Lakers vs. Celtics prediction thread

[ateamstupid]

Originally Posted by IrishofNDMan

I would look at Kobe's track record and rethink that he sucked because of pressure. Kobe was just off plain and simple, "pressure" does not get to him. The guy is as clutch as they come, he just wasn't feeling it last night.

Reading is fundamental. Mr. ICU said "the pressure of team defense"..

[IrishofNDMan]

Originally Posted by ateamstupid

Reading is fundamental. Mr. ICU said "the pressure of team defense"..

Understanding is fundamental as well. I get that he said pressure of team defense, but that doesn't affect Kobe. His shots weren't dropping, I don't care what defense they had, it doesn't stop Kobe. The only thing that stops Kobe is when his shot is off, NO DEFENSE can stop the guy and it has been shown.

Originally Posted by IrishofNDMan

Understanding is fundamental as well. I get that he said pressure of team defense, but that doesn't affect Kobe. His shots weren't dropping, I don't care what defense they had, it doesn't stop Kobe. The only thing that stops Kobe is when his shot is off, NO DEFENSE can stop the guy and it has been shown.

He took very bad shots 1st quarter.
Hogged the ball late.

I expect him to right the boat if this season is
any indication of how much he has learned.
He did not get the easy jumpers he is used to.
And he did not get to the hole. I expect that
to change.
As far as Odom. He is your 3rd or 4th guy.
If he has to be a go to guy, or your 2nd guy,
he is a complete and utter choke. He is a talented,
dumb player. A great junk man that can pop a jumper.
He needs to clean up after Kobe, Gasol and Fisher
shoot the ball. And then finish on breaks. Thats what
Odom is best at imo. He will not win games for you
handling the ball trying to produce on his own.
Especially late in games. And he needs to rebound
by hanging on the the flppn ball. His hands were horrible
last night.
Another interesting change was Vuya (whatever)
handling the point duty when Fisher was in, in the 4th.
They need to get Fischer his jumper. He cant get his
own at point. Has to come off a pass.

And finally, even though Gasol did not have a great game,
the Lakers would not be in this spot without him. He has
helped on rebounding, defense, and scoring. Praise Memphis.

[King Glorious]

It's interesting the way people view these games. I keep hearing that this game was not typical of Kobe. To an extent, that's true. But then again, consider that he's played Boston three times this year and he's now shot 9-21, 6-25, and 9-26. That's a total of 24 of 72, 33.3%. As bad as he shot yesterday, he actually RAISED his percentage against them this year. Now, he's a great player and I do expect him to be better but last night wasn't as atypical as many people think it was. I'm reading about rim tricks and such. Amazing. As was pointed out, they do switch sides at halftime. I guess it could be possible that the entire arena emptied out at halftime and nobody noticed the leprechauns adjusting the rims during the break. The Lakers shot 41.6% from the field last night. Let's see. They shot 42.2% when they played in Boston earlier this season so maybe the rim tricks theory has some merit. Wait, wait. I'm reading that they shot 35.4% against the Celtics when they played in LA. There goes that theory.

So now, Boston has played the Lakers three times and won by 13, 19, and 10. Garnett has went 20-11, 22-12, and 24-13 against them. Pierce has gone 20-33-22. Allen has gone 18-19-19. The Celtics have held them under 43% shooting all three times and outrebounded them by 5,8, and 13. Yet last night was simply a lucky win for them because they toyed with the rims and because Kobe won't continue to shoot like that.

Originally Posted by King Glorious

It's interesting the way people view these games. I keep hearing that this game was not typical of Kobe. To an extent, that's true. But then again, consider that he's played Boston three times this year and he's now shot 9-21, 6-25, and 9-26. That's a total of 24 of 72, 33.3%. As bad as he shot yesterday, he actually RAISED his percentage against them this year. Now, he's a great player and I do expect him to be better but last night wasn't as atypical as many people think it was. I'm reading about rim tricks and such. Amazing. As was pointed out, they do switch sides at halftime. I guess it could be possible that the entire arena emptied out at halftime and nobody noticed the leprechauns adjusting the rims during the break. The Lakers shot 41.6% from the field last night. Let's see. They shot 42.2% when they played in Boston earlier this season so maybe the rim tricks theory has some merit. Wait, wait. I'm reading that they shot 35.4% against the Celtics when they played in LA. There goes that theory.

