A victory is just what the doctor ordered for this team to get its swagger back. There are two websites that liveblogged the entire game and i think they gave a great account of the whole thing; truehoops' Henry Abbott, David Thorpe, Mike Moreau, and Dr. Jack Ramsay gave a great play-by-play, and insidehoops.com's liveblog was alot less detailed, but also pretty good. i think Kobe had the mindset to ruin this game for the Celtics, he was about to absolutely go berserk when he scored 15 points in the first quarter and the Lakers raced out to a 39-22 lead at the end of the first quarter. But Kobe sat during the first 6 minutes of the 2nd quarter and i have a serious question....WHY oh WHY did Phil Jackson put CHRIS MIHM in the game?! WHY did he put the pillow-soft no-skilled white guy in the NBA Finals during an elimination game? I mean seriously, its too late to be experimenting, that guy is not gonna have a positive impact on the game, he is lucky to have been in a Paul Pierce highlight, getting a 3-point play on his soft head.
the Celtics, mostly Paul Pierce, went on a 18-4 run, so when Lamar Odom finally stepped up to make a driving layup the score was 45-39. The Celtics finished with another mini-run and at halftime the score is 55-52.
Paul Pierce 21 pts 4 rebs 4 asts, Kobe Bryant 15 pts 3 rebs 3 asts.
I've gotta say, this is a recurring trend, the Paul Pierce factor is way bigger than the KG factor in this series. I will not make the blasphemous statement of Paul Pierce is better than Kobe Bryant, but Paul almost certainly has played more efficiently and is playing against softer defense than Bryant, but Bryant does not have 2 perennial all-star franchise players by his side so Bryant is still more talented than Pierce, that's undisputed. But, Pierce is having a better NBA Finals than Kobe Bryant right now, until and unless the Lakers win in Boston at least once.
Okay, so onto the second half, where the Lakers won the first third quarter against the Celtics of all the NBA Finals. It actually started with a Lamar Odom right handed layup, then the Celtics got a layup from Ray Allen, then Tony Allen which tied the game at 57-57, drawing loud cheers from the suprising number of Celtics fans in the house at Staples Center. Kevin Garnett backs down Gasol and makes a easy move on him, 59-57, Kobe Bryant scores and gets fouled, 60-59. Pierce gets fouled, makes 1 of 2 free throws, 60-60. By that time Garnett picks up his 4th foul and heads to the bench, which is when LA went on its run led by Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol, not too much Kobe Bryant, to make the score 79-70 going into the 4th.
Then the Lakers came out hard in the 4th, starting with a Lamar Odom 3 pointer! Only his third of the entire playoffs, the Celtics tried to make a comeback, and when the score was 97-95 with Pierce with the ball, Kobe stole the ball, Lamar passed to him, and Kobe dunked to make the score 99-95. Kevin Garnett missed 2 HUGE free throws before that though, and that would have tied the game, boo-hoo big nigga, now we're heading back to Boston down 3-2, but with all the confidence in the world. The Celtics are thinking close them out in GAME 6, the Lakers are thinking, all we gotta do it win this one game.
i said it before ill say it again, the Celtics don't wanna see KOBE in a game 7 of the NBA Finals.
Lakers in 7
No comments:
Post a Comment