeffs

I feel like I just watched someone TRULY give 100%. Not the BS I'm-gonna-give-a-110%-just-like-everyone-else-says platitudes, but someone that went until he just....broke. - GT