Game 4 Predictions

[wildo05]

I believe that the team need to get back to work! Last night is in the books and there is no reason to fret about it. The Celtics let one get away, but hopefully this will be motivation to come out strong on Thursday night.

[crownsy]

rajon not healthy= loss.

[Roy Hobbs]

I'm going to vote "all of the above".  You pretty much listed all the key factors we need to get better at.

[celtics2]

House will do fine in game 4 if needed. Actually ad some scoring and play decent defense. The Celts just don't come to play every nite. Maybe most teams don't. Evidence the very sloppy start in the 1st. I believe this is where Coaching comes into play. Having the authority to wake em up. Doc can't do this. We played way below expectations and still in it most of the way. Thursday will be different. LA just plain honestly doesn't look that good.

[connerhenry43]

i hate cliches, but they need to play 48 minutes. play like they did in the third quarter last night, we can order champagne. garnett needs to realize no one can stop him on LA. pierce will shoot better, house seems to have finally overtaken cassell, the c's will win game 4, mark it down.

[CT34]

This is not a predictions just something I hope for. I hope KG stops bailing out Pau Gasol and the rest of the Lakers big by not shooting jump shoots and take the ball to the basket.  I know, I know that's not KGs game but great players always find a way to attack a team weakness.  NOBODY on the Lakers can deal with KG in the post.  If I'm KG I would turn and face whoever is guarding me and then attack him off the dribble.  If KG becomes the force down low like Leon Powe was in game 2. The Celtics should win game 4.  If not this series is going to be 2-2 before we know it.

[connerhenry43]

This is not a predictions just something I hope for. I hope KG stops bailing out Pau Gasol and the rest of the Lakers big by not shooting jump shoots and take the ball to the basket.  I know, I know that's not KGs game but great players always find a way to attack a team weakness.  NOBODY on the Lakers can deal with KG in the post.  If I'm KG I would turn and face whoever is guarding me and then attack him off the dribble.  If KG becomes the force down low like Leon Powe was in game 2. The Celtics should win game 4.  If not this series is going to be 2-2 before we know it.

agreed, and that needs to come from the coach. doc needs to be adamant that kg goes down low. he can get their entire front line in foul trouble if he plays more down low.

[Barnabas]

This is not a predictions just something I hope for. I hope KG stops bailing out Pau Gasol and the rest of the Lakers big by not shooting jump shoots and take the ball to the basket.  I know, I know that's not KGs game but great players always find a way to attack a team weakness.  NOBODY on the Lakers can deal with KG in the post.  If I'm KG I would turn and face whoever is guarding me and then attack him off the dribble.  If KG becomes the force down low like Leon Powe was in game 2. The Celtics should win game 4.  If not this series is going to be 2-2 before we know it.

That's the main knock agsinst Garnett, even back when he was in Minn.  He prefers taking jumpshots instead of going in and posting up.  He's more of a finesse player.  I guess most people, even pro basketball players, don't like the pushing and elbowing that goes in when you play inside. 

Yeah, I think this series will be 2-2 very shortly.  The Celtic offense goes missing quite often and we really do not have the bench to compensate for the amount of points that the Big Three aren't making.  Powe had a great game the other night in Boston, but that's not something we can expect from him on a regular basis.  The Laker role players seem to be better at compensating when Gasol and Odom are not producing points.  A guy like Vujacic (Vujacic would be great to have on our bench to compensate for the lack of offense from our PG position) can explode and put up 3-pointers very quickly.  This series is a lot closer, and the two teams are a lot closer, than the scores in the 3 games indicate.  This is a very good match up, I think.  The two best teams in the league, the best offense against the best defense.  It doesn't get much better than that. 

[wildo05]

I did see an air of confidence after the game. The team knows they are the better team. They just need to continue to improve each game. Its weird that that was their first loss since Game 4 versus the Pistons.

Anyone else honestly believe that the Pistons are better than the Lakers. I do. Thats why if we lose this series it would be so disappointing. We won't though.

[Barnabas]

I did see an air of confidence after the game. The team knows they are the better team. They just need to continue to improve each game. Its weird that that was their first loss since Game 4 versus the Pistons.

Anyone else honestly believe that the Pistons are better than the Lakers. I do. Thats why if we lose this series it would be so disappointing. We won't though.

The Lakers are better than the Pistons.  The Pistons do not have the firepower that the Lakers have.  The team from Detroit is not nearly as explosive, I would think.

[ma11l]

Both teams are coming off of Game 3 saying they have a lot to improve on.  Predictions all depend on how you look at it.

If you're the Lakers you say we played like crap at home and they still couldn't beat us.  We won't play like that again and we have a great chance to go back to Boston up 3-2.


If you're the Celts you are very unimpressed by the Lakers performance in a do or die game.  They did nothing last night that scared me, it was all on us.  If we play to our top level of basketball then we are the better team.


I expect both teams to play a lot better tomorrow night and it should be an epic battle.  I think Paul and KG have more talent and will bounce back a lot better than Pau and Lamar.  I also think Kobe has a better performance in him then we saw last night.  It should be a close one that comes down to the last few minutes.  I think our defense will shut Kobe down this time in the end, either Paul or Ray Ray hits the dagger and the Celts win a close one.

[fan33]

Paul simply will score more as well as K.G, start House and we win with the same defensive intensity and effort! 3-1

[Cman]

i hate cliches, but they need to play 48 minutes. play like they did in the third quarter last night, we can order champagne.

Absolutely.  I am a little frustrated by what I saw out of Boston in the last 10 seconds -- I actually agreed with whichever commentator made it that the Cs should have fouled and forced the Lakers to make the shots -- while the probabilities of a turnaround at that point are low, you need to scrap for it.  The celtics have a tendency to coast (so obvious in game 2 4th quarter) and I feel like they coasted a little too much last night, and I don't like the general tone by Ludden about the Cs (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=Ahq5vyoZcKTe8HjXDtYSfvu8vLYF?slug=jy-boslal061108&prov=yhoo&type=lgns ) -- the article didn't paint a picture of a hungry team, rather a slightly complacent team that "let one get away".  This team needs to remain hungry in this series, but instead it seems like they are coasting a bit in this series.... sort of like the coast in that awful G2 4th quarter (hey, we have the lead, now we can relax a bit). 

Edit:  I am going to go one step further: at this point I am going to predict a Lakers win in game 4.  Go ahead and call me a fair weather fan, but I am going to call it as I see it, which is that the Celtics couldn't take advantage of a golden opportunity.  Why?  Too complacent.  They need the series tied up, or heaven forbid, be down 2-3, in order to have that fire lit under them.

[mjohnson]

boston winning by 20+

kg would hit those jumpers.
pierce would find his rhythm.

Lakers fans saying "boos" to their home team.

[MoneyBagsBob]

I think the celt's offense will turn on and eat up that Laker D. But the LA role players will make up for a lot of it. I expect a high scoring game, but I got the celts winning by 6. something like 110-104