We got beat again - (Laker fan)

[connerhenry43]

people talk about gasol being soft, and i do see a little bit of that. but he was so good in the first half and it seemed he never got the ball in the second half. IMHO, the lakers might want to get he ball to him a bit more. he is a great offensive player.

[oldmanspeaks]

Discoflux,
The key to the game was Kobe and not in a good way. With Perkins out of the game Gasol can dominate but only if you get him the ball. There is no excuse for not getting him 20+ "good" shots with no Perkins. KG and Perkins work great as a defensive team against inside players. Although Powe and Posey and PJ can cover outside better than Perkins, the Celtics lose a little bit defensively inside against a tall scoring guy like Gasol when he can also pass to a tall Odom. The desire to get Kobe "free" all the time justs wastes the clock as the Celtics are excellent help defenders.

[Discoflux]

people talk about gasol being soft, and i do see a little bit of that. but he was so good in the first half and it seemed he never got the ball in the second half. IMHO, the lakers might want to get he ball to him a bit more. he is a great offensive player.

Thanks for the kudos to Pau... that is the side of him that 'answers' the call that he is 'soft'.  Its a yes and no kind of thing.

Gotta credit the Celtics D for taking Pau out of the game.  Maybe the Lakers schemes could have pressed it to him but gotta trust the Offense flows to the best scoring option and obviously the Celtics adjusted to minimize Pau.  I don't have the game tape, but I'd like to review to see how they did it.

[Discoflux]

Discoflux,
The key to the game was Kobe and not in a good way. With Perkins out of the game Gasol can dominate but only if you get him the ball. There is no excuse for not getting him 20+ "good" shots with no Perkins. KG and Perkins work great as a defensive team against inside players. Although Powe and Posey and PJ can cover outside better than Perkins, the Celtics lose a little bit defensively inside against a tall scoring guy like Gasol when he can also pass to a tall Odom. The desire to get Kobe "free" all the time justs wastes the clock as the Celtics are excellent help defenders.

Kobe is absolutely experienceing stifling defense and unable to either a. find his shot/rhythm or b. find an open teammate. 

I gotta credit the Celtic d.  Lakers need to find a way to operate within the parameters of the Celtic d.  We saw some of it during the comeback, but we know that had more to do with 'big lead letdown' than 'laker success'. 

I predict we see a sharper offense at home, and we absolutely must get 3 in a row.  If you win one its over, and deserve all the credit in the world for winning in LA.  But if we come back 3-2 its going to be a helluva series back at Boston.

Again, good game for your team/city.  We need to respond.

[GroverTheClover]

Watching the Lakers last night, I was wondering why they went away from the pick and roll that is so sucessful with Pau and Kobe. It's odd that they would stray away from one of their more sucessful plays. If anything, they would expose the sometimes slow rotations from the Celtic defenders hedging the screens.

[Ersatz]

I was wondering why Jackson went with that atrocious lineup at the beginning of the second quarter when the Cs went on a 10-0 run. And why Kobe doesn't guard Pierce more. And why they don't get the ball to Gasol more after he has obvious success. And why Jackson thinks his team has any shot of winning with Odom on the bench in the fourth. And why Farmar, given his energy and excellent shooting, doesn't play more, even if it's in place of Fisher.

Is the Zen Master losing his touch?

[Brendan]

I agree about Pau, LAL should use him as the primary scorer:

1. It would let Kobe be a bit more energetic on D
2. Use Kobe as a decoy, but Kobe would still get his
3. More likely to see the C's D collapse on a good post guy, then on Kobe with the ball --> more open shots.

Kobe's ego may prevent this though.