So now, Boston has played the Lakers three times and won by 13, 19, and 10. Garnett has went 20-11, 22-12, and 24-13 against them. Pierce has gone 20-33-22. Allen has gone 18-19-19. The Celtics have held them under 43% shooting all three times and outrebounded them by 5,8, and 13. Yet last night was simply a lucky win for them because they toyed with the rims and because Kobe won't continue to shoot like that.

These are so much diff. than regular season games they are not comparable.
82 games... Guys have to take nights off. The regular season is way too long.
And the playoffs are played at such a diff. level of intensity.
Look at the Celtics playoff record and compare that to their regular season record if you want stats...

Having said this, the Celtics played better and won.
I think the Lakers will win more than one game in this series
without Kobe going off and getting high 30's or 40's.

Fiddling with the rim is ridiculous I agree.

[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by pgardn

These are so much diff. than regular season games they are not comparable.
82 games... Guys have to take nights off. The regular season is way too long.
And the playoffs are played at such a diff. level of intensity.
Look at the Celtics playoff record and compare that to their regular season record if you want stats...

Having said this, the Celtics played better and won.
I think the Lakers will win more than one game in this series
without Kobe going off and getting high 30's or 40's.

Fiddling with the rim is ridiculous I agree.

I think that regular season and playoff games are comparable when certain trends can be seen. What the regular season showed is what matchups can and can't work. One that I think is in the Celtics favor is one I think they picked up on in the regular season and that's making Odom be more of a scorer than a playmaker. They back off of him and take away the passing lanes and make give him opportunities to shoot more. He's shot 28 times in the last two meetings, with two assists. I think that you learn how to play guys in the regular season so that if you meet in the playoffs, you have a blueprint of what you want to do. Some of the parts may change (ie Bynum was there earlier and now Gasol is and Tony Allen is not playing now and Rondo missed one of the games) but a basic idea is learned about how you want to attack certain matchups.

[Cannon Shell]

I thought the game came down to a few basic things
1. The Celtics kept the Lakers from playing at their pace (the Lakers only had 5 points off of turnovers)
2. The Lakers simply dont rebound very well and the refs were consistent in letting the play be a little physical under the boards which was key as the shooting %'s were so poor. Physical play absolutely favors Boston. When the game is fairly close and one team gets outrebounded 46 to 33 it kind of sticks out.
3. The Lakers shot 3's very poorly. Hitting those shots stretches the defense which is something LA needs to do to counter Boston's help defense.

Originally Posted by King Glorious

I think that regular season and playoff games are comparable when certain trends can be seen. What the regular season showed is what matchups can and can't work. One that I think is in the Celtics favor is one I think they picked up on in the regular season and that's making Odom be more of a scorer than a playmaker. They back off of him and take away the passing lanes and make give him opportunities to shoot more. He's shot 28 times in the last two meetings, with two assists. I think that you learn how to play guys in the regular season so that if you meet in the playoffs, you have a blueprint of what you want to do. Some of the parts may change (ie Bynum was there earlier and now Gasol is and Tony Allen is not playing now and Rondo missed one of the games) but a basic idea is learned about how you want to attack certain matchups.

Could be.
But the Celtics had not a clue how to cover
Joe Johnson of the Hawks. They went 7 games
with an under .500 team, mainly due to Johnson.
And they played Atlanta more than they did the
Lakers in the regular season. Did not learn anything
about this matchup. (They had Ray Allen???on him most
of the series and then tried Pierce). Could not stop him.
And he aint Kobe.

Guys play at diff. levels during this time.
Some step up, others look like they want
to leave the building. The best way to find
this out is in the playoffs imo.