The Detroit crowd was pretty weak in my opinion. I have been to a few Celtics-Lakers games in LA. I actually find the Lakers fans to be generally loud, well-informed, intelligent and extremely supportive. (Think about it, does any team's fan base defend/support their star as much as Laker fans do Kobe?) Not quite as much hostility as Detroit maybe, but hostile enough, especially at the right times.
That said, I think we will be better on the road in this series compared to previous ones for a number of reasons:
1) Pierce plays extremely well in LA.
2) This has been Cassell's home court for the two and a half years before he came to Boston - hopefully he won't miss every shot like he seemed to in every other road playoff game.
3) Ray Allen is back to throw daggers when we need to quiet a crowd or stop a run.
Still, it will really be about whether the Lakers step their game up at home. If we keep doing what we're doing, we'll be okay, but the Lakers may be able to perform better than they have, and the home crowd might push them toward that.