I hate both teams but I think the Celts are a little banged up. It should make for an entertaining series... Lakers in 7...
Partially yes... You're asking the road team to steal 1 or both of the first two road games and then win 2/3 home games or 3 straight home games or else they have to come back to LA to finish it. In sort of a way, it's tough... but in this case I don't think it matters. Boston is such a great road team and not that great of a home team... while LA is still undefeated at home but not that great of a road team. It'll be interesting.
This. Celts better not let this go to GM 6 / 7, or it'll be tough to win. Sure, the Celts are pretty great on the road, but this is the toughest team in the West we're talking about here. Although no one "likes" the Finals matchup, this will be damn entertaining.
Celtics in 6. pierce is gonna hit the ground and get carried off to the locker room. Come running out after the timeout and abuse artest. Fisher price will get gangbanged by Rondo and Nate.
Two of the three teams I hate the most (the Jazz are at the top of course). But I hate the Cs less than I hate the Lakers--gotta go with the Cs here. Hoping Rondo just rips up the Lakers. Don't know how the Cs will go about to counter the size of the Lakers though.
Hate both teams... but if Rondo continues to play at an all star level, Boston will win, but if somehow RonRon or Odom shows up Lakers might pull it off. -Jin
Rondo >>> Fisher Allen < Kobe* Pierce > Artest Garnett = Gasol Perkins = Bynum. Rondo will tear Fisher apart; this is pretty much the only guarantee in the series. *Allen cannot touch Kobe, offensively, but you really never know with Ray. One game he could go for 10 points on 3-14 shooting, and another game, he could score 24 on 9-13 shooting. I'm sure Pierce can handle Artest on both ends of the floor. Garnett and Gasol should be evenly matched, as should Bynum and Perkins. Robinson > Brown / Farmar Wallace < Odom Tony Allen >>> Vujacic / Walton I'm only judging Robinson based on GM 6; If he plays like he did then, against the LA team, it'll be hard for the PGs off the bench for the Lakers. Wallace and Odom should cancel each other out, but Odom gets a slight nod. Tony Allen plays excellent defense, and can probably stifle Kobe some. This is the first time in the Playoffs that LA will not find an advantage in the frontcourt; rather, Kobe must play like Kobe, for LA to win.
I'm going with the Celtics in 3. They'll win the first 3 games then the league will rule the series over on the technicality that Vujacic is too much of a douchebag to be involved in another NBA game. He will promptly be shipped back to Slovenia in a box that is labeled "Dragic's b****." Dragic will then make babies with Sharapova later that evening.
You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to BrooksBall again. In all seriousness though, I can see how that zone D could be the difference. You can expect Boston's zone to be even tougher than the Suns'. It'll come down to Artest hitting shots.... but I don't think they'll be able to use it for most of the series like the Suns did. Slow-grind out games... probably under 100 pts.. and each game within 3-7 points is pretty much a good estimate.
^^^^ Not only do they not have the frontcourt advantage, but Boston has a PG that can stay on Fisher. Now I do think LA's frontcourt is capable of coming up big, but they had the advantage without really trying up until this point. I wonder if Fisher can keep his shooting up or if Rondo will wear him out. Nash is a tough cover but he plays no D.
I think it 100% is dependent on Ray Allen, not Rondo. Allen, if he's on fire, will force Kobe to have to work extremely hard on the defensive end running through screens or defending pierce instead. Celts as a whole are undefendable if Allen is on. Rondo will get his, but the Laker bigs will do enough to make him not so large a factor.
