2008 NBA Finals. Celtics V Lakers!

[Tiger Hawk]

Kobe will do what Kobe does.

I think if Gasol takes advantage of his outside/inside game on Perkins the Lakers will win. If KG has to gaurd Gasol, Odom will be left open to score and distribute. Lakers need the front court to fire aswell.

As for Boston, they can have anyone of the big 3 put up 30 and it's there game. Remember Lakers have one of the best offenses in the league but Boston have the best defence. Will be an interesting match-up.

If Boston hold first two games they win the series.

All well and good talking up Gasol on Perkins, but who's guarding KG? He will destroy whoever ends up on him, he just has to have that mindset. And nobody on the Lakers can guard Pierce. On the other hand, nobody in the league can guard Kobe but he has to facilitate as much as score for the Lakers to beat the C's D.

 

[Panthers_God]

All well and good talking up Gasol on Perkins, but who's guarding KG? He will destroy whoever ends up on him, he just has to have that mindset. And nobody on the Lakers can guard Pierce. On the other hand, nobody in the league can guard Kobe but he has to facilitate as much as score for the Lakers to beat the C's D.

Kobe could gaurd Pierce easy. But I think you'll find they rest him on defence and put Kobe on either Rondo or Allen.

I think Odom will do a good job defending KG. He gave Boozer alot of trouble. That said KG is a much better player. I'm sure you all seen Maxiell's D on KG, it can be done.


I stilll think Celtics have the upper hand. But its very crucial they hold the first two games at home. Interesting to see what happenes today!

 

[Tiger Hawk]

Kobe could gaurd Pierce easy. But I think you'll find they rest him on defence and put Kobe on either Rondo or Allen.

I think Odom will do a good job defending KG. He gave Boozer alot of trouble. That said KG is a much better player. I'm sure you all seen Maxiell's D on KG, it can be done.


I stilll think Celtics have the upper hand. But its very crucial they hold the first two games at home. Interesting to see what happenes today!

Easy? I think that's a slight over-exaggeration. Kobe is a very good defender but Pierce would pose some match-up problems with his size and strength. As you say though, the only time those two match-up will be down the stretch. Pierce has to stay aggressive against Rad/Walton/Odom (should see some minutes against Pierce if he gets it going).

Odom doesn't have the mind-set to guard a player as aggresive as KG. He will crack in this series. I'd expect to see Gasol be given extended stretches in the series, with his bigger frame and strength forcing KG out further away from the basket.

I'm with you, I think the C's are the more complete team mentally. We all know Kobe is never far away from taking 25-30 shots a game and if he does that, the efficiency of the Lakers offence will diminish. The C's on the other hand are more balanced and will be better at executing when it matters.

The only thing I haven't thought a lot on but will probably be a big aspect is Jackson vs Rivers. I don't mind Rivers but why he keeps playing Cassell is beyond me, the guy was done two years ago. And PJ Brown is about past it as well, I'd be throwing Powe/Big Baby in there to get right into Gasol & Odom and be physical with them, a couple of hard fouls. Will be interesting to see if those two can handle the tougher Celtics front-line.

 

[McLovin]

Just popped 5 bucks on Boston to win game 1 by more than 10 points, paying $4.10

lol, 1 point off...

 

[Bumble]

lol, 1 point off...

FFS.....:x

 

[Ridders]

pity that odom got into foul trouble, he was looking good at the start. Kobe's got to try to get to the free throw line more in game 2, he barely looked to get into the paint in Game 1.

 

[LESStar58]

I'm trying to be optimistic and want my team, Celtics, to win. I don't think we will but I reckon it'll go to 7 games regardless.

 

[Ridders]

If it does go 7 games, then i'd lean to say that Celtics would win. I can see the lakers going into the Garden and stealing it.

 

[NK Arsenal]

Forza Lakers

 

[Special K]

i love realgm...

 

[McLovin]

lmao

 

[Stranger]

Here we go. Lakers have massive problems ATM. They can't keep letting teams get so far ahead then try and to real it back in. They did it with the spurs and now the celtics. The Celtics are just a much better defensive team than the Spurs.

