I'll start by breaking down the Lakers:
*Derek Fisher: 9 PTS, 3 a**, 3 STL
Quiet as usual game. Generally played good off-ball defense, but struggled containing Rondo on the ball. Had a pretty quiet game offensively, as he usually does. Made a big steal when down 9 late in the game that led to a fastbreak that cut the game to 6.
*Kobe Bryant: 30 PTS, 8 a**, 3 STL
Strong, strangely quiet game. Had a quiet first half, scoring only 9 points, but wasn't really shooting much anyway. Allen did a solid job on him and he was in mild foul trouble. Second half was a whole other story. Scored 21 and orchestrated the big comeback late. When the Lakers got away from the Triangle and went to a Kobe pick and roll/isolation based offense the team started to put up points. He also did a very nice job driving and dishing in this one. Had 5 Assists in the Quarter, 3 of which were to open Three-Point shooters. The other two were Ronny Turiaf alley-oops. Got bumped a lot and didn't really get the calls he might have wanted, and you could tell he was frustrated. Credit him for, besides one time, keeping his cool. I wonder why on earth he didn't get the ball at 0:14 left while down 4. Bizarre. He decided to take over and carry his team too late I think. Seemed like he really only started to step up once his team was already down 15.
*Lamar Odom: 10 PTS, 8 a**
Bad game. I never got the feeling that he was ever really in this one. Started off good, but seemed to disappear the longer the game went on. Had a really bad charging foul at the end of the 3rd when the Celtics were pulling away that really gave Boston that added momentum and didn't seem to ever really get back in the game. Also got into fould trouble in the second half. The Lakers were down 2 points with 14 seconds left and Odom wasn't on the floor. That's the kind of game he had.
*Vladimir Radmanovic: 13 PTS, 10 REBS
Had one of the more bizarre, two-faced game you'll see. Really up and down. Got two fouls really early, got subbed out and wasn't to be seen for most of the first half. When he came back in Paul Pierce had a field day with Vladi guarding him. Rajon Rondo, 8 inches shorter, blocked his three point attempt and flushed down the following fast break. Then when down big in the 4th, Radmanovic woke up and was probably the second most influential player on the comeback. He hit 3 really big Threes and snatched pretty much every board away from Garnett, taking away second chance points. Down 9 he took Fisher's pass on the fastbreak and fed Vujacic on the perimeter for a big Three, then jumped a pass on the very next possession and slammed home a huge bucket to bring the lead down to 4. Really odd game.
*Pau Gasol: 17 PTS, 10 REBS, 4 a**
He quietly had a very efficient, but not very dynamic game. Went 8-12 from the field and did well under the basket whenever he had the ball. The problem with Gasol, was that he was never really counted on to give the Lakers the lift when they needed him. Seemed like he just hit his shots and did his job instead of really bailing out his team when they needed him. He was clearly feeling good from the field, but all of his scores seemed to be at relatively insignificant times. Defensively he played very soft. The 10 rebounds are misleading. He only had 2 going into the 4th quarter, when they really needed him to be grabbing those boards and eliminate Boston possessions.
*Trevor Ariza: 2 REBS
Went in for Radmanovic early when the former got in foul trouble. Exited the game after the first quarter and didn't come back
*Luke Walton: 2 PTS, 1 REB
Didn't do much. Played a fair number of minutes but did little offensively. Defensively he was in there guarding Leon Powe in his first stint on dominance in the second quarter.
*Sacha Vujacic: 8 PTS, 1 AST
Hit some big shots. Had all of his shots in the last 13 minutes of the game. Hit a Three with 5 minutes left to cut the lead to 14 and another with a buck thirty left to slim the lead to 6. Then got the chance to hit the big shot (for some reason) with 14 seconds left but had an off-balance look and got blocked by Paul Pierce.
*Jordan Farmar: 9 PTS
Played well. All 9 points came from beyond the arc. He shot 3- from deep. Two came in the fourth quarter. Played PG for a good stretch during the comeback.
