Kobe and Ariza will guard Paul Pierce mostly though Ariza. Radmanovic will start but play few minutes. Ariza will finish the games with Vujacic.

To close the games:

1.Lamar on Perkins (might switch with Gasol on and off)
2.Gasol on Garnett (might switch with Lamar on and off)
3.Kobe on Pierce (Kobe will sit early and Ariza will play big minutes against Pierce to tire him out and Kobe will play more when Pierce is on the bench. Ariza on Pierce to tire him out. Kobe should play big minutes with the bench mob in the second quarter when their defensive players are siting down. Phil should experiment for one game taking Kobe out with about 3 minutes left in the first quarter. He won't do this though.
4.Vujacic on Allen
5.Fisher Farmar on Rondo

troy,
"The almost all white Boston Celtics"

AS much as I dislike the Celtics, that's not very accurate. Off the top of my head, they had a black coach in KC Jones, Cedric Maxwell, Robert Parish, Dennis Johnson, ML Carr.
Red Auerbach could be a jerk, but he was also in the forefront in the 50's and 60's with bringing more blacks into the league.

A sports writer once wondered why Kobe Bryant sold more jerseys in China than Yao Ming. So he asked a Chinese basketball fan and the fan's answer was because Kobe Bryant is an exciting player to watch and Yao isn't.

The Lakers are both America's team and the world's favorite NBA team. KB24 is the most popular player in the U.S.A. and on the planet.

I have watched many NBA games in different cities around the country and what's always amazing is how many Laker jerseys you will find in the audience, in whatever city you're in (well maybe not in Portland, but they're the exception lol) How many times did we hear the MVP chant in any NBA city this year?

Everybody loves a winner and the Lakers are the winners. The Celtics were the winners in the 60s but the NBA was a minor league back then.

Basketball fans anywhere like to watch exciting basketball and the Lakers are the team that play the beautiful game. Showtime and Magic in the 80s. Now, the passing game of the triangle and Kobe's ability to do whatever he wants. The old pre-Shaq Suns were also exciting to watch but they weren't winners and were too one dimensional.

Defensive teams are boring. How many people watched any of the Spurs championship finals? Lowest TV ratings.

The only people rooting for the Celtics are Bostonians and a few dour New Englanders, and people who hate the Lakers because they are losers in life and just hate winners in any aspect of life. The people who didn't get picked for pick-up games. lol

Garnett's intensity is a drawback. He is so amped that his nerves are shot by the 4th quarter. It's like watching a person with obsessive compulsive disorder. By comparison, Kobe is not only cool but a cold Black Mamba by the 4th quarter.

I admire what the Celtics have accomplished this year and I am happy that they are back to present the perfect foil to the Lakers. Ali and Frazier. Bird and Magic. Each needed the other to elevate their game to its highest level. Thank you Celtics!

To Tom....

Why are you compating Boston Teams to every city under the sun to prove somehow that the Lakers and LA are better. You compare the Sox to the Yankee's, the Patriots to the 49ers, and the Celtics of the last 10-15 years to the Lakers. Talk about selective analyis!!

Last I checked:

Celtics have won more world titles than your LA Lakers.

Patriots have won more Superbowls than your ...Oh yes I forgot you don't have a football team because your fans leave at halftime.

Red Sox have won more World Series in this century and the last century than your Dodgers.

Also....

Celtics are 8-2 against your Lakers in teh finals all time.

Celtics are 16-2 in the finals all time.

Celtics this year have a better record and beat you twice....Gasol or not.

Celtics got this far and they are still figuring out how to play together.

You are all very scared and yet you don't admit it. Ghosts of Bill Russell, Red Auerbach, John Havliceck.....SCARY.

Bye Bye Lakers......your time is up....enjoy the run and see you later.

Wallstreet article on the Lakers...

It's easy to love a team. But to truly appreciate sports, you also have to hate.

I learned this lesson growing up in Los Angeles during the mid-1980s. Thanks to my dad's partial package of season tickets and the wonders of cable TV, I spent countless hours watching Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy and the rest of the L.A. Lakers of the "Showtime" era. At one point in elementary school, I owned five different Lakers T-shirts, a pair of Converse high tops featuring the Lakers' logo and had memorized the team media guide. (I was likely one of the few 10-year-olds aware that A.C. Green, the team's Jheri-curled power forward, didn't believe in pre-marital sex.)

