Wow jbhdva, that was quite a novel for your first post. How long did you work on that? Good stuff though.
Well, I worked on it a lot. Sunday evening was tough for me as a ESPN watcher. I need to let off of it though. My friend, a die hard Laker fan, texted me to let me know that all of the experts were picking the Lakers and two in 5 games. I thought he was joking, but he wasn't joking. It was true. Across the country, it's the consenus throughout. Kobe-Gasol-Odom and Fisher and the Euro 3 pointer threats will tear the Celtics up. I've heard everything. They're inconsistent. They can't win on the road. LeBron took them to a second 7th Game. Detroit beat them at home and proved they can lose at home. Detroit in six. Hell, even Cavs in six or seven when LeBron drops 40.
It's just something I don't understand, then again I do understand. First off, the Lakers pretty much cut throught the postseason what looked like with ease, the Celtics battled much harder and showed their weaknesses, and the way it looks, the Celtics have more weaknesses than the Lakers. I bought that until game six in Detroit. I have to say it surprised me, shocked me and thrilled me. My mind told me and kinda still tells me that the Celtics will fall to the West champs if they make it past Detroit. But my heart said "Wake up. They have prevailed every series. Yes they lost 7 on the road and only won two. Well the total of wins were 12 and that's what matters.
Just now, I saw SportsCenter and they were talking about how the Celtics guarded the LeBron and the Cavs. The analyst said that the Lakers provided a different animal for the Boston Celtics. They talked about all the scorers and shooters. As I recall, after the Atlanta series and Joe Johnson, analysts said the Celtics have to control a much better LeBron James and I'm not sure they can do that. Well, look whose here now. We heard about Chauency Billups and Rip Hamilton and the deep bench of the Pistons. It was almost like they wanted the Celtics to fail after they struggled against the Hawks. They disappointed and they are choking. Well, they did fail in some games, but they won series after series.
They have been given no credit and all of the sports shows are featuring unstoppable Kobe, triangle offense, and Pau Gasol. They didn't play them in the regular season and the regular season doesn't matter. I guarantee you if the Celtics lost both regular season games to the Lakers and we made a big trade like Gasol. Analysts would say, "yeah but the Lakers did beat them in the regular season, the Lakers still no the majority of this team."
I don't know, maybe I'm venting, but I'm still saying that I'm making a case for them. This is our beloved Celtics and they have the best defense in the league. The major argument is this: This Celtics team has yet to play THIS Lakers team. But there's also this argument: This Lakers team has yet to prove if they can dominate THIS Celtics team. All of a sudden, a Gasol trade later, their Supermen! After two Game 7s we're tired, weary and faced a weaker Eastern Conference. Like I said in my original post, offensive teams dominated the West and defense dominated the East. Looking back to the regular season (you have to consider it sometimes), the Celtics lost 10 times to East teams including two to Cleveland (who changed during the late season as well). To the West 6: Three in a row when we got a Rusty Garnett back from injury.
Also, sports shows always favor the top offensive teams. Always. Always. Always. That's what makes the highlights. They ain't going to show too much of a star missing a shot because of a good defensive strategy. That is just the way it goes. Top defensive teams are never favored. Ever. Ever. In today's media, just forget it. But that doesn't seem to shake the Celtics up that much or the Celtics themselves for that matter. They seem to like it. The Lakers seem to like being the favorites. I wouldn't want to be the favorite, too much pressure to perform to expectation. I would want to be the prove everyone wrong guy.
Also, I heard SportsCenter saying that Kobe's ability to break down defenses has been undeniable. Yes, but you have to be specific about what kind of defensses has been thrown at him. The Nuggets, kinda there, but basically tried to play the score more. The Jazz-rebounding and just running around from what I saw (most of those games were really close though), and the Spurs close lanes the best they can and Tim Duncan gives Gasol a rough time and yes, Gasol had trouble with the Spurs. Bruce Bowen defended Kobe really well. However, at the second half games, the Spurs took too many threes and they knew they were not hot, stopped driving to the basket and Manu was hurt, tired and inconsistent. Oh yeah, at the end, they began running around like the Jazz did.
My conclusion, the defense wasn't the best efforts and allowed too many weaknesses and was inconsistent on defense and couldn't hit a shot after shooting 50 threes making about 7 or 9. Useless threes, you have the lead, tighter defense and drive to the hoop. Kobe is able to break down medicore and somewhat successful defense. Also, most of these defenses tried to use one or two aspects and run with it. Guard Kobe and keep good eyes on him/rebounding and offensive rebounding/or just hoping he misses shots (Nuggets).
Now he and the Lakers will be facing the Celtics defense, which is in my view and The Sports Reporters of ESPN (who favor the Celtics), is much tougher to breakdown. The Celtics pretty much do about everything. They rebound on both sides (Thanks Perk, KG, Posey, and Rondo), they clog the lanes, they can run with point guards (Rondo and House) they can trap, they can steal, they guard the three point line, they put hands in your face, they put bodies on you making it hard to run side by side, they block or come close to blocking, and more importantly, they suffocate you and beat the hell out of you! I think that's why their record against the West was better than in the East! I think our defense is like a really thick concrete wall. You can hit with with hammers, put some stakes through it and even take chunks out of with with a sledgehammer, but in the end, it's not coming down. You might be able to climb it and get over it a few times, but armed guards will be up on top later to shoot anyone who tries it again.
Yes, in Game 6 in Detroit we only scored 89, but against a team whose defensive strategies are identical to us, but we had more offensive weapons in the end. We're pretty good too. Ray Allen is back, yes he was non existent, but he has shown up in Detroit after a slump. KG will dominate, Paul Pierce loves playing against the Lakers and in LA (its his hometown), Perkins is getting better and better, Rondo is not a scorer, but contributes in everything else (assists, rebounds, steals and defense). There's also been talk about Lakers/Celtics depth and the Lakers depth outweighs Celtics bench, they're young and can run and score. Well, with the exception of P.J. and Sam, our bench is young too, they can score some, but they play great defense themselves. Posey, P.J. (rebounding), House (hustle and steals) Tony Allen (will be missed) defensive player all around and Big Baby Davis who gave Tim Duncan a hard time and could give Gasol a similar hard time.
There's only one matchup I worry about and that's Sam Cassell and everyone else. However, I don't think Sam will play too much, and Doc has learned his lesson I think. We need to see more House. We love you Eddie. Actually I partly blame him for the Atlanta series going longer than it should have, not stopping Bibby when he should have.
Anyway, I still like our chances. I don't think they should change a thing how they play defense. They're fine. The plays are simple and should be simple, the execution is the xfactor. More on this another day. It's late and I want to go to bed. I'll be back.
Topic: No National Media Love / Experts Picking LA (Read 37882 times)