Fisher sucks on offensive so does artert. You are severely overrating their offense. Wallace, big baby and nate can outscore farmer, odom, and brown. O yeah and the celtics have been playing great D all series except for one game, the lakers defense if mediocre without bynum.
Maybe, you are giving the Lakers too much credit on offense (and as a team), while they aren't exactly playing the Jazz or the Suns, anymore. Farmar, Brown, and Sasha being above average at anything, except Brown's athleticism and Sasha's douche bag tendacies does not exist in real life NBA basketball. Bynum is legitimately hurt (or injured), while he has not played consistently well throughout the entire playoffs. Same can be said for Odom. Very streaky players. Gasol is pretty good against inferior competition, but he can sometimes meet his match against tough minded defensive players or players who are just as talented as he is. Kobe is Kobe, when he takes very difficult, low FG% shots. Doc Rivers got worried during that little streak, but TT said not to worry ... very tough shots. Artest shot the 3 well in the regular season, last year, but it historically fades in the playoffs. Boston has not really played perfect or outstanding to win, they've just played good defense. Really a type of defense (in your face on almost every play type-with no let up), the Lakers haven't played in the playoffs, except the Thunder who did not have same quality of players as Boston. I'm still wondering about the Lakers, I think fate was so d#mn fortunate to them last year. They did not have to play the Suns in the first round (the Jazz, instead), became fortunate in the Rockets series (when Yao went down, a team also without Mutombo, still took them to 7 games), getting manhandle at times by the Nuggets, and ran into a very fortunate matchup with the Magic who did not have the backcourt or the overall size to beat LA. The Magic knocked off the Celtics who missed KG. I knew the Lakers were a shady bunch (talented squad), last year for a team that did not dominate Houston or the Denver that they were not as great as advertised. If your team plays good to outstanding defense, has a fairly deep roster, with a few go-to players/matchup problems, and has a little size on the frontline, then that squad has a chance against the Lakers. I mean what they do, if they do go on to lose this series, they already have the most talented starting lineup in the league with a team that plays pretty good team defense. Outside of possibly a few bench players, what more can they do.
They don't have better offense, they have better defense, and when you play defense like the way the celtics are playing you'll score more than the opponents.
Boston has an underrated offense because their defense is SO good. Lakers basically have 2 guards on offense to start and create. Kobe and Gasol and the triangle. Boston has a better starting five plus better bench. Game 6 is lakers game, im guessing lakers will play hard and refs will be on their side to push a game 7. Game 7 would be a GREAT game...maybe the refs would finally call it even and the better team will win.
Lol, nice. Seems to me that: Celtics play better team basketball. Rondo's penetration and hustle creates opportunities. Pierce has started to come around and get can pretty much any mid-range jumper he wants. Celtics bench > Lakers bench. Celtics playing strong D + good, but not great O = winning combination. The Lakers also haven't been playing to their match-up advantages this series (i.e. they haven't been pounding it into their bigs).
Like many already stated the defense is what makes the difference. The funny thing is that you post the weaknesses of the celtics and the strengths of the lakers. These threads just lighten up my day. Thanks
Lakers = Kobe 's one man show + Refs' Las Vegas practice. Odom : dead man walking. Gasol : an ugly girl from Spain. Bynum: was he playing? Artest: timid as Kobe's b****. Fisher: focused too much on dirty plays.
I keep hearing people say that Kobe was let down by his teammates. What about the first quarter, the first half? Kobe didn't do anything in the first quarter and his team was still in the game. He didn't have a very good first half and his team was still only down by 6. He decided to take over the game and his team fell behind. Once he cooled off in the 4th quarter, his team actually got back in the game. Why was this a case of his teammates letting him down rather than a case of Kobe ignoring everyone else and them losing focus because they weren't involved?
The Celtics run a team offense. Lakers offense is centered around Gasol not shooting too much, lest he steal the Finals MVP from Kobe. If the Lakers played more of an inside out game with Gasol and Bynum, I think they would destroy the Celtics.
