We got beat again - (Laker fan)

[Discoflux]

I truly am a lifetime Laker fan, and I'm trying to be honest.

The refs sucked. Their actions absolutely hurt our chances.

Ultimately, we lost the game because we are getting beat. I'm not going to play the "aggressive card". What is happening is that Boston's team defense is severely limiting what our Offense does. Every time we touch the ball there is a defender in our face. Every time we pass and move the ball there is a defender in their face. Kobe does not look like the Kobe we've seen in the playoffs so far. He is not getting the shots he wants. He is making some unbelievable shots, but he is getting limited.

Conversely, our team defense is not really altering what Boston does on offense. Boston is getting the majority of shots they want, with a few exceptions. What is maddening is when we play great team defense and they use 23 seconds to hoist up a brick, that sucker would carom off the rim at a crazy angle to a Celtic player.

I know the refs hurt us bad. They took Radman and Kobe out of the game in the first quarter. That hurts bad. But we went on to go down 22 points in the 3rd/4th and that was not all refs.

If the uniforms were reversed we would all be saying what a good win it was, even if we admitted bad reffing.

Celtic Def impact on LA O >>> LA Def impact on Celtic O

Put that and home court advantage in a blender and you come out with 2-0 Boston.

We need to regroup. I still believe in our guys. PJ needs to make the adjustments. The players need to get it through their heads that this is a war, and the other guys want to tear our hearts out. They need to respond and dominate.

We need to take care of business and get this thing to 3-2 LA.

[Jeff]

welcome to CelticsBlog - please don't curse or use masked profanity

[BudweiserCeltic]

Regardless if the refs are good or bad, the Celtics will get most of the calls mainly because you guys got no personel to stop our guys period. That leads to a lot of fouling. Sure, there were a couple of fouls that were unwarranted or missed calls on the others side, but the vast volume of the fouls were legit and that's a result of the mismatches, and it starts with having zero bulk inside and no one, not even Kobe, that can keep Pierce off the paint.

[fan33]

"bleep bleep bleep bleep

We need to take care of binness"

 

I hear an echo

Best of luck with that 3 game home sweep, which is what it will take along with something more than Zen Masters adjustments, but you got to have hope, I guess...