*Ronny Turiaf: 4 PTS
Flushed down two Kobe Bryant-fed alley-oops and absorbed two fouls on defense.
In general, while the team came out firing and jumped out to an early lead, the defense was really the problem here. Paul Pierce had open looks for all the shots he hit. Ray Allen got the best of Kobe defensively and the Laker Big Men played soft, allowing Powe and Garnett to do a lot of damage. The play i which Leon Powe took the ball coast-to-coast was the worst "defensive" possession I've seen in the past few weeks. That was horrendously bad. Gasol and Radmanovic made essentially no attempt to stop Powe from going right to the basket. I credit Phil Jackson a lot for the 4th quarter comeback. I think he chose really good times to call timeouts and the team always seemed to come out of the timeouts better than before. Also, just looking at Doc Rivers' and Paul Pierce's faces when they were up big, you could tell they were enjoying the lead. The Lakers never gave up, or, more importantly, panic when down big and almost made a historic comeback. This also leaves them with a lot more confidence going back home. Had they lost in a blowout, it would have been hard to see this game even go 6 games. The Lakers showed very much that they can be better than this team. L.A. will be very interesting.
Now I'll look at the Celtics:
*Rajon Rondo: 4 PTS, 16 a**, 6 REBS, 2 STLS
Really scrappy, strong game. Rondo looked like a mix of Steve Nash and Leandro Barbosa out there. He was the fastest player on the court and really was very much a part of the big, decisive 3rd quarter run, as well as Leon Powe's career game. Rondo had some beautiful feeds down low and let Powe clean up the trash. He got to the rim really easily and did magic to feed the bigs down low. He pushed the tempo really well when L.A. had one of their slower lineups in and got his team a lot of easy fast break points. On defense he had a great play where he blocked 6'10 Vlad Radmanovic, rushed down the court and took Garnett's overhead pass to the hole. Biggest concern, that unfortunately I think will always keep him from ever really being a great PG, is his shooting. He can't shoot to save his life. 2-6 from the Line is putrid for a Guard.
*Ray Allen: 17 PTS, 2 a**
Allen had a typical "Celtics Allen" game. He clearly was the third option on offense and didn't get looks unless wide open. He's looking a lot like Wally Szczerbiak these days isn't he? Anyway, he hit big shots from deep and rolled nicely to the corner on every one of Rondo's drives to set up easy, wide open shots for him and his teammates. Defensively, he guarded Kobe Bryant and only once was ever badly beaten. (This was on the Spin Move drive which resulted in an up-and-under followed by a technical foul for Kobe.) Good job. I knew it was going to be a weird game when he missed the first FT of the game. The chances of Allen missing a FT are about equivalent to the Vegas odds of the Bears winning the Super Bowl.
*Paul Pierce: 28 PTS, 8 a**, REBS
Boy those Celtics fans really love this guy don't they? I think it's safe to say that the knee was barely hurt to begin with, considering there wasn't a limp to be seen out of Pierce. Also, if the knee was really a concern, Doc Rivers would have taken him out when up 24. Anyway, he had a great first half. He hit three big triples, including one from the top about 2 feet behind the stripe. He hit all 4 of his Threes for the game and every shot he drops gets the crowd involved. He also did a very good job distributing, illustrated by his 8 assists. He almost blew it for Boston, however. Fisher stole the ball off of him with 1:30 which ended up cutting the lead to 6. Then on the very next play he tossed an ill-advised pass to the sideline that Radmanovic picked off and flushed home. Then he completely redeems himself by hitting two very clutch FTs (he stalled his motion for a good 3 seconds on the 2nd shot). Following that up, he had the huge block on Vujacic's three that would have given the Lakers a one-point deficit with 14 seconds left had it gone down. I hope this game ends all this knee nonsense.
*Kevin Garnett: 17 PTS, 14 REBS
Kinda funny to call a 17 and 14 night a run-at-the-mill game, but that's the player Garnett has become. He struggled a bit with his jumpshot, but really dominated Gasol on the boards and seemed to gobble up every defensive rebound in stretches. He really had a pretty quiet game. I don't really recall much out of the ordinary for KG.
