Hahah! Rick Fox, wanna play on our side?

Mamba,

Mike T just emailed me and wants to replace ex as the bouncer at Xodus' wedding. Ex's calves are just too slim and veined. He won't get any respect. LOL.

Mike suggests that ex host Karl's bachelor party instead, where he will only have to deal with the ladies. I promised to forward the request but maybe this is a decision to be made by Xodus.

Tom

LakerTom,

Whenever I see that "Making of a Beast" video, I breaking out into laughter like a gibbering lunatic. Man, it will be good to get Bynum back.

GO LAKERS!

I remember watching that game. Those teams were fun to root for, because they wanted so badly to be out from under the Showtime shadow, but never had the true talent that would be required to leave those ghosts in the past. I fell in love with the Lakers in those years. I was too young for Showtime, but the early nineties got me hooked.

I miss listening to Chick Hearn.

Rest well Golden Throat.

It's nice to hear Chick's voice again. After all these years, without him, he still is, and always will be the voice of the Lakers.

On a side note, it's also weird to see Rick Fox in Celtics uni. I almost forgot that he used to play for them.

Me and my dad used to make so much fun of Elden Campbell back in the day. We thought he looked like a moose haha.

Lamar = Finals MVP

GO LAKERS

Lakers` fans are in deep denial.

As a Bostonian, I`m actually starting to get tired of all our victory parades. The traffic it causes is no longer worth it.

Why must we be "cursed" by having the best teams in Baseball, Football, and now Basketball!

Celtic fans are banking on their defense. They think that their assistant coach, Tom Thibodeau will be their secret weapon against the triangle of PJ and Tex. Thibodeau who? So guys, try to populate the Celtics Blog, they need a lot of posts out there.

http://www.celticsblog.com/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=64&topic=18794.msg296172#msg296172

The only edge of celticsblog is that they have a colored format, the letter are in green, there are background, ratings etc. But as far as posters, there are so many EX one liners in the Celtics Blog.

Again, Thibodeau who?

Korey,

I started my last post by asking if you were misunderstanding me or just disagreed.

You answered my question, thank you.

LAKER TRUTH.........................When does the TRUTH part begin?

Here's an interesting article from ESPN on how the Celts beat the Lakers twice this year. Has this already been linked? Forgive if so...

"Some general observations about how the Celtics managed to be so effective:

No Laker big man -- I'm including Lamar Odom in that -- has been effective against the Celtics. A lot of that is surely the Kevin Garnett effect, but Kendrick Perkins was also a monster, especially the first time the two teams met, way back in November. Perkins' whole stat line was pretty impressive (21 points on ten shots, nine boards, just one foul), but especially the part where it says his team was +30 during his 34 minutes on the floor. One game +/- doesn't mean all that much, but you seldom see such massive numbers. A lot of people now expect the Lakers to win. You have to think those people have a lot of confidence in Pau Gasol.
The Celtics, who play at a slower pace than 18 other teams, managed impressive totals of 104 and 100 points against the Lakers. In the two games combined they made 76 out of the 156 shots they took, which is nearly 49%. Many different players (Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, Kendrick Perkins, Tony Allen) contributed to that efficiency, which makes you think there might be something systemic at work, as opposed to a hot hand or two.
After the last time they played, Kobe Bryant was stating the obvious when he told the Associated Press: "They're one of the elite teams. They're at the next level. They're at the level we're trying to get to, and the challenge is there for us -- do we want to stay in this middle pack, or do we want to get to that next level? And that requires for us to kind of double the work load."

The main thing you'll notice, watching those two games, however, is that Kobe Bryant, the MVP, the maestro, the superstar, was a miserable 15-46 from the floor in the two games combined. Even though neither game was close, if Bryant had been remotely hot in either game, the Lakers would have been right in the thick of things.

Yet he was cold as ice. How did that happen? Who did that to him?

Tom Thibodeau vs. Kobe Bryant
Last year, the Celtics were not an elite defensive team. In fact, they were miserable. A lot has changed this year, as the team has the best defensive rating in basketball by a wide margin.

Certainly, one key was adding Kevin Garnett, who has been an All-NBA defender nine times, and was recently crowned the league's defensive player of the year.

But another massive factor was the addition of assistant coach Tom Thibodeau, who has been the talk of the league -- and a candidate for many head coaching positions -- thanks to the astounding team defense the Celtics have played.

The simple truth is that, anchored by Garnett, nearly all of the Celtics are displaying newfound commitment to defense and rebounding, which has been driving the team's big margins of victory through much of the regular season.

Boston is also blessed with a handful of perimeter players -- James Posey, Tony Allen, Rajon Rondo -- who have certain defensive gifts.

So, surely the Celtics must have been using their best defenders against Bryant, to get those kinds of results, right? That's the only way to slow the game's most potent offensive weapon, isn't it?