Just as importantly, I detested the Boston Celtics. Before I had mastered fractions I knew all about the Lakers' unbearable tradition of losing to the Celtics. In 1984, as a second-grader, I cried after Boston beat L.A. in a grueling, seven-game championship series. The next year, I was at the Forum, the Lakers' faux-Roman arena, when Celtics guard Dennis Johnson nailed a jumper as time expired to win Game 4 of the NBA Finals. (A few days later, when the Lakers won the '85 championship in Boston, my brother and I nearly crushed my Dad – and our parents' bed – in celebration.) But the next year brought a double-whammy: I was in the stands as Ralph Sampson, the spindly 7-foot-4 center of the Houston Rockets, eliminated the Lakers from the playoffs with a miraculous, volleyball-style shot at the buzzer, and then watched the Celtics dismantle Houston for the title. It was a brutal summer.

During that era, I didn't just dislike the Celtics. My venom had layers. I couldn't stand Boston's plodding, physical style of play, which often stifled the Lakers' fast-break attack. I was annoyed that Tommy Heinsohn -- a former Celtic! -- was the color commentator for NBA games on CBS. And I despised -- deeply, truly, passionately -- every player on their roster: Kevin McHale and his Frankenstein shoulders; Greg Kite, a 6-foot-11 bruiser whose only apparent skill was fouling Kareem as hard as possible; and naturally Larry Bird, who was just so frustratingly good.

I loathed team president Red Auerbach and his victory cigars, but the Celtic who really made my blood boil was Danny Ainge. A whiny, wildly annoying shooting guard with a choirboy face, he constantly complained to the refs -- and had a penchant for making clutch three-pointers. He personified the Celtics' evil hoops empire. Meanwhile, I loved every possible thing about the Lakers. I imitated Magic's no-look passes during recess pick-up games and pulled my socks up high like Michael Cooper, the Lakers' toothpick-skinny sixth man. When my friend Mark and I played one-on-one, we would narrate the action like Chick Hearn, the Lakers' legendary announcer: A shot that barely missed was described as a "Heart-brrreak" and our rule was always "no harm, no foul." On a whim, my brother and I would hum the cheesy, late-Disco theme song that introduced Laker TV broadcasts. (And yes, I recently dug it up on YouTube.)

The games at the Forum were even sweeter. Outsiders like to mock L.A. fans for their tardiness and blasé attitude, but we sat among true zealots -- older fans who got there early, yelled at the refs and donned headphones to listen to Mr. Hearn call the action. The regulars in our row included a pair of paunchy women, usually in matching bright-yellow Laker jackets, who rarely smiled but always brought their own big bags of cheese popcorn. Directly behind us sat a large African-American man and his Asian wife, both of whom often came decked out in all-purple Laker gear. He loved to yell "Sweet Baby James!" every time Mr. Worthy slammed home a dunk. After particularly exciting plays, he just extended his big hand and implored me to give him five.

All of my sports-fan impulses -- love for the Lakers and hatred of the Celtics -- came to a head on June 14, 1987. It was no ordinary Sunday. The Lakers were playing the Celtics at the Forum in Game 6 of the NBA Finals. A win would clinch the championship for the Lakers, and it was our turn in the ticket rotation. My parents were out of town -- a trip my dad still regrets -- so my brother, a ninth-grader and not yet 15, called a cab to take us to the game. We entered the arena at least 30 minutes before tip-off, early enough to see Mr. Bird go through his extensive pre-game drills. What followed was the classic routine for playoff games at the Forum: The Lakers emerging from the locker room as Randy Newman's "I Love L.A." blared over the speakers; Jeffrey Osborne singing the national anthem; and the Lakers reserves leading the crowd in a slow, rhythmic clap before the introduction of the team's starting five.

My memories of the game are a little fuzzier. I do recall feeling very nervous and screaming repeatedly for the Lakers to "wake up." (The Celtics were winning by five at halftime.) But the second half was pure joy. At some point in the third quarter, Mr. Worthy dove for a loose ball near the sideline and tapped it to Magic for a breakaway dunk, which ignited a big run by the Lakers. I remember the fourth quarter as a parade of fast breaks by the Lakers followed by desperate Boston timeouts -- and ecstatic high-fives with my brother. With the game -- and championship -- in hand, Coach Pat Riley began taking out the Lakers' starters. The last one out was Mr. Abdul-Jabbar, the 40-year-old center who had scored 32 points. When he came to the sidelines, Mr. Worthy lifted him off the ground and the crowd roared.

