MISSED FREE THROWS, BAD BOUNCES, AND THE MOST HORRENDOUS NON-CALL OF THE PLAYOFFS SPELL DOOM FOR CELTICS IN GAME 5; LAMAR ODOM WEIRD AS EVER
Kobe Bryant's skills in the art of rape paid huge dividends down the stretch as he mauled Paul Pierce on the perimeter and sailed in for an uncontested dunk to stretch the lead to what proved to be an insurmountable 4. Usually, a wild slap at the ball from a defender that has been beaten off the dribble is called an automatic foul, but the refs decided, after calling an oddly tight game pretty much the whole way, to "let the players play" and that was the ballgame. It was a disappointing game for multiple reasons- foul trouble, poor defensive rebounding, missed free throws, bad bounces, erratic officiating... but in the end the Celtics almost stole the title-clinching game from the Lakers and I have very high hopes going in to Game 6. Remember- going in to LA, Boston fans just wanted to get 1 out of 3, and that's exactly what they did. The winning percentage in Games 6 and 7 of the home team is very, very high and we all know that the Celtics play much better at home. (I don't anticipate spotting the Lakers another 16-point lead in the first half, for example.)
I could spend all night tap tap tapping away about how awful the officiating was, but I'm sure the rest of the internet will have that covered by sunup. So, I am going to focus on the revelations from this Game 5 loss.
1) KG missed the free throws down the stretch, which were huge. But worse, I thought, was how thoroughly outclassed the Celtics were on the boards. With Garnett out of the game, the Celtics couldn't get a rebound to save their life, and when they did it was after multiple deflections so they couldn't get their transition offense in gear. KG had 14 rebounds- the rest of the team had 23. With Perk out, the Celts need better rebounding from their bigs. Which brings me to my next point-
2) Why didn't Powe get more minutes after STARTING!? He played 5 minutes and had 2 rebounds. PJ Brown played 23 minutes and had 3. PJ Brown also committed some of the more outrageously obvious fouls of the playoffs. PJ is a good player, but he was outclassed tonight, and Powe was playing well when he was in. Odd.
3) I love Rondo, but he has been neutralized on offense. 1-7 from the floor and allowing Kobe to basically double whoever had the ball isn't going to work. I hate to say it, but even Cassell looked a lot better out there tonight. At least his man needs to play defense on him. Also-
4) Tony Allen needs some more minutes. He was a real disruptive presence out there for the Celtics and I think he can get some serious garbage points thanks to his quickness. Kudos to Doc for giving him some burn, I'd like to see him in there maybe with House and Pierce and have Pierce bring the ball up.
5) This Lakers team is good but both predictable and beatable. The Celtics need to do a better job of making the Lakers adjust to them instead of vice versa. For example, they should have been driving on Kobe when Kobe had 4 fouls every time down the floor.... oh wait, they did, Kobe raped Pierce and got away with it.... scratch that.
6) Again! If the Celtics want to win, they cannot, under any circumstances, get outrebounded by the Lakers. The Lakers were flying all over the place tonight but the Celtics weren't boxing out properly and there were WAY too many loose balls that should have just been squeezed by the Celtics right off the glass. An emphasis on bodying up your man would pay huge dividends for the Celtics. (It would also help if KG wasn't in foul trouble... grumble grumble...)
7) I want to say that the Celtics were sloppy with the ball, but it was a real jungle ball game out there. The refs were letting weird plays go, there were a lot of random deflections all over the place and I really thought the Lakers were the main beneficiaries of the random fortuitous bounces. Still, the Celtics need to protect the ball better (18 TO's) and take their time running the offense. The Lakers were overplaying the passing lanes like crazy tonight, some backscreens and backdoor cuts would have gone a long way.
8) The Finals MVP trophy is Pierce's to have if the Celtics can finish this baby off. He played great tonight, the last TO was NOT his fault because he was fouled, and I expect him to come up big in Boston.
Overall, frustrating, but not unexpected. The C's were tantalizingly close to winning this one, but they have two more shots at it and I still love their chances. A few small tweaks and better execution overall and the Celtics can put this dog down.
Go C's...Source URL: https://ledger-heath.blogspot.com/2008/06/lakers-tinkle-on-our-ticker-tape-parade.html
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