While the dust has settled on Sunday’s match between the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers some were still left a little perturbed in La La Land over the result.
The day after the Celtics 109-96 victory in LA, Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak admitted that the Lakers might have to make a trade to stimulate an underachieving roster. Kupchak said, “I may have to look into a trade. We have not been playing up to our level and I don’t know why. Maybe it’s complacency. I’m not sure.”
Although it was a decisive victory for the Celtics over their archrivals, it may be a little premature for any overreactions on part of both sides. Let’s take a look at the 5 Ws.
WHO was the star?
Kobe was the game’s highest scorer but this was not a good thing. If anything it indicated all the flaws of the Lakers who rely on the one-man show. Lakers coach Phil Jackson said “they (Lakers) didn’t look like running anything offensively at times. Sometimes we fold into ourselves and give him too much space.” Kobe scored 41 points on 16-29 shooting without a single assist. In the fourth quarter, he took 12 consecutive shots. Gasol took the second most shots scoring12 points on 5-13.
Pierce strongly led the Celtics with 32 points, scoring 12 straight points in 6 minutes during the 3rd quarter. However, a healthy Garnett was a significant difference from last year’s finals with a double double of 18 points and 13 rebounds along with 5 assists. KG commandeered the paint and received a heavy knock to the head, requiring 5 stitches before halftime for his efforts.
WHAT was the difference?
The difference was that basketball is a team game. Boston showed the Lakers why it is important to play as a team in order to achieve team success. “When we play together as a team, we’re tough to beat," said Pierce. This was undoubtedly a total team effort offensively and defensively. Everyone on Boston contributed in the team performance as the Celtics shot 60.9 percent with 34 team assists.
Rebounding was a notable weakness for the Celtics against the Lakers last year and they addressed it in the offseason by getting bigger. On Sunday, the Celtics outrebounded the Lakers 43-30. The Celtics forwards of KG, Perkins, Shaq and Davis controlled the paint and kept the Lakers bigs of Bynum, Odom, Gasol out of the paint and at bay for the majority of the game.
Nate and Marquis also provided valuable contributions off the bench as Nate broke his shooting slump in scoring 11 points with 3 three-pointers in 14 minutes of game time.
WHEN did the game change?
After scoring 16 points by halftime, Phil Jackson switched Kobe from defending Rajon Rondo to defend Pierce. This left Rondo at liberty to abuse Steve Blake and Hollywood-acting Derek Fish-flop. Rondo directed the tempo of the game with 15 assists in the second half. With some solid team screens Rondo found open shots for his teammates including an in-the-zone Ray Allen who scored 21 points on 8-12 shooting with 3 three-pointers.
At one point in the fourth quarter the Lakers cut the deficit to 4 points. However, the Celtics prevented any repeats of last year’s collapse in the final minutes of game seven by executing on the offensive and defensive end with a 16-4 run.
WHERE do they meet again?
The Lakers visit Beantown next Thursday. In a space of 9 days, the Celtics face a gauntlet of contenders including Dallas, Orlando, the Lakers and Miami. The Lakers have “been there, done that” and knows what it takes to win.
"Is it the playoffs yet? No," Phil Jackson said. "OK. It's not the playoffs yet. We're still playing regular season games. We'll get there in time."
Phil knows a thing or two about motivating championship teams. They’ve won the last 2 championships. Until they get knocked out, one can reserve judgment on the credentials of the Lakers. At the very least, let’s all wait and watch what happens next Thursday.
WHY will (or may) it be different?
Injuries are sports mother nature and can cruelly determine a team’s success. Boston Coach Doc Rivers has strongly preached that his starting five of Rondo, Ray, Paul, KG and Perk have never lost a playoff series and holds the belief that the Celtics would have been victorious had Perkins played in Game 7 last year.
Albeit, it was only a regular season game but the victory was of importance to the Celtics. Pierce said "It is another game but it’s definitely an emotional game especially since losing Game 7 here. When we play against the Lakers it really get’s our juices going on they are our rivals. It’s a big game just knowing that we can come into this building and get a win."
Despite several injuries the Celtics have shown that they are capable of winning this year’s championship. However this teams success almost rests solely on its luck with injuries. It is imperative that Doc nurse them to the finish line.