After the final buzzer, my brother and I made our way down to the court and joined the celebration on the hardwood, where fans were holding up signs that said "Purple Reign" and "Party at Kareem's!" It's been 21 years since that Sunday, and L.A. is finally playing Boston again in the Finals. I'm still a passionate Lakers fan -- that is, unless I'm writing a news story about them – but I don't hate the Celtics anymore. After '87, I transferred the ill will to the Detroit Pistons, the Chicago Bulls, the Utah Jazz and all the other teams that vanquished the Lakers over the years. Times have changed: Chick Hearn died six years ago, Mr. Auerbach passed away in 2006, and the Forum is now owned by a church. I like the three best players on this year's Celtics roster -- Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen -- and I even saw Mr. Pierce play in high school.

There is still one villain from the good old days: Mr. Ainge, who's now Boston's general manager and executive director of basketball operations. I'm ready to hate him all over again.

What do:

Bill Russell
Sam Jones
KC Jones
Paul Silas
Jo Jo White
Dennis Johnson
Robert Parish
Cedrick Maxwell

have in common?

THEY'RE VERY OLD UGLY AND DECREPIT....

I love MH. Keeping everything as real as possible.
And I will always miss Chick Hearn. Very very Good people.
They both exemplify what we should strive for in our own selves. Live life to the fullest! Laker nation will love them

f o r e v e r

Say what,

To mention Dancing Barry, you must be an old fan maybe your concept of the Lakers that they are still playing at Fabulous Forum. Hey, nothing wrong with that, I just think Bostonians are out of touch on what is going on here in the West. You have no clue on things that happened lately so your parameters are the 80's or Shaq era. Had you mentioned Kwame & Smush era, then we know u're up to date with us. Seriously, try to evaluate the Lakers on the revolutionary change at the start of April this year, that's when they started winning against big guns in the West like: the Hornets, the Spurs, the Mavericks and others, that's the major transformation of this team. There is sudden surge of confidence that they could win it all. Indeed, they won at clean slate. The last time they lost at Staples was two months ago. Believe me, nobody in this blog embraced this team to win it all at the beginning of the season except for the employees of the F/O, however after Drew and Gasol transition, we all became believers that this team will reach more heights that we have not yet imagined. Forget the past season when Celtic beat the Lakers twice and move on to the narrow window that I described to you. It was a Laker phenomenon that brought us now to the Finals.

ei butler the eeediot . thanks for posting another of your nonsensical opinions.... your beloved gnash has never seen the finals light , so has your former mediocre coach duh antoni he left your mediocre team for more money , what has the regular season match up really means in the playoffs your toothless suns beat the spurs 3-1 ,yet in the playoffs you were roundly soundly and easily kicked out by the spurs 4-1.... before you post another inane item here, please check your brain if its half functional...

The best team wins. With Kobe & Phil on the Lakers side, it's hard to realistically imagine that the Lakers will lose this, especially if they win game 1.
Both teams are epic, but Boston didn't have to go through the defending champs. This will be a battle, but it just might be the Lakers time. KG is great, but Kobe is the best. LO & Pau w/Fisher & a scary good bench, as well as great passing, is going to unnerve the Celtics.
I can't predict the winner really, but I just can't see the Celtics beating this Lakers team that seems to be so in synch. They thought the last 3 series were tough, this is going to be REAL basketball now.

Boston guy is a homer.

BK is obviously the more intelligent and well spoken blogger.

No prejudice there!!! ;-)

GO LAKERS!!!!!!!!!

rick suaree

Celtics 8-2 gives them the mental edge??

I don't get it.

After controlling the early history NBA years, the Lakers finally took control of the series in the '80's and won the last two.

The Lakers would have won more from the Celtics, but as ALL Celtics fans know. The Celts disappeared off the Finals scene for 21 years.

While the Lakers continued to compete for titles, the Celtics were stuck in the bottom of the NBA's worst.

So how could the Lakers improve the record when the Celts were not a willing participate? They weren't even their.

