Boston Celtics vs Los Angeles Lakers: 2008 NBA Finals / Predictions

[fairweatherfan06]

Also the Lakers have cruised through these playoffs and haven't experienced REAL pressure and adversity yet and we can provide that to them....let's see how they respond.  Now I'll give credit that its been easy because they've made it look easy but let's look at the matchup

They swept a Denver team with NO defense who limped in the playoffs...hohum

The Jazz a great home team and poor road team that they had owned all year.  A tough team maybe their most impressive series win

And Yes the Spurs defending champs but...They played a GASSED Spurs team with an obviously injured Manu Ginobli, and a very old and inconsistent supporting cast outside of their big 3.  Bowen was passing up every 3 that wasn't in the corner. Finley showed up every 3 games and Horry was barely there anymore except for cheap shot fouls.  Aside from Brent Barry all they had was Parker, TD and a gimpy Ginobli playing well.  Not to mention the bevvy of questionable calls in the Lakers favor.

My point.  The Lakers ain't fought nobody!

[LakerLanny]

I will go with the Lakers in 5

[Redz]

I will go with the Lakers in 5

No Celts pick Lanny?  Come on, there's always room for you over here! 

[domofromTLN]

Also the Lakers have cruised through these playoffs and haven't experienced REAL pressure and adversity yet and we can provide that to them....let's see how they respond.  Now I'll give credit that its been easy because they've made it look easy but let's look at the matchup

They swept a Denver team with NO defense who limped in the playoffs...hohum

The Jazz a great home team and poor road team that they had owned all year.  A tough team maybe their most impressive series win

And Yes the Spurs defending champs but...They played a GASSED Spurs team with an obviously injured Manu Ginobli, and a very old and inconsistent supporting cast outside of their big 3.  Bowen was passing up every 3 that wasn't in the corner. Finley showed up every 3 games and Horry was barely there anymore except for cheap shot fouls.  Aside from Brent Barry all they had was Parker, TD and a gimpy Ginobli playing well.  Not to mention the bevvy of questionable calls in the Lakers favor.

My point.  The Lakers ain't fought nobody!

PLEASE TELL ME YOUR JOKING.
 the celtics went SEVEN GAMES WIT HTEH ATLANTA HAWKS, a team that is below .500, then the cav's went 7 with them,cavs are a team with just 1 guy and they ALMOST, beat the celitcs at home in game 7.
and finally the pistons, only reason celtics won is  because chauncey billups had hamstring problems, and in game 6 u had rip hamilton. give me the pistons on anyday when they are healthy and they will sweep the boston celtics.

[Edited.  Do not insult other posters. -R.H.]

[fairweatherfan06]

Also the Lakers have cruised through these playoffs and haven't experienced REAL pressure and adversity yet and we can provide that to them....let's see how they respond.  Now I'll give credit that its been easy because they've made it look easy but let's look at the matchup

They swept a Denver team with NO defense who limped in the playoffs...hohum

The Jazz a great home team and poor road team that they had owned all year.  A tough team maybe their most impressive series win

And Yes the Spurs defending champs but...They played a GASSED Spurs team with an obviously injured Manu Ginobli, and a very old and inconsistent supporting cast outside of their big 3.  Bowen was passing up every 3 that wasn't in the corner. Finley showed up every 3 games and Horry was barely there anymore except for cheap shot fouls.  Aside from Brent Barry all they had was Parker, TD and a gimpy Ginobli playing well.  Not to mention the bevvy of questionable calls in the Lakers favor.

My point.  The Lakers ain't fought nobody!

PLEASE TELL ME YOUR JOKING.
 the celtics went SEVEN GAMES WIT HTEH ATLANTA HAWKS, a team that is below .500, then the cav's went 7 with them,cavs are a team with just 1 guy and they ALMOST, beat the celitcs at home in game 7.
and finally the pistons, only reason celtics won is  because chauncey billups had hamstring problems, and in game 6 u had rip hamilton. give me the pistons on anyday when they are healthy and they will sweep the boston celtics.

[Edited.]

Your argument was no argument.  And you MISSED the gist of mine.

The Celtics played 3 hard fought series and have learned to raise their level against adversity.  The Lakers faced very little (which had some to do with how good they are and some to do with the other teams lack of...)

Atlanta was a young athletic hungry team with something to prove them giving the C's problems did not suprise me.

Cleveland: Lebron James I don't care who else they have they had Lebron James and they are a good defensive team who employed an excellent strategy and took one of the Celtics main scorers out of the game (Ray Allen)
no shame there.

The Pistons were the second best team in the league ALL YEAR, with the second best record and the BEST starting five. And Billups and Hamilton's "injuries" did not hamper in half the way it did for Ginobli. And the Pistons play defense.

