So the stage makes them immune to lapses? Or should? Increased pressure necessarily means increased performance? I very much disagree with your reasoning. It's not that big of a deal that LA held home court. Maybe we should just give credit to the Lakers O, which was OOOOK over the course of a season. Shocking? Negligent?
Pierce gave up toward the end of the game. Keep the competition on the court, yes, but actually have 'it' when you're on the court.
Horrible defense/coaching at the end of the game, but Celtics still managed to keep it a close low-scoring game when everyone expected them to be blown out. They have a great shot of taking one of the next two games and they'd still be in the driver's seat to take the series.
Celtic Arrogance, instead of Celtic Pride, is what lost this game for them. They just didn't care enough at the end of the day, they already have the championship parade planned out, apparently. At least we will get to see at least three more games and this series will head back to Boston. The more the merrier...
Cite your source, tiger. You're a victim of wishful thinking. At the very least you project these assumptions. At the very most, you assume. If it makes it more interesting for you, I won't disagree. edit after the fact: i admire you as a poster and wish you'd post more often if anything. we could use more yous.
Why the celtics didnt foul on the last seconds?? But I think the celtics are gonna win one game on LA, because the Lakers barely win, with Garnett and Pierce playing bad offense, if those two play at the level of the two previous games, no way Lakers can win. Celtics will win it in Boston.
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It's Doc Rivers. You think he can coach a close game? The Celtics either win in blow out fashion (like the home games during the playoffs) or they don't win at all (like the majority of their road games during the playoffs). What JVG said was right--even though it hasn't been tried, you can't lose much if you put Allen, Posey, and Pierce on the floor at the same time with Rondo hobbled. That lineup would kill the Lakers. My opinion of Lamar Odom has lessened a good amount--the bigger the spotlight, the smaller the game. As for Radmonovic, is there a worse starter in the league today? He plays zero defense, fouls at the most inappropriate time, doesn't know where to go on defensive rotations, and can't do anything except shoot 3s.
My eyes. Seeing their coach use the defensive menace known as Ray Allen in single-coverage situations on Kobe towards the end of the game. Refusing to foul down only 6 with roughly 7 seconds or more on the clock. I'm sorry, but the Celts didn't try hard enough, and they don't seem to feel too bad about it, their body language said it all for me. Anyways, it's my opinion, we can obviously disagree. I will just say that the Celtics are clearly the better team, and they should have won this game. But let's make it a 7 game series for old time's sake...
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not necessarily, kobe and gasol missed a lot FTs, which they finally got in game 3 from refs, laker's no.2,no.3, paul and lamar played like crap, and ray allen had an excellent game, so u also can't expect lamar and paul to play that bad every game and allen to be so good every game, LA in 6
I don't know what you are talking about. The Celts strategy of taking Kobe out of the offense worked very well and then they stopped doing it on two consecutive possessions where Kobe toasted Ray Allen. Do I have your permission to criticize what was an incomprehensible decision to stop doing something that was working well? Then they didn't foul at the end, especially with the Lakers brickfest at the FT llne.
Hear hear! Doc is not all that but he's gone this far on Thibbodeau's back. As a Rox fan, this makes me proud! Lapses should not be the fault of the whole, but the lapse implies the individual. I'm forgiving in that way.
I question the effectiveness of putting Jesus on Kobe from the very beginning. If Doc is scared that putting Pierce on Kobe would get Pierce into foul trouble, then he should at least swap Posey into the game for Rondo, who is having a subpar series. It's not like their offense is predicated on having a good point guard to run plays because they run pretty much three plays: 1. Give the ball to Pierce and let him create something out of nothing 2. Give the ball to KG and let him create something out of nothing 3. Have Allen come off of multiple screens (he must have watched a lot of Rip Hamilton/Detroit Piston tapes for the Finals) I'm not knocking them in any way because, obviously, defense was never on the Lakers' list of top things to do. But none of those things demand a point guard to set things up. Ray Allen or Pierce could do a fine job with getting the ball up. You put Posey in there to guard Kobe AND you spread the floor because Posey will make you pay if you leave him open for 3s. Posey's bigger, stronger, and arguably faster than RayRay. Someone argued w/ this idea saying "Why would the Celtics change their rotation going into the Finals??? that's crazy talk! They've been using the same lineup for about 100 games so changing it RIGHT NOW is idiotic" Well to that I ask: How many different lineups (not starting, just lineups period) has Rivers used in this Finals that he didn't before? People who think the Celts wouldn't change their lineup on the floor forget who's coaching the team.
You have my permission to critisise what you think was planned... it was awful for them to trust their number one defense and to even think of putting Allen on Kobe. You definitely have my permission to disagree with JVG and prevent Ray Allen from playing awesome one on one on Kobe. We should have played TWO defenders on him and risked an open three. All I have is the NBA's best defensiove coach on my side. How can I argue with you?
the celtics missed alot of FTs too.... the lakers were at home vujacic won't go 7-10 every night. id rather put money on all-stars like pierce and KG having good games than vujacic and odom. lamar odom hasnt done anything the whole series, so why shouldnt it be expected at this point ? ray allen is a damn perennial all-star. the celtics are a better defensive team than the lakers. celtics in 5.....maybe 6
I think Paul Pierce cost the Celtics this one. He looked like he aged 40 years in between games 2 and 3. The Lakers did all they could to blow this one, so I wouldn't feel too comfortable if I were them. Odom and Gasol played horribly. Gasol was particularly bad. That was 7 foot of bearded, whining turd out there tonight.
Ray allen has played nice 3 games, why he would stopped? Odom, has played very bad the entire series And Gasol first two games, he only plays good one quarter. this game he sucked big time. The only thing can change is Kobe making more FTs.
