Boston needs to mix in a zone

[Amarelooms]

the key is to force Ron Ron to shoot and get the Laker offense out of sync. I wouldn't even guard him and let him jack up 3's and long jumpers...same with Odom...play off of them

:elephant

[Medvedenko]

That can work, however the lakers had a good sense of Zone in Arizona and prevailed with Artest being the main lynchpin.

[JamStone]

A zone wouldn't have helped Paul Pierce or Ray Allen shoot better last night.

Lakers scored 91 points and shot under 45% from the field as a team, and for some stretches Boston's defense looked tremendous.

The Celtics have the personnel and talent to beat the Lakers. Defense wasn't one of the main problems last night. It wasn't perfect, but the defense was good enough to win the game last night if Ray or Pierce played better offensively.

[Killakobe81]

A zone wouldn't have helped Paul Pierce or Ray Allen shoot better last night.

Lakers scored 91 points and shot under 45% from the field as a team, and for some stretches Boston's defense looked tremendous.

The Celtics have the personnel and talent to beat the Lakers. Defense wasn't one of the main problems last night. It wasn't perfect, but the defense was good enough to win the game last night if Ray or Pierce played better offensively.

Series is FARRRR from over.

But here is what I see.

Ray's 8 3's only thing keeping this from 3-0 right now.
(but who knows down 2-0 Celts might win last night)

Tony Allen and Rondo together is a horrible backcourt from a shooting/floor spacing perspective. they are as bad at shooting as the shannon and Farmar combo are at passing and ballhandling.

As a coach I wonder how do you have NBA championship round guards that cant shoot mid range jumpers, pass or hit FT's?! From a fundamentals standpoint they may be some of the worst 4 guards in RECENT NBa finals history
(not talent wise before you flame me)

Although Pierce (or jon Barry) wont admite but ronron is affecting PP's game so far. He is getting in to foul trouble and the herky-jerky spin move drives are almost non existent.

Celts can STILL play great defense but it is at the sacrifice of offense. in '08 Posey hit clutch shots and played even better defense on Kobe than Tony Allen.

big baby has been the best bench player in the series so far ...AND Rasheed the best defender on Pau on the block. sheed just cant move his feet like baby outside. But despite this Celts are still down 2-1.

bynum defends KG better than Pau because when KG does his "counter" on the low block Bynum's length bothers him. Pau is the better close out defender on shooters.

Lakers have no respect for rondo's or Tony allen's jumpers and Celts little for Artest's or Lamar's .

Per k takes too long to gather and finish at the hoop

Kobe has played a good all around game in this series but his shot selection since game 1 has been poor.

Lakers need to initiate their offense earlier vs. Celts or kobe will end up taking a lot of shots ...they may need to put him in the post and have him facilitate from there ...

although many argue about well if Ray shoots normal ... but if you look at this series teh Lakers have built large leads in 2 of the 3 games and had wrestled control of Game 2 until the last 5 mins.

and though I agree with you Jamstone in theory that Celts have the talent to win... the matchups are not favorable for the Celts IMHO for the above.

[pauls931]

Ridiculous, Boston's problem is they don't have enough firepower. Or at least they can't win when 2 out of their big 3 are having crap games consistently. Particularly Pierce, he's playing well below his average level.

[DazedAndConfused]

It's almost as if you morons don't do one ounce of analysis before you past half of the retarded shit that comes from the pebbles you call brains.

The NBA is all about matchups. It doesn't matter how many games you won, how confident you are, or how well you are playing. If you don't matchup well against another team you will have a hard time beating them 4/7 times.

Unfortunately for Boston, they simply don't matchup as well against the Lakers as they did in '08. I'll run you through the main mismatches they enjoyed in '08

-Radmanovich/Walton guarding Pierce for the majority of the game
-Gasol having to guard Perkins
-Odom having to guard KG
-Pierce/Posey guarding Kobe
-Veteran bench vs. inexperienced Laker bench
-Celtics HCA

Now lets run those matchups again and compare them to present day:

-Artest guarding Pierce for the majority of the game
-Bynum guarding Perkins
-Gasol guarding KG
-Allen brothers guarding Kobe
-Odom going up against undersized Boston bench
-Lakers HCA

The only mismatch I see is Rondo vs. whomever LA puts up against him. That isn't going to be enough to swing the series IMHO. He's good, but not that good. The Lakers will gladly let Rondo play scorer all game as long as nobody else goes off.

[Killakobe81]

Great analysis Dazed ...I told the guys at my work the EXACT same thing you summed it up even better!

[Giuseppe]

Boston would never stoop to a zone. Ever.

---
"Although Pierce (or jon Barry) wont admite but ronron is affecting PP's game so far."

Killa, with the goods. Media has the hair shirt specifically for Artest. He made the putback Vs. the Suns, but, it was in a vacuum, same thing with the first quarter blitz the next game. Now the silence is deafening about his ability to put Pierce in the lock box.

Media has singled out Artest for the tree of woe.

It'd be swell to see Artest frog march every mother's son of Media to that same tree & crucify 'em.

[Darthkiller]

their defense has been good enough. it's their offense, pierce playing like crap all series, ray allen going 0-13, rondo isnt a scorer.

[BeeGee]

Um yeh. Basically, the Celtics miss Posey, who was a lockdown defender that could Bruce Bowen in the corner all day on offense and spread the defense. Also, don't forget how big Leon Powe was in 08. Eddie House? Those guys were huge to the Celtics run that year and they're being missed. In 08, Ariza was coming off injury and wasn't ready to play. Now Artest allows Odom to come off the bench to provide ball-handling and size underneath. Sheed is too much of a clown to play in the post anymore - he prefers to shoot 3s... Nate Robinson doesn't present any threat to the defense... Big Baby is decent, but is nothing the Lakers can't handle.

