We missed Perk

[Drucci]

Got killed on the offensive board, Gasol made all the crunch plays... Perk may not get a lot of rebounds usually but he clears space in the paint and helps us. We clearly missed him, and everytime he isn't here, Gasol has big games against us.

Kudos to Sheed who played a great game from beginning to end but didn't rebound well (he never did in his career so it would have been crazy to expect him to dominate in that area).

[PosImpos]

Yep.  Pretty much.  Rasheed played a great game, but all of those offensive rebounds early on kept the Lakers in the game.  I have to believe Perk would have helped us out in that area.  A lot.

[Thruthelookingglass]

Some yahoos on the internet may not value Perk, but I kinda think we missed our "Top 5 defensive player in the playoffs."  On the other hand, props to Scal for awesome spot duty.  Thanks Scal, and I'm glad you got to play this time around.

[PosImpos]

The Celtics are just a better team when they play with their starting 5. 

I don't know how to explain it exactly, but losing Perk was huge.