playing deviladvocate or avocado or abogado...
(1) I think the Lakers offense is vulnerable against teams with strong post defense (check) and teams with strong man-to-man defenders on Kobe (check). With those defensive strengths, an opposing team is able to force LA into becoming an equivalent of a bottom ten and possibly bottom five offensive team.
Mid range will be open for pau
(2) Without Andrew Bynum being able to give them a quality 25+ minutes a night ... the Lakers are a finesse team that will get out-worked in the paint and on the glass. Bynum has not looked healthy enough to do this based on the last two rounds.
Sheed effect.. is Bynum making us "happy"
(3) The Celtics have an advantage inthe backcourt. Kobe Bryant does not defend Ray Allen well because of his lack of defensive discipline. Kobe is always running around trying to play help D and leaves Ray wide open on multiple occasions every game which allows Ray to post good scoring nights.
I expect big things of brown like jj surprise us
Nobody on their team has been able to stop Rondo but Kobe does the best job there. In that case, Fisher is too small to contest Ray's jumper on catch and shoot opportunities so Ray has an even better matchup to exploit. As for Rondo, Kobe can make his life difficult in the halfcourt and for portions of a game but he isn't able to hold him down for a full 48 minutes. There will be large chunks of the game where Rondo takes over, especially in transition ... which is another advantage for the Celtics, they are a much better transition team both offensively and defensively (Lakers very poor in this area following the Artest for Ariza switch). They need to exploit this advantage.
incredibly transition is a word that i never thought related to cs.
As for the Lakers, they have an advantage with Lamar Odom against BBD or Sheed but not when the Celtics have their starting big men in the game. They also have an advantage with Kobe Bryant but not that large of one because of the C's stellar team defense which has lowered his scoring efficiency considerably against them over the past few years.
BBD can post up lamar like i can post up Po
A Garnett-Gasol matchup should be fairly even. Garnett has played against Pau Gasol many times in the past and is very comfortable in knowing how to score against him. He will be more effective offensively in this series than the past one. And he will be able to make Gasol work very hard for his points on the other end of the floor. So this should be fairly even.
this is "the: effect" garnett and sheed are good enough to make pau loks crappy, or are u omparing they to dudley
A Pierce-Artest matchup should also be neutral due to Artest's defensive ability. In the past, Pierce has been able to be very successful against Artest but with his declining athleticism (no explosiveness with his quickness or leaping ability) and declining ability to play a full 48 minutes at a high level ... I think Artest can now cause him problems. Pierce will win the duel, obviously, but Artest should be able to drag down his effectiveness/efficiency far enough to limit this advantage. Similar to what Boston can do against Kobe.
this is one of biggest mistakes most people make while analyzing
Paul can own Ron 99 outta 99 times when needed
, ronis slow and slower tha n ariza and equivalents right now, i dont want pp running isos but pp playing his plays
Based on all of that, I think the Celtics chances of winning this series are very strong and fully believe they a
re capable of winning four out of five games if they found themselves in an 0-2 hole to begin the series. The Lakers do not have enough advantages against them and Boston's defense + advantages in the backcourt make them the favourite.
TP, Edgar ... I agree with most of this. Pierce is only 2 years older than Artest, and I don't think there will be any significant increase in Ron's ability to defend him ... Pierce has owned Artest in the past, and I don't think that will change.
The biggest challenge will be the KG/Gasol match-up ... Ticket has been having difficulty scoring of late, and Pau's youth, athleticism and increased mobility will be a big challenge for him ... I have no doubt he can contain Gasol, just not sure how long he can
sustain it, or stay out of foul trouble.
The bench rotations will be key as well ... we are a deep team, with a lot of guys who can step up at any time, but LA's bench is almost as deep, defensively and offensively, and the effectiveness of our
team defense will be extremely important. Guys like Brown and Vujacic can explode quickly ... we really need TA to be healthy, now more than ever.
All said, I think if we play our game, focusing on defense and attacking the paint, we match-up almost as well as all the previous series, and our bench, (if healthy), even more so. I'll be watching KG and the bench the closest, but I honestly think we can do this in five, or, (don't laugh), even sweep. When we're playing our best, we can beat anyone ... and do so dominantly.
Honestly, the Lakers don't scare me any more than Orlando or Cleveland did, and this will all come down to how badly we want it, how cohesive a unit we are, how healthy we remain, and how effective we are at sustaining our best game. All I ask is that we give it our all ... if we do, I have no doubts about the outcome.
Go Celtics!