That's what I expected to see. A steady diet of James Posey. But as is often the case, the video tells a different story.

Instead, let me tell you that, in all those possessions, the Celtics almost never played great individual perimeter defense against Bryant. They only doubled him hard a handful of times, and even then mostly for shock value late in games. They went under nearly all picks, or simply got stuck on them. Even the weakest screen was more than enough to force a switch or get Bryant wide open.

Bryant's most common defender by far was Ray Allen who -- I'm telling you -- simply can not stay with Bryant. Oh, yes, he tried. And as you can see, in the photo, sometimes he managed to be in the neighborhood when Bryant got the shot off. But this was far from textbook one-on-one defense.

Yes, Tony Allen guarded Bryant some, when Ray Allen was out of the game.

When Ray Allen had foul trouble, Paul Pierce handled some possessions. He looks creaky on defense, and usually didn't even bother to meet Bryant until he got to the free-throw line.

Eddie House and Kendrick Perkins got their hands on Kobe solo in broken plays and scramble situations, for instance when the Lakers got offensive rebounds.

But it worked.

Through it all, most of the time, the rest of the Celtics' defense stayed in position to protect the rim and stymie the one thing Bryant can do that can kill you -- get in the lane, make easy shots, and draw fouls.

The hope, apparently, was to keep Bryant off the line, and on the perimeter. Sticking Bryant out there on the perimeter, alone against one of Boston's weakest defenders in Ray Allen (and a player who had, himself, been making Bryant look bad at the other end), was just the mother of all dares for Bryant. Triangle be damned. Bryant fired away.

This is the Jedi mind trick that Tom Thibodeau is playing on Bryant, who is a very confident long-distance shooter. You're leaving me, all alone, out here, with him?

It's not a new idea. For instance, in Jack McCallum's book Seven Seconds or Less we learn that a couple of years ago both the Sun and the Laker coaching staffs thought high-volume shooting from Bryant hurt the Lakers.

The Celtics have a real strength: Going to the hoop against Boston is tough. Perkins, Garnett, and Posey are all very active and capable. (Also, if someone besides Ray Allen were guarding Bryant, Allen would have to be a helper, and I'm not at all convinced he could do that very well.) Whenever Bryant got near the rim he was usually shooting surrounded by three or four long bodies, which resulted in runners, floaters, and scoops, instead of layups and dunks.

I should also point out that in both of these games, Bryant did not seem to have his usual elevation. Who knows what unreported ailments may have been dogging him at that point. But he was certainly not flying. At one point, he even caught a nice lob at the rim, and landed with it.

He has looked more spry recently, but while Bryant may have Jordan-like scoring numbers, he's certainly not getting them by dunking over big men. Not against Boston.

But who needs to fight to the rim, you can see Bryant thinking, when you can score all day against that guy on the perimeter?

Luckily for the Celtics, Bryant's shot was more than a little off, and he couldn't take advantage. Meanwhile, the Lakers' total offensive efficiency plummeted. A Bryant miss from deep doesn't get others open, it doesn't draw a lot of fouls, and it doesn't wear down defenders.

In the first game, in Boston, Bryant shot a very respectable three-for-six from 3-point land. But he also shot five very long two-pointers -- the least efficient shots in the game -- and only made one of those. Below the free-throw line, on the other hand, he made five of ten shots.

The second time they played each other everyone was angry. There were six technicals, and Kevin Garnett got stitches above his eye. The Lakers were also apparently cranky that, for the first half, they had to wear short shorts as part of a throwback theme.

Bryant took all that energy and put it into gunning. By my count, he took 14 shots from beyond the free-throw line and missed them all. Closer in he made six of 11.

The grand totals show that in the two games, Bryant took 46 shots, which he made into 50 points, thanks in large part to being 17-20 from the line. He had only six assists, in the two games combined, and none of his teammates really got all that hot.

From beyond the free-throw line, again by my count, he finished 4-25 over the two games, and not surprisingly, the Celtics won both games easily. That means, to me, that the Celtics will almost certainly have to keep trying this approach. It's a no-brainer. If you were going to tweak anything, in fact, you might urge Allen not to play harder, but to be even more careful not to foul -- as the free throw line is where Bryant has been most efficient.

That means Bryant ought to be getting plenty of good opportunities to score from the perimeter. His ability to hit those shots, or to turn the space he can create for himself into opportunities for his teammates like Pau Gasol, could decide the series.

The only reason Doc Rivers and Tom Thibodeau might pause, is that San Antonio essentially just tried this same thing in the Western Conference finals -- with an even better defender, Bruce Bowen -- yet Bryant shot very well as the Lakers rolled.

For that reason, ESPN's David Thorpe imagines the Celtics probably are at least considering plan B.

