GM1: Boston @ Los Angeles

[The Regime]

I know I said this earlier but man has KG regressed. His dunk attempt in the third followed by the airball putback was just pathetic.

[Nitro]

I know I said this earlier but man has KG regressed. His dunk attempt in the third followed by the airball putback was just pathetic.

 

Yeah. It wasn't too long ago that he was the athletic freak who won MVP and yearly would put up 22PPG/14RPG/5APG. Ever since that injury last season he's been nothing more than a glorified role player. Kind of sad to watch, but he's had a long, illustrious career.

[Be Like Mike]

God this series is boring. Rivalry my [expletive].

 

I'll take 3 more boring W's

[AllenIverson#1fan]

Dissapointing game by Celtics.

Edited June 4, 2010 by AlleIverson#1fan

[Real Deal]

I don't know why anyone is surprised.

 

1) Rondo struggled against Bryant. You can tell he was happier with Fisher and Farmar defending him.

2) Pierce had to rely on his teammates to shake Ron Artest. Ron kept him off that elbow, the one place he doesn't miss shots.

3) Garnett has no answer, whatsoever, for Gasol.

4) Fisher did an excellent job chasing Ray Allen most of the game, and Ray was useless when he wasn't getting open looks.

5) Not a single player on the floor could stop Kobe from getting his shot, getting in the paint, or racking up his assists.

 

Some of you thought I was ignorant for saying this stuff last week, but come on...if you watch Boston, and you watch LA, you can easily tell the Lakers match up to them much, much better than they did in 2008.

[Poe]

Though it's still likely to go 6 or 7 games, it's pretty clear that L.A. has the match up advantage this time around.

 

A couple of keys, though. Artest needs to remain a threat offensively, and Bynum needs to stay healthy.

Edited June 4, 2010 by Poe

[platoon793]

And Ray Allen needs to stay out of foul trouble. Lots of fouls though called either way. The refs need to let them play it out.

[Real Deal]

Had Boston gotten more fouls called on them, and less free throw attempts than LA, I'm sure the refs wouldn't be doing their job at that point.

 

Ray couldn't defend Kobe, and Rivers stuck him on Bryant most of the time he was on the floor. All five of those fouls were legit, and three of them were so intentional, it made Allen look like he was 45 years old.

 

Again, it's expected. Tony Allen found it to be the same for him, also.

[platoon793]

Had Boston gotten more fouls called on them, and less free throw attempts than LA, I'm sure the refs wouldn't be doing their job at that point.

 

Ray couldn't defend Kobe, and Rivers stuck him on Bryant most of the time he was on the floor. All five of those fouls were legit, and three of them were so intentional, it made Allen look like he was 45 years old.

 

Again, it's expected. Tony Allen found it to be the same for him, also.

Not sure if this is directed at me, but I never said they were bad calls. I'm just saying Ray Allen needs to keep out of foul trouble if he wants to help his team win.

 

But like I said, I like to see physical play. I don't like seeing a lot of fouls called as I think it disturbs the tempo of the game. It's the NBA Finals and I think they should let them play a bit more instead of calling fouls all the time, on both sides. Both teams shot over 30 free throws and I think that's too much. Boston had 28 fouls and Lakers 26 and I think that is way too many fouls called. And there were a lot of late whistles for the Celtics. I remember a foul Fisher made on Allen that wasn't a foul at all.

Edited June 4, 2010 by platoon793

[Real Deal]

Not sure if this is directed at me

It actually wasn't...not exactly the way you interpreted it, probably my mistake for the way I worded the post. I just got off RealGM, where 80% of the Celtics fans think they were screwed by the referees.

 

But of course, like every single series the Lakers have played in so far this season, the calls will be even until we go on the road, where we shoot 15-20 less free throws each game.

 

If the fouls didn't disrupt the way the Lakers played, they didn't disrupt the way Boston played. If so, we know who the better team is.

 

Plus, points in the paint and rebounds killed Boston. Has nothing to do with fouls.