*Kendrick Perkins: 7 PTS, 3 REBS
Saw the least amount of minutes of any Celtics player who saw the court tonight not named Sam Cassell despite starting. Was relatively powerful down low and got to the line twice. Still managed two turnovers. His biggest issue was foul trouble, most of which weren't even in typical defensive situations but, rather, moving screens and off-ball aggressions. Not the smartest fouls in the world.
*P.J. Brown: 6 PTS, 3 REBS
I love the P.J. Brown pickup for the Celtics, but I never thought it would work out this nicely for them. P.J. essentially is the split starter with Perkins and delivered again tonight, exemplified by the crowd's reaction when he got subbed back out of the game. When he's needed that little 10-foot jump shot, Brown has proven to be a dependable option. Good game again for Brown. He's a guy I'd like to see get a ring.
*James Posey: 8 PTS, 3 REBS
Good game. Posey played just 20 minutes, but played every minute of the final stretch while subbed in for Perkins. Hit two Threes, including one with 3:38 to go that brought the lead back up to 16 and should have killed Laker momentum, really. Had the last 2 points of the game on two game sealing FTs.
*Leon Powe: 21 PTS, 2 REBS
Where do I start. Career Game. In the first half he came in, dominated down low against Walton and Turiaf and had 8 FT attempts in his 7 first half minutes. Announcers were impressed by 8 points in that span. The Celtics faithful were chanting his name during his second stint of action. Highlights of that included numerous Rondo-fed flushed, a coast-to-coast throwdown that Mark Jackson compared to a a Julius Erving play. (who Jeff Van Gundy subsequently mocked, although somewhat uncalled for, Doesn't Van Gundy seem like the most awkward person ever) Anyway, I think his most impressive play was a play in which he made a Duncan-esque move from left of the shoulder, seperating himself from the defender and finally hooking the ball over him into the basket. Had a phenomenal game, was the key cog to the Celtics' Third Quarter run and was awarded the player of the game. Great game.
*Sam Cassell: 1 AST, 1 STL
Didn't play much. Did manage to jack up two ugly shots, one of which was blocked by Theo Ratliff lookalike Jordan Farmar. However, after that very miss he hustled and got the steal seconds later which led eventually to a couple of FTs for Boston. All in all Rondo was having too good of a game to take him out of the game for very long.
The key the Celtics winning was pretty clear. They played exceptional team basketball. 31 of Boston's 36 FGs were assisted. A lot had to do with Rondo, who really was the unsung hero of this game. He drove magnificently to the basket the whole game, and the perimeter shots were open and went down for them. (9-for-14) Brown and, especially, Powe were great contributers off the bench. Powe had a life story piece on him broadcasters during half time and during the 3rd quarter run it became obvious that this was Powe's night. Pierce hit big shots early and got the team's momentum up in the first half that carried over past halftime. Allen and Garnett simply went out and did what they usually do. No significant Celtics player really had a bad game. However, their fourth quarter near-meltdown is a legit concern to the discipline of this team. That was a bad case of complacency that only really got resolved by the game clock. Doc Rivers I'm sure had some words about that. Finally, and this seems to be what the media has focused on, is that there was a big disparity in the number of times L.A. went to the line compared to Boston. (38 FTAs to 10) Boston won't have this luxury on the road these next three games.
What made this game great were a number of things:
*The teams shot a combined 19-for-35 from deep
*51 of the teams' 77 combined FGs were assisted. Boston, in particular did a great job of this.
*Unsuspected players stepped up big. Powe had 21 points. Rondo had 16 assists. Radmanovic and Vujacic made some big plays.
*Finally, the game started off sloppy, and there were a lot of early turnover. It had the makings of a really scrappy game. Both teams got it out of their systems quick and displayed very good ball security after the initial jitters wore off.
Los Angeles now has the really tough task of swinging this series, which will require them to essentially win the next three games, and follow that by winning another on enemy turf. It's going to be tough. They're going to really have to build a lot of momentum back home.
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