The big three or more like the big two in this series. Ray Ray and the truth.
Game Preview: Lakers at Celtics, Game 6
Tonight’s Matchup Boston Celtics vs. Los Angeles Lakers
Couper Moorhead
Celtics.com Correspondent
June 17, 2008
The Celtics knew travel was going to be about as helpful to their title hopes as a rock jammed inside a sneaker. With less than 48 hours to trek cross-country and prepare for Game 3, both the Celtics and Lakers came out sluggish. Little did the Celtics know that the day before Game 6, a 1:30 (ET) departure time would become 5:30, and a late arrival would give them less than 24 hours before tipoff at 9 p.m.
“It could come down to a game of mental toughness, who fights the fatigue mentally better than the other group,” Doc Rivers said after Game 5.
As far as rejuvenating factors go, there’s not much like knowing you need one win in two games to win the NBA Championship – though it works for the Lakers too, who, down 2-3 in the Finals, must force a Game 7 with a win tonight.
“In training camp if you told us we’ll give you two games that you have to win to win a world championship, we would have took it in a heartbeat,” Kobe Bryant said.
Of course, both games are at the Garden, where the Celtics are 12-1 this postseason. But strip the protective shell of the parquet away, and you’ll find some lingering issues from the West Coast that must be exterminated.
In Games 4 and 5 combined, the Celtics were outscored by 74-36 in the first quarter. This led to the 22-point second half comeback of Game 4 and a near comeback on Sunday, but in both instances they were playing with fire. Counting on the Lakers to leave the window open isn’t going to cut it.
“We’ve just got to get off to better starts,” Paul Pierce said. “The Lakers dominated us in the first quarter the last couple of games. It’s tough when you’re always fighting back from big leads of 16, 17 points. We don’t thrive on that, letting a team get ahead and expecting to get back in the game. That’s not something we practice.”
The early deficits have had a lot to do with Kobe, but not with his aggressiveness on offense. The Lakers have elected to lay off Rajon Rondo on nearly every offensive possession and, with Bryant marking him often, this leaves an extremely athletic defender free to protect the lane.
“We have to solve the Kobe problem,” Rivers said. “You know, being a roamer to start games. When we go with more shooters, he can’t roam, we tend to score more. But that’s on the offensive end.”
As the defense minimized Rondo’s ability to impact the game by giving him jumpshots, his minutes fell to 14:32 in Game 5 – guards Sam Cassell, Eddie House and Tony Allen combined for 42:37 off the bench. The extra shooters opened the paint for Pierce (38 points) and gave the Celtics a chance at the end. The problem was a noticeable absence from the lineup that allowed the Lakers into the paint as well.
Kendrick Perkins donned street clothes for Game 5, and his sport coat made Laker bigs Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol look real nice under the basket. With the Celtics’ most physical force sitting, Odom and Gasol combined for 39 points and 24 rebounds on 14-of-20 shooting, with Odom in particular holding deep position for a number of high-low passes from Gasol. The effect was magnified by Kevin Garnett’s constant foul trouble, but without Perkins in the middle, the Lakers became the bigger beast.
“They were the more physical team, from Gasol on,” Rivers said. “I thought all of them, they posted when they wanted to post. They caught the ball in the spots that they wanted to catch the ball on. I thought they forced us off of spots offensively.”
Perkins will be a game-time decision tonight, and if he’s a no-go, Rivers will again be faced with the decision of whether to plug the center spot with Leon Powe and P.J. Brown or favor the smaller lineup that allowed Pierce to scrub up and enter the operating room.
Big or small, fresh or jetlagged, the focus tonight is not that the Celtics can clinch the NBA Finals, but that they must. Game 7 is an option that’s better avoided, because, as this series of comebacks in every shape and size has shown us, anything can happen.
“Every game is a closeout game,” House said. “We got to approach it just like they’re approaching it. Their lives are depending on it, [their] Finals lives are depending on it, and we just got to go out and finish the job.”
Can We Say Blowout!!!
Yes, the rapist Kobe is now the rapee it seems. Good God Celtics!
Yes !!!
Ray Ray NBA finals record 21 threes
Unbelievable.
Kobe doesnt want to walk about for the post media conferance. Come on- I want to see this!!
Champs
Celebrations
I’m still trying to figure out how L.A. advanced to the finals. It seems the refs really helped them with the bogus non call on Berrys 3 pointer in the San Antonio series.
Detroit would also have beaten L.A. in my opinion.
Can we just send Boston as TeamUSA so we don’t get blown up by Puerto Rico again?