[Legacy]

Lakers are just too good.

[Paul]

I do agree that all the fouls were necessary accept for one. I think it was Allen's fifth when Big Baby reached in and they showed the replay over and over again. I didn't see the foul that they called on Allen at all. That was the only problem with the refereeing last night. I was looking at it from both sides as well and like B said if the fouls didn't affect the Lakers then they shouldn't have affected the Celtics either. Pau showed that this year he wasn't going to be stopped by Perkins (at least in GM 1) and Bynum should up huge as well. I liked the way the Lakers held the tempo in their favor and I also liked how Kobe took over in the third when he had too.

[The Regime]

I do agree that all the fouls were necessary accept for one. I think it was Allen's fifth when Big Baby reached in and they showed the replay over and over again. I didn't see the foul that they called on Allen at all. That was the only problem with the refereeing last night. I was looking at it from both sides as well and like B said if the fouls didn't affect the Lakers then they shouldn't have affected the Celtics either. Pau showed that this year he wasn't going to be stopped by Perkins (at least in GM 1) and Bynum should up huge as well. I liked the way the Lakers held the tempo in their favor and I also liked how Kobe took over in the third when he had too.

 

Glen Davis bumped him a little, not enough to blow the whistle imo. Kobe airballed the shot so that probably influenced the officials decision.

 

I would love to the refs let both teams play a little bit more in game 2, last nights game was way too slow. Idk if it's only me but I think the refs are trying to avoid any type of confrontation between the two teams just based on the history and bad blood. We were about 30 seconds into last nights game and Artest and Pierce got tangled up and I think from that point on they wanted to officiate the game tight.

Edited June 4, 2010 by Confidence

[platoon793]

It actually wasn't...not exactly the way you interpreted it, probably my mistake for the way I worded the post. I just got off RealGM, where 80% of the Celtics fans think they were screwed by the referees.

 

But of course, like every single series the Lakers have played in so far this season, the calls will be even until we go on the road, where we shoot 15-20 less free throws each game.

 

If the fouls didn't disrupt the way the Lakers played, they didn't disrupt the way Boston played. If so, we know who the better team is.

 

Plus, points in the paint and rebounds killed Boston. Has nothing to do with fouls.

Well I agree with basically everything you said. But Lakers do tend to be less aggressive on the road in my opinion, hence less free throws. Though I do think they get less fouls called in favor of them on the road than say the Cavs.

 

No way the Celtics were screwed because of the refs. If anything, the Lakers got too many fouls called on them in the 4th quarter with all those late whistles. They seemed to come right after someone missed a shot.

 

And once again, not sure if this is directed at me or not, but I don't think the fouls necessarily disrupted the way each team played. I just think it's more enjoyable and better for the game when they let the players play and call less fouls.

 

And agree with your final point as well. Lakers outrebounded the Celtics by 11 I think and had 18 more points in the paint. Garnett seems to have trouble with Gasol's post moves and height in my opinion.

[Lemon]

I disagree with most of you actually.

 

Fouls did disrupt Celtics defense. Otherwise the Lakers wouldn't have scored .15 more PPP than the Celtics allowed all post-season. Celtics defense is better than this. Like Rick Fox said, Lakers won in the first 30s of the game. This was when Ron Artest got into that tangle with Pierce. The result was that the refs were going to call the game tight. They weren't about to have a brawl during the Finals. They can't.

 

So now the Celtics couldn't play their style of game, physical. They couldn't push Kobe out of a drive nor could they push Gasol out of the paint. Ray Allen, the only person who had his touch, didn't have much play time because of fouls. You can tell that the Celtics were playing outside their comfort level on defense. It wasn't related to frustrations on offense, I can tell you that. They average, what, 1.04 ppp in the playoffs, and now they were forced down to 1.01. That's hardly a big difference.

 

The intense physical play in the beginning ignited a soft, finesse game that benefits the Lakers offense. It seems that Boston defense relies on calls though. Last time 54 fouls were called in a Bostom game was the last time Orlando won.