"If you're Gregg Popovich right now, you're thinking that you executed your plan about as well as possible. You kept Kobe Bryant off the free-throw line. You shaded off of him, and forced him to make a shot, instead of getting to the line," explains Thorpe. "But now that the Lakers beat you, you might be wondering if maybe you should have tried beating him up all series long. Putting bodies on him again and again and hitting him hard. Sure he kills you at the line in the early going, but what happens in the fourth quarter, or in Games 2, 3, and 4? As the series grinds on, that tactic could make you look better and better. It might not work, but at least you don't have to deal with Kobe Bryant look fresh as a daisy in the fourth quarter of every game, which happened against San Antonio."

Will the Celtics let Bryant fire away from long-range, and if so, will Bryant convert?

If the regular season is any guide, there's a championship in the balance."

OK...we cant let Kendric Perkins play like Tim Duncan. Gasol needs to DOMINATE if we're gonna have any hope at all. Fisher needs to DOMINATE. We cant let these second year players beat us.

Wes

Was that a Travis Knight Sighting?

This is what worries me:

"The Celtics have a real strength: Going to the hoop against Boston is tough. Perkins, Garnett, and Posey are all very active and capable. (Also, if someone besides Ray Allen were guarding Bryant, Allen would have to be a helper, and I'm not at all convinced he could do that very well.) Whenever Bryant got near the rim he was usually shooting surrounded by three or four long bodies, which resulted in runners, floaters, and scoops, instead of layups and dunks."--ESPN

We absolutely have to have quality play in the paint.

Wes

LEARNING TO LOVE ANDREW BYNUM
by Kurt from Forum Blue and Gold for TrueHoop

“The journey for Bynum from gangly high school player to the ‘guy who can dunk any lob pass, no matter how errant’ has been a long one.”

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-28-430/
Learning-To-Love-Andrew-Bynum.html

This is from last December but I never saw it when it came out. Great article on Drew.

Tom

LAKERS STILL FIGURING OUT THEIR MATCHUPS
by Mike Bresnahan for the LA Times

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-lakers3-2008jun03,0,7602020.story

**************

Fish on Rondo, Kobe on Allen, Gasol on Garnett, Vlade on Pierce, Lamar on Perkins.

Exactly the defensive lineup that I predicted when the Celtics have the ball.
Waiting to find out how the Celtics plan to guard the Lakers.
Cross matchups may be critical to this series if guys cannot find their man to cover.

**************

Here are some quotes from the article:

“Derek Fisher will guard second-year point guard Rajon Rondo and Kobe Bryant will start out on Ray Allen, but the frontcourt is a little unsettled.”

“Lamar Odom said he expected to match up against Celtics center Kendrick Perkins, who outweighs Odom by 34 pounds.”

“Pau Gasol will probably start out on Kevin Garnett, and Vladimir Radmanovic will probably draw Paul Pierce, though this is the type of series where defense-minded forward Trevor Ariza could get more playing time, probably against Pierce.”

Tom

Jon K

I love Ariza and think he has a great shot at starting next year, but I doubt he'll even get 10 minutes a game in this series. I don't think it's a matter of game shape, it's just that the rotation Phil's been using has worked quite well so far. I suppose that could change but I don't see it.

I think Kobe will take Pierce (does anyone remember who Kobe guarded earlier in the season). It doesn't make sense to me to have him guard Allen. He wouldn't be able to play much help defense (both because Allen is typically such a terrific shot beyond the arc and because Allen usually sets up along the baseline) and Kobe wouldn't be in the best position to get out on fastbreaks. Besides that Pierce would probably eat Rad and Luke alive (I do think that Rad's defense has improved significantly this year but Pierce is a terrible matchup for him). If Phil doesn't want to have Kobe putting in so much effort at the defensive end and puts him on Allen then Ariza might get a few more minutes.

Red`s Love Child,

"As a Bostonian, I`m actually starting to get tired of all our victory parades. "

Nice try, but those aren't real rocks in that sack you're holding. They're just sham rocks.

hobbitmage,

You may be right, but I'd sure like it to happen.

GO LAKERS!

man i miss chick...

giantsquid,
I agree. Between Vujacic' s improvement on defense, Ariza's lack of offense (compared to Vujacic) and his rustiness, the difficulties with working someone into the rotation at this point (in re to other players getting acclimated to him), particularly for someone brand new to the team and the offense, I think it is unlikely that he will get much playing time at all. That would probably change if he completely outshines the other SFs in practice this week, but I don't think that is very likely.

Jon K

Henry Abbott (Truehoop) has a very interesting take on Laker-Celtic matchups. Apparently, Kobe guarded Allen in the two regular season games and Allen torched Kobe. But I doubt Phil will change match ups for the series so Kobe will be matched up with Allen and vice versa (Kobe also didn't shoot very well in the two regular season games but that doesn't seem to have had anything to do with Allen's defense).

The key to that shot by Nick Van Smack is that it was the last ever Lakers / Celtics game at the Boston Garden. What a fitting end to the losers from Beantown!