Denver no defense
Jazz barely any defense
Spurs excellent defensive team with a struggling offense.

 

[domofromTLN]

[Edited.  Enjoy the ban. -R.H.]

the hawks made it into the LEASTER conf. play offs with 37 wins? and your trying to say they are better than nuggets, a team with the 3rd and 4th leading scorers in the NBA, and the jazz, its not like they just had the best home record in the NBA by accident,the spurs are the defending champions of the world, manu duncan and parker, we were able to stop them both when they were healthy, and won in 5 games, celtics on the other hand...

hawks: a team that like i just said barely makes it into the post season with 37 wins

cavs: a team that did a huge trade befor the post season, with little chemistry, and still they almost closed the celtics out on the home court

Pistons: billups was having hamstring issues, rasheed was complaining to much instead of playing his game, hamilton and his elbow. you guys had the easiest road to the finals, not saying you got their by accident, but man, hawks, cavs, and depleeted pistons team. and your saying the lakers had it easy?

[liam]

Also the Lakers have cruised through these playoffs and haven't experienced REAL pressure and adversity yet and we can provide that to them....let's see how they respond.  Now I'll give credit that its been easy because they've made it look easy but let's look at the matchup

They swept a Denver team with NO defense who limped in the playoffs...hohum

The Jazz a great home team and poor road team that they had owned all year.  A tough team maybe their most impressive series win

And Yes the Spurs defending champs but...They played a GASSED Spurs team with an obviously injured Manu Ginobli, and a very old and inconsistent supporting cast outside of their big 3.  Bowen was passing up every 3 that wasn't in the corner. Finley showed up every 3 games and Horry was barely there anymore except for cheap shot fouls.  Aside from Brent Barry all they had was Parker, TD and a gimpy Ginobli playing well.  Not to mention the bevvy of questionable calls in the Lakers favor.

My point.  The Lakers ain't fought nobody!

Amen to that. We fought our way in to the finals. We'll see how LA opens on the road to the best team they've played.

[PGMVP]

Banned. -R.H.

[fairweatherfan06]

[Edited.  Enjoy the ban. -R.H.]

the hawks made it into the LEASTER conf. play offs with 37 wins? and your trying to say they are better than nuggets, a team with the 3rd and 4th leading scorers in the NBA, and the jazz, its not like they just had the best home record in the NBA by accident,the spurs are the defending champions of the world, manu duncan and parker, we were able to stop them both when they were healthy, and won in 5 games, celtics on the other hand...

hawks: a team that like i just said barely makes it into the post season with 37 wins

cavs: a team that did a huge trade befor the post season, with little chemistry, and still they almost closed the celtics out on the home court

Pistons: billups was having hamstring issues, rasheed was complaining to much instead of playing his game, hamilton and his elbow. you guys had the easiest road to the finals, not saying you got their by accident, but man, hawks, cavs, and depleeted pistons team. and your saying the lakers had it easy?

You may not see this but I still feel the need to respond.   

You were not reading what I wrote.  I talked about each teams individual  road to the finals. I DID NOT in any way shape or form compare teams from one conference to another, so I'm not even going to defend your statement about me comparing the Nuggets to the Hawks as I didn't make it.

I was talking about matchups and Atlanta with its youth and athleticism was a bad matchup for the Celtics.  Much like if the Lakers had faced the Hornets, Suns or Golden State they might have taken more games to get to the finals.

[oneofthesedays]

Oh please the Celtics may have fought their way through the Finals, but it's only because Doc Rivers is a terrible coach.

There is no reason a 66 win team should struggle to beat the Edited.  Profanity and masked profanity are against forum rules and may result in discipline.ing Hawks and Cavs.  That is embarrassing that it took your team 7 games, WITH HCA, to beat both of them.  All it shows is that Doc Rivers has no Edited.  Profanity and masked profanity are against forum rules and may result in discipline.ing clue what he is doing in the playoffs.

Phil Jackson, OTOH, you give that man talent and he produces results.  He straight owned Karl, Sloan, and Pop.  Doc struggled to take down Mike Woodson, Flip Saunders, and Mike Brown with his far more talented team.

[Jloyola]

Also the Lakers have cruised through these playoffs and haven't experienced REAL pressure and adversity yet and we can provide that to them....let's see how they respond.  Now I'll give credit that its been easy because they've made it look easy but let's look at the matchup

They swept a Denver team with NO defense who limped in the playoffs...hohum

The Jazz a great home team and poor road team that they had owned all year.  A tough team maybe their most impressive series win

And Yes the Spurs defending champs but...They played a GASSED Spurs team with an obviously injured Manu Ginobli, and a very old and inconsistent supporting cast outside of their big 3.  Bowen was passing up every 3 that wasn't in the corner. Finley showed up every 3 games and Horry was barely there anymore except for cheap shot fouls.  Aside from Brent Barry all they had was Parker, TD and a gimpy Ginobli playing well.  Not to mention the bevvy of questionable calls in the Lakers favor.