 

[Ridders]

lol, its not all lost yet, if the lakers can sweep it in at home, which they're very capable of doing, its back to boston with the chance to win the title in Game 6.

For one thing, there won't be such a big discrepancy between free throw attempts in LA. Boston had something like 35 while the lakers only had 10, Kobe couldn't buy getting to the charity stripe at some stages during that game

 

[Panthers_God]

Wow, Laker's had no intensity for 40 minutes of game 2. Powe tore them apart.

If Laker don't hold at home they will have to win two in a row in Boston, unlikely.

 

[Ridders]

As i said Lakers wont get dominated on the free throw line at home as they did in Boston, refs wont allow it. Speaking of Powe, he was living of the free-throw line for alot of the night. The two real problems the lakers have is 1, rebounding. Gasol's got to knuckle down as we're getting killed both on the offensive and defensive boards at crucial stages. 2nd problem is Pierce, the lakers don't have anyone to guard him, he's just doing as he pleases in this series.

For the lakers to win, Odom needs to step it up at home, he's missing on too many of his drives to the basket, and he's kind of like what Pierce is to Boston. If Odom's on fire, Boston don't have anyone that can guard him.

 

[Tiger Hawk]

If Odom's on fire, Boston don't have anyone that can guard him.

DPOTY Kevin Garnett anyone?

Boston went off the boil in that fourth quarter, went away from their offense. I still see them being too good for the Lakers. KG has to be more aggresive in the post, can't settle for pick and pop jumpers. It took Powe coming off the bench for the C's to have any sort of post presence. Two ticky tack fouls on Bryant early hurt the Lakers, that won't happen again in this series, expect the league to tell the refs to only whistle the obvious fouls. Not sure why the Lakers went away from Gasol in that third quarter either, he was having a good game up until then and then fell out of his groove. Why they started with 5 reserves in the second quarter is also a bit baffling.

 

[Ridders]

DPOTY Kevin Garnett anyone?

Garnett is the only one except that Boston need Garnett to always be on on Gasol to cancel him out, if you put someone like Perkins on Gasol, Pau would have a field day. For the first two game, they've had a mixture of guys like posey, pierce, perkins and sometimes p.j brown on odom. With respect to all of them, if odom's at his best, all of them are either too small or too slow to guard him effectively.

Not sure why the Lakers went away from Gasol in that third quarter either, he was having a good game up until then and then fell out of his groove.

I've actually found that quite surprising, Gasol's looked good early in both games and yet they've always gone away from him. In Game 1 i remember him being something like 8-12 from the field and yet they didn't go down him regularly.

Game 3 will be interesting. The Lakers bench will play alot better at home, and like you said, the refs wont bench Bryant with dodgy calls at home.

 

[Tiger Hawk]

Garnett is the only one except that Boston need Garnett to always be on on Gasol to cancel him out, if you put someone like Perkins on Gasol, Pau would have a field day. For the first two game, they've had a mixture of guys like posey, pierce, perkins and sometimes p.j brown on odom. With respect to all of them, if odom's at his best, all of them are either too small or too slow to guard him effectively.

I like Perkins & Brown on Gasol. Both have the size and strength to turn him into a face-up player. Whilst Gasol is still very good from there, with his speed he can go by plus he can shoot the 15 footer, you'd prefer he beat you that way. Plus it allows KG to come from the weak-side to help. Perkins is a good defender he just has to stop picking up stupid fouls (I know, he hasn't learnt in 5 years, why will he now). Perkins has been getting the assignment to start the games, he just keeps getting into early foul trouble.

I wonder if Bryant is going to morph into 30 Shot Kobe for game 3? I'm setting the over/under for Kobe's foul shot attempts at 17.5.

 

[Shorty]

Gooo Celtics!

 

[Tiger Hawk]

Boy Celtics down only 6 at the break with Garnett & Pierce stinking up the joint and the refs having found their whistles, I wouldn't be happy if I were a Lakers fan. If I'm Sam Cassell, I'm grabbing KG by the cojones and fiering the Big Ticket up. Similarly, somebody has to get a rocket up Odom.

Should be a cracking second half!!