Celtic fans want to pretend that these are the same two teams that met in 08, but like Killa said, the Lakers could easily be up 3-0. Even with Rondo and Allen beasting last game, that shit was tied going down the stretch. This Celtics team simply doesn't have the offensive firepower to dominate the Lakers like it did in 08. I think we're gonna win another one in Boston and close thatass out at home. Vengeance is near.

[DesignatedT]

Boston needs more players to step up offensively on the same night.. Overall I don't think there defense has been the reason for giving up games.

[21_Blessings]

Boston needs more players to step up offensively on the same night.. Overall I don't think there defense has been the reason for giving up games.

You're right. Credit goes to the Lakers defense.

[21_Blessings]

Lakers defense > Celtics defense

Story of the series. The Lakers won last night playing Boston basketball. Smeared it right in their faces.

[Ashy Larry]

celtics defense has been very good. they had a brutal first half but in the second half, the lakers only scored 39,including a brutal 15 point 3rd quarter which almost cost them the game.

[DJ Mbenga]

celtics already play a zone, they just dont come out as obvious with it as the suns.

[DUNCANownsKOBE2]

The Celtics issue is LA's length neutralizing Rondo's penetration, that coupled with BOS's lack of spacing is causing even more congestion in the paint. They really miss James Posey and even Eddie House to a lesser extent. Perkins is such a giant liability on offense right now because Bynum never has to leave the paint and Perkins is so flat footed it's easy to recover when he catches the ball next to the hoop. This why Ray Allen needs to be on for Boston to have a chance.

[TheMACHINE]

Bostons defense is good enough to win as is. They just need to work on not going 0-13.

[Gutter92]

killa and dazed, those were pretty good analysis (how the fuck do you say analysis in plural?). The matchups favor the Lakers in every spot except POSSIBLY pierce>ron, and definitely rondo>fish...

[LnGrrrR]

The biggest change, for me, from 08 isn't the lack of strong 3 pt shooters besides Allen. (Though it does have an effect.)

The biggest swings are that Bynum is playing well, and Artest is really making Pierce work. Pierce needs to find a way to cause Artest either to foul or overplay him. I don't think there's an answer for Bynum, besides going Tonya Harding on him. :lol

[21_Blessings]

Been saying for two years how Bynum completely changes the matchup complexity of the series .

Just imagine if the kid was healthy. Lakers would sweep.

[bostonguy]

A HUGE reason for why Paul is playing like crap is due to the presence of Ron Artest. Lakers length is such a bitch to deal with. Lakers beat the Celtics at their own game last night. Celts simply don't have enough fire power. The D can only do so much.

After what I saw last night, the only question left to be asked is if the Lakers hold their trophy presentation at TD Garden or Staples Center.

[gmartin02]

killa and dazed, those were pretty good analysis (how the fuck do you say analysis in plural?). The matchups favor the Lakers in every spot except POSSIBLY pierce>ron, and definitely rondo>fish...
"analyses"

[Giuseppe]

After what I saw last night, the only question left to be asked is if the Lakers hold their trophy presentation at TD Garden or Staples Center.

Luva's basement. His mother gave him permission and bought us a case of Safeway Select Cereal.

[LnGrrrR]

After what I saw last night, the only question left to be asked is if the Lakers hold their trophy presentation at TD Garden or Staples Center.

Cmon BG, don't give up so quick. At the level of Finals, it's not all about skill. It's also mixed in with dedication, luck, and lots of other intangibles. Just have to hope that the Celtics can pull themselves up. We were 1 pt away from taking the lead in the fourth last game, and being up 2 games to 1.

Are the Lakers a better team? It sure looks like it. But it doesn't mean Celtics can't take this anyways. And if they do? It will be the third most satisfying championship for me in the past ten years (only beaten by the Sox 2004 run first and the Pats in 01')

[Agloco]

the key is to force Ron Ron to shoot and get the Laker offense out of sync. I wouldn't even guard him and let him jack up 3's and long jumpers...same with Odom...play off of them

:elephant

It would help if they mix in some 2-13 shooting instead of 0-13 as well. :elephant

[21_Blessings]

Are the Lakers a better team? It sure looks like it. But it doesn't mean Celtics can't take this anyways. And if they do? It will be the third most satisfying championship for me in the past ten years (only beaten by the Sox 2004 run first and the Pats in 01')

You already got one of those in 08 when Bynum wasn't playing. Not happening again.

This will be the most satisfying Laker championship since the last one. I'm sure another three-peat will be even more satiating.

[Agloco]

Luva's basement. His mother gave him permission and bought us a case of Safeway Select Cereal.

Is he at least gonna get rid of the urine stained mattress and sexual torture devices for the occasion? The voyuercams will prolly stay though huh? Can't miss getting his boys on tape celebrating another "well-bought" championship. :toast

Throw a few of those jello shots back for me would ya?

[SomeCallMeTim]

A zone wouldn't have helped Paul Pierce or Ray Allen shoot better last night.

Lakers scored 91 points and shot under 45% from the field as a team, and for some stretches Boston's defense looked tremendous.

The Lakers' offense looked like it was running in mud the 2nd half. Whole team just looked gassed, but you have to give a lot of credit, Boston plays hard on defense. They challenge everything, which just wears you down physically and mentally.

It makes you want to make safe passes around the perimeter and wait 16 seconds to initiate the offense, just to get a break, which is what the Lakers did time and again. Man they were fortunate to pull that one out in the end.

[Amaso]

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