It's been fun~

-Go Celtics-
~~~~ ~~~~

[Roy Hobbs]

Thanks for admitting what so many of your brethren deny.  That takes a lot of maturity, and kudos for it.

A team doesn't fall behind by 20+ points solely due to officiating.  Yes, there were some ticky-tack first half calls (although the fouls on Kobe were legit, if inconsistently called), but in the end, you guys lost because you couldn't challenge Boston physically on either end.

[Redz]

PJ needs to make the adjustments.

I don't know, I'm pretty happy with what PJ's done so far

[jay_jay54]

I picked up on something in the Utah/Lakers series,Spurs/Lakers series also,Gasol spending over 3 seconds in the paint on offense quite a bit,and gets away with it....start keeping an eye on Gasol camping out in the paint sometime.

[Jaycelt]

I admit the Celtics got the benifit of the doubt last night but, as I've said before, it's the 1st time in this entire post season that that could be said while we've been subjected to blatant homerism on the road all playoffs long.
I also agree that the officiationg wasn't the story of the game.
The story of the game is that:
 
#1 Gashol was a monster in the 1st half and totally forgotten in the second. 
#2 The Celtics defense is as good as advertised.
#3 The Lakers have no one to stop "The Truth".
#4 The Lakers gave up at one point in the 3rd quarter and needed a cattle prod to get their behinds  to play defense in the 4th.  Maybe someone reminded them that they were playing in the NBA finals!

[VINandTonic42]

I had to laugh last night when Perk got called for an illegal screen early in the game

I remember hearing on CSL that a C's game hasn't officially started until Perk gets whistled for it

[youcanthandlethetruth113]

They took Radman and Kobe out of the game in the first quarter. That hurts bad

I"m just curious to know how Vladimir Radmanovich deserves a nickname?

I guess Radman is a no brainer, but how about "The lying SOB"....?

I mean seriously. This "Radman" is a guy who looked Mitch, Phil, and Kobe all in the face and LIED!

[Blood Sweat and Bears]

ya you got beat again. get over it, and stop blaming the refs. we all know they can be pretty bad. however, game 1 lakers fans blame the loss on the rims being tight!!, now game 2 its the refs. We've all had to deal with bad refs, and I dont know that they were that bad last night. I"ve seen much worse officiated games.

Leon Powe attacked, attacked, attacked, and didnt stop attacking. He was quicker and more energized than anyone out there. Everyone else was a step or 2 behind. Thats why he got to the line so much.

get over it.

[Discoflux]

ya you got beat again. get over it, and stop blaming the refs. we all know they can be pretty bad. however, game 1 lakers fans blame the loss on the rims being tight!!, now game 2 its the refs. We've all had to deal with bad refs, and I dont know that they were that bad last night. I"ve seen much worse officiated games.

Leon Powe attacked, attacked, attacked, and didnt stop attacking. He was quicker and more energized than anyone out there. Everyone else was a step or 2 behind. Thats why he got to the line so much.

get over it.

thanks for the classy advice.  I'll work on it.

[paintitgreen]

Disco, I thought your post was excellent and agree with your analysis. Like I pointed out elsewhere, in Game 6 against Detroit, we faced a string of bad calls in the third quarter similar to what you guys got in the 2nd quarter last night (the Radmanovic fouls were legit, he just can't stay in front of Pierce, I don't think that hurts you, the Kobe fouls were more questionable only in that I don't think it was called consistently on the other end - my theory is Kobe must have been talking a lot to the officials, leading to his T when he turned and complained again - and must have said something over the line - to the official on a play where there was no semblance of a foul). But the Celtics overcame it by being the better team. Had the Lakers played the better game last night, they would have won despite the second quarter officiating. They didn't play better, so they didn't win in the end. They let that quarter finish them, and with only a 12-point halftime deficit, that's inexcusable.

Overall, you're right. The Lakers have to play much better than last night to win in this series. Officials can swing a game a few points, but that 24 point lead came as a result of the Lakers' defensive lapses and jumpshot offense, not the officials' calls. (Yeah, it was 6 in the end, but the Cs clearly let up around the 6 or 7 minute mark.) They should have gone to Gasol more, who was ready willing and able to be a bigger factor last night than the Lakers allowed him to be. They just didn't for whatever reason.

But the series is far from over. I expect one of those games in LA to see a relative reverse of the free throw situation (althought not as bad because the Celtics do attack the basket more and play better overall defense). The Lakers need some home cooking to try to restore their games and mindsets. But they can't rely on the refs - they have to become aggressive and continue the rebounding job they did in the 4th quarter, and they have to attempt some defense, which they didn't do last night.

[celts55]

I'm sure if the teams were reversed Tommy would have been having a heart attack. I have to agree that this one time i think the Celtics might have gotten the benefit of the doubt but I'm not sure that it was the differance maker. Although, since it did get down to 2 points in the last minute, maybe it was.
For what it's worth, I think the refing has been pretty bad accross the board throughout the playoff. Sorry, but Barry was fouled at the end of the San Antonio game. I really don't like it, either way when the refs decide the game.

[paintitgreen]

I'm sure if the teams were reversed Tommy would have been having a heart attack. I have to agree that this one time i think the Celtics might have gotten the benefit of the doubt but I'm not sure that it was the differance maker. Although, since it did get down to 2 points in the last minute, maybe it was.
For what it's worth, I think the refing has been pretty bad accross the board throughout the playoff. Sorry, but Barry was fouled at the end of the San Antonio game. I really don't like it, either way when the refs decide the game.

I don't think you can get thrown off by the 4th quarter. The officiating, in my mind, gave us 6-10 points in the 2nd quarter. We legitimately pushed it to 24 with 7:40 left. Even without that push from the officials earlier on, that's still a 14-18 point lead if things kept going the way they were. And with a closer game, I think the Celtics continue being aggressive and don't just try to run out the clock from that point (which is what the Lakers back into the game.) Of course, there's no way of telling how the 3rd quarter would have gone without the 2nd quarter, so you can't really say if it decided the game, although it certainly affected it.

To me, the bottom line is maybe that 2nd quarter decided the game, but if it did, that's as much the Lakers' fault as the officials', since they were the ones who folded in the 3rd quarter. If they played better than the Celtics, they would have won. They didn't.