82-40

[Junkyard Dawg]

Discrepency in FTA attempts in Lakers favor over the last 3 games of the series...

Hey man, congrats to the Lakers and all, they've obviously made huge strides since two years ago, they're a much better team.. but they shot twice as many FTs in EACH of the last three games of this series, it only took a scorchingly hot shooting Celtics team to overcome that in one of those games.

Boston/LA free throw attempts by game (Home vs. Away)

1)  36/31  A
2)  26/41  A
3)  24/24  H
4)  23/22  H
5)  13/26  H
6)  10/19  A
7)  17/37  A

Totals: 149/200 for the series.

Anyway, just think it needs to be pointed out.  Congrats to the C's on a fantastic run, and here is hoping there is plenty of gas left in the tank.

[luckthefakers]

It's even worse when you factor in the intentional fouls (since the only such fouls committed by the C's were 4 tonight vs 10+ by the Lakers in their close loses). 

People will say you are whining but it is a legitimate gripe.  These teams are both aggressive and live in the paint, but only one got calls consistently.  Also, the Laker bigs constantly camp in the paint and go over the back on rebounds with impunity; fine not to call that in a "let em play" game (as 4,5,6, and 2/3rds of 7 were), but when it gets ticky-tack, come on.

The NBA is getting worse by the year.  This is the third time in 10 years that the Lakers have been gifted enormous amounts of 4th quarter FTs to offset horrid shooting.  The other times were in Game 7 2000 WCF and Game 6 2002 WCFs, both must wins and both with one of the Laker refs (Crawford and Bavetta).

[Bahku]

Yeah ... very legitimate gripe, especially where it's been so consistently one-sided. Congrats, David Stern ... I'm sure you're a happy guy tonight.