Assuming the Celtics are relatively healthy and still in sync, they should have little trouble disposing of the Lakers. That team is fool's gold and has really only had one legitimate opponent (Denver in '09) in the last two playoff runs. They have somehow managed to avoid every team that would be a threat or lucked into a favorable injury situation... until now.
This is a real matchup (finally) and the only obvious advantage the Lakers have is HCA, which itself is only a factor because of 1) the refs (obviously) and 2) the Laker bench only showing up at home. That shouldn't be enough to win this series, but it's hard to say with the crooked ref situation, forever tainted by the '02 "championship".
The Celtics already know how to beat the Lakers and there is no reason to depart from their '08 strategy until the Lakers prove they can counter it. Laker fans try to cite all sorts of reasons why things have changed, but they really haven't: Kobe STILL doesn't trust his teammates (witness the many, many 4th quarter chuckfests in this playoffs alone), the frontline is STILL soft (witness the tiny OKC Thunder dominating the boards and Pau wilting in the LOL-worthy Phoenix zone), and the team STILL has no bench.
Bynum is a huge smokescreen-- the guy has barely played in the last two series and is pretty much useless when he does. IMO the Celtics should start Perkins on Gasol and have KG act as a help defender off of Bynum. It's not like Bynum is going to suddenly emerge as a huge scoring threat in his hobbled state, and he is so immobile that it is easy for the Celtics to recover should he get one of his five or six touches a game. No sense wasting Perkins' talents on a lump like that.
Kobe does pretty much the same thing every game and surely TT has already prepared for it. He'll start off in as "facilliator Kobe" to show that he's a team player, but as the game goes on, he'll become his usual "ballhog Kobe". By the 4th he'll be taking all of the shots. This is completely independent of the defense (even though in the 1st quarter interview Phil Jackson will say "Kobe is just taking what the defense is giving him" in response to a question about Kobe's unselfishness). As such, the Celtics shouldn't aggressively double Kobe early... better save that for later when he's fazing out his teammates. By then, even when Kobe is forced to make the rare pass, his teammates are usually out of sync from a lack of touches. Even though the Lakers have been winning these playoffs (due mostly to soft competition), they've crumbled a lot down the stretch because of this very factor. No one ever mentions it because Kobe will inevitably make one or two amazing shots over triple-teams in the 4th, but he's taking an awful lot of bad ones to get those few highlights.
Artest is just a terrible fit for the Lakers-- they were so much better with Ariza because he added much needed athleticism (which would have really helped them against the Celtics). The Celtics can guard him with either Pierce or Allen-- all of this hubbub about Artest "abusing" Allen or any smaller defender is just nonsense. Artest has no offensive game on this team. He can't go into the post because the Lakers already have two or three guys there at all times. He can't really play the perimeter because he can't shoot. The Jazz and Suns left him open half the series and it didn't hurt them. Every once in awhile he'll have a decent game hitting those open shots, but against a good defensive team that at least keeps an eye on him, he'll contribute nothing. That is as concrete of a prediction as can be made for this series.
The bigest mismatch of the series is clearly at PG, for the Celtics. Obviously there is Rondo, possibly the best PG in the league going against Fisher, certainly the worst. Expect Fisher to spend more time flopping on his back this series than a prostitute. But I hope the Celtics also run Robinson more because he will torch either Fisher or Farmar. They have always had problems with speed, which is why House looked like an all-star in '08 and Westbrook looked all-NBA this year.
Finally, I don't know if you get an influx of Laker fans during this time but be aware that they are, without a doubt, the stupidest group of fans on the planet. I'm sure there are some intelligent ones but they are just drowned out by the masses of "Laker Nation", who pretty much only tune in during the playoffs and couldn't even name five guys on the roster.
Topic: Key factors – and about Bynum (Read 4198 times)