What history shows is that the Celts have not been mentally tuff the last 21 years.

Edwin Gueco/tom/nik kannan,jon k, BLOG!,
about Vlad Man....

While he has played "OK" on D, I wont really give him credit for "locking down" melo or ginobli or whoever we faced.

I give him credit for the most part following the game plan and playing off of these guys. He's 6'10 so he doesnt need to play air-tight D, just give space and challenge shots.

that combined with the help D of Pau and Odom make the difference as you are shooting over about 6 6'10 hands when you drive on Vladdy.

BUT, if you leave Vladdy on a island then pretty much any offensive player with change of direction skills will eat our lil space cadet.

Sorry to say but true.

ON SASHA v. Pierce... We've got to understand Sasha is the great irritant. Sasha can get either Pierce or Allen ready to fight. So i say he takes turns annoying the hell outta both!

It's weird how much elitist hatred gets spewed by the Boston fans about how well their sports teams are doing now. You would think that after basically being irrelevant in sports for almost two decades, they'd be a little more humble about it. Guess not.

I suppose they could turn around and point to the myopic Laker fans who are predicting a sweep or to the Laker trolls going over to their websites and "teaching them lessons" but it's a shame that none of them actually would like to come here and debate what will actually determine who wins the series.

Korey, I agree with your observation that you can't leave Vladdy alone, perhaps that's the reason why PJ used him as the starter and Sasha as the closer. However, what Vladdy can do on offense, Walton and Ariza would have hard time to duplicate. During the Spurs series, Vladdy kept the Lakers competitive because of his rainbow shots which are money shots (outside of Kobe's) while Pau. LO and Kobe are at the low post ready for follow ups. Sasha is too small for PP, I say Ariza and Walton and Kobe will take the 4thQ. Vladdy has to train with a football team this off season to be a better defender next year. What's great with this team, there are still room for improvement at the peak of their youth.

I take Butler's comments as a blessing. If there is anything comforting about his posts it's that they are conssistently laughable and consistently wrong!! He's 0-4 this playoffs and 0-3 vs. the Lakers, and of course right as rain, he predicts a Pierce/Allen/KG thrashing, (not to mention the great coach Mike "Don't Ownany" Rings reference). I like our odds on this one guys!! Butler has just probably sealed the fate of the Celtics. Tell Steve Snatch and Amare Studymore I said "hello."

I'm sorry. But, Boston is often called the most racist city in America. I don't know if there is an empirical way to prove that, or not. There have been some egregious displays of blatant racism evident recently around the country. But, even if Boston is not the most racist, it is still within that discussion.

Some of it, of course, isn't really racism per se. Some of it is due to the old money dynamic which is alive and well in Mass. Boston is the hub of that, and almost all old money in this country is white. Just the way it is. So that can sometimes come off as racist, when it is in reality classist or elitist.

Does America really embrace this city like that?

I am Black and my Father's half of my family is from Boston, so the racism aspect I can attest to from first-hand experience. There is nothing second-hand coming from me on this issue. That is in fact one of the reasons I hate the Celtics so.

On the other hand, wasn't Russel the first Black coach in the NBA? But, then again, that was just Red being contrarian again, wasn't it? I can never tell with that story.

At any rate, it is a family feud with me. LA v. Boston splits my family in two. Just like UCLA (my Alma Matter) v. USC (my Mom's Alma Matter).

However, that racism thing weighs heavily on me, even though I spent some time being raised there.

So, when I say "hate". I mean that deep down, automatic hate. From the gut. The good stuff. What poetry and rap songs are made of.

I HATE the Celtics.

--Fearless

F the Celtics!

Boston vs. LA will be an epic series.

I'm sorry to insult you, however if you disagree, you probably know little about basketball, except for the regurgitated words of some co-worker you spew on here.

This series will be highly rated, not because it's the Lakers v. somebody and that it's destiny. It'll be highly rated because it stirs up memories of the two greatest teams of all time matching up against each other.

Minus the 10-15% of people on the board that actually know what they're talking about (and thank you to those people, you obviously know who you are, for making this an interesting read) I have never read more ridiculous things in my life.

just watch the games and enjoy the games. If you base your pride off of local sports, you should be wholly embarassed.

Lakers, cause New England should be rooting for Manchester United in soccer... and LA is two words: Show Time!!