My point.  The Lakers ain't fought nobody!

PLEASE TELL ME YOUR JOKING.
 the celtics went SEVEN GAMES WIT HTEH ATLANTA HAWKS, a team that is below .500, then the cav's went 7 with them,cavs are a team with just 1 guy and they ALMOST, beat the celitcs at home in game 7.
and finally the pistons, only reason celtics won is  because chauncey billups had hamstring problems, and in game 6 u had rip hamilton. give me the pistons on anyday when they are healthy and they will sweep the boston celtics.

[Edited.]

Your argument was no argument.  And you MISSED the gist of mine.

The Celtics played 3 hard fought series and have learned to raise their level against adversity.  The Lakers faced very little (which had some to do with how good they are and some to do with the other teams lack of...)

Maybe .. just Maybe.. The Lakers already raised their level of intensity during the heated stretch of the Western Conference. Unlike the weak eastern conference which it had losing team in the playoffs,   and the teams # 4-8 wouldnt have made it in the Western Conference.

Atlanta was a young athletic hungry team with something to prove them giving the C's problems did not suprise me.

If Atlanta took the C's to a 7th game didnt suprise you, so WHEN the Lakers win the Championship this shouldnt shock you as well.
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Cleveland: Lebron James I don't care who else they have they had Lebron James and they are a good defensive team who employed an excellent strategy and took one of the Celtics main scorers out of the game (Ray Allen)
no shame there.

You dont think PJ is going to do the same thing with better perimeter defenders such as Kobe, Ariza, Fisher, and Sasha?
 

The Pistons were the second best team in the league ALL YEAR, with the second best record and the BEST starting five. And Billups and Hamilton's "injuries" did not hamper in half the way it did for Ginobli. And the Pistons play defense.

Denver no defense
Jazz barely any defense
Spurs excellent defensive team with a struggling offense.

 

 Atlanta = bunch of scrubs, no real leader, no legitimate inside presence - took C's to a 7th game
Cleveland = One Man Team who had a poor series ( due to C's Defense) took the C's to a 7th game
Detroit = evenly matched

Iv had the luxury to watch alot NBA playoff games, the thing that troubles with Celtics is their lack of offense, mostly relying on Outside shots by the Big 3, not much penetration or at least there should be alot more, alot of 1 on 1's, bad PG play and an unreliable bench.

This is where PJ has a HUGE advantage over DOC. Celtics have many offensive weakness that can be exploited with speed, athletisim, and length in which the Lakers have. At the same time the Celtics have a great defense slowing the game down, rebounding, blocking shots.

Here is the bottom line our starters vs your starters pretty will cancel each other out stat wise, its going to come down to the bench, in which the Lakers win hands down! Why ? Because the Lakers bench who have been consistant all year gives Kobe and the rest of the starters rest in which Kobe takes over in the 4th with his offense and defense.

[RebusRankin]

Posey, House, Cassell, Powe, Brown have all produced off the bench for Boston. Don't overrated La's bench.

Still waiting for a Lakers fan to explain Lakers will overcome the Celtic's advantages in defense and rebounding.

[fairweatherfan06]

Well you opened yourself up for a response with that last post.  Celtics bench outplayed Lakers bench in two regular season games (no Gasol argument can be used here because the benches have not changed except for us acquiring PJ Brown and Cassell).  That doesn't help your argument.  I will agree however that the benches will be the X-factor in this series. 

[Lakesh0w4rmTLN]

Lakers doesn't have experience this year. huh. Uhm, let me put it to you this way. Kobe Bryant, he has been to the NBA finals 3 times (discluding this year) and has played TOUGHER teams than your Celtics this year in those 3 years he had played in the NBA Finals. Derek fisher has entered the NBA finals Four times(discluding this year), and played hard fought teams as well. Also this is LUKE WALTON's second career NBA finals. Not to mention the Hall of Fame Coach in Phil Jackson that is about to Pass Red Aurbach (R.I.P. by the way) for most nba championship played MANY tougher teams. All of them knows what it takes. As for you celtics, you only have James Posey, Sam Casell that has experience. In all, Posey and Casell is combined only 4 rings as for Bryant, Fisher, Jackson they equal 15 rings. So its funny how you said the Lakers don't have any experience. If anything the celtics don't have any experience as for your Casell and Posey, those to players don't even start. Sooo I don't know what you're talking about over there

[Lakesh0w4rmTLN]

Banned.  You did so well in your first post, too.  -R.H.