Lakers Fans: Stop kidding yourselves, you got outplayed

[UCantHandleTheTruth]

Big time. I've seen all these Lakers fans saying they would've won if it wasn't for the refs. Don't be fooled by the scoreboard, you guys played terrible and the Celtics vastly outplayed you, regardless of the fact that the refs favored them in the 1st half.

If the refs had given you guys the calls, it would've been closer in the 4th but still no closer than about 12 instead of 24 or whatever and the Celtics wouldn't have just stopped trying on defense. You can't seriously think you guys came back with the Celtics going all out and playing their typical defense, can you? They thought the game was 7 and they stopped contesting shots. If the refs had favored you guys instead, they wouldn't have done that.

I can't believe some Lakers fans aren't more upset with their pathetic performance by their soft team and are giving their team a total free pass for not playing any defense at all. The refs didn't lose this game for the Lakers, your terrible defense, soft, euro team did. I also can't believe this team got by the Spurs, how did they let that happen?

[rasho8]

I despise both your teams. And the Lakers got jobbed.

Before the whistle started blowing every 5 seconds the Lakers were up and let by a good amount. After the whistle stopped blowing they came right back into it.

I dont want to hear no bitching from Celtic fan when the same thing happens in LA only the Lakers get the calls.

The Truth is this whole thing is a media money making bonanza, not a basketball series.

Sorry Celtics/Lakers fans... hope you enjoy your very own shiny *

[UCantHandleTheTruth]

A rasho fan, 'nuff said. Your opinion don't mean shit until you change that embarrassing username. Rasho is a ugly stiff.

[DazedAndConfused]

"Every SINGLE play up and down the floor has MULTIPLE fouls being committed by multiple players. These guys are in close, every play. They are beating the crap out of each other, and the refs see it. That makes me think that the game is called and paced exactly how the refs want it to be. I wondered aloud, a few times, how in the hell calls weren't being made against the Celts on a ton of plays in the paint where there was some serious pugilism being committed. There were a ton of 'non-calls' in my incredibly amateur opinion."

[UCantHandleTheTruth]

And rasho, Kobe averaged like 2 free throws per game against the Spurs. I don't want to hear shit from you about conspiracies. The Spurs were favored by the refs all series long against LA as well and 1 missed call doesn't change that.

The Spurs lost because they played terrible and choked two 17+ point leads. The Lakers were clearly the far better team in the series and the refs didn't cost you anything. You guys should be embarrassed at your own team for playing so awful, not blaming the refs/Stern.

[TheNextGen]

And rasho, Kobe averaged like 2 free throws per game against the Spurs. I don't want to hear shit from you about conspiracies. The Spurs were favored by the refs all series long against LA as well and 1 missed call doesn't change that.

The Spurs lost because they played terrible and choked two 17+ point leads. The Lakers were clearly the far better team in the series and the refs didn't cost you anything. You guys should be embarrassed at your own team for playing so awful, not blaming the refs/Stern.


Do you actually think the first two fouls on Kobe were legit?

[UCantHandleTheTruth]

Do you actually think the first two fouls on Kobe were legit?They were certainly fouls. Did I expect them to be called on a superstar like Kobe? Definitely not.

Anyways, clearly you missed the point there chief. My point wasn't that the refs did not favor the Celtics because they did. I was just pointing out that the Celtics completely dominated the Lakers for 3 1/2 quarters and the Lakers played like shit. The refs didn't cost them anything, because the Celtics never would've stopped trying defensively if the refs had called the game even or favored the Lakers a little. Instead of a 25 point Celtics lead, it would've been about 10-12 and the Celtics would've kept playing their suffocating defense instead of letting LA take uncontested 3 after uncontested 3.

[TheMACHINE]

You yourself admitted it was one-sided. That alone help Boston significantly. How can you play defense when everything is a foul. This is the FINALS...ticky tack fouls like those arnt suppose to be in the game.

28 more free throws..that 28 more posible points. Just hard to see this crap on TV, then a fan coming out trying to defend it.

[Pero]

They were certainly fouls.

:lmao

[TheNextGen]

They were certainly fouls. Did I expect them to be called on a superstar like Kobe? Definitely not.



Even Kurt Thomas wouldnt get those fouls.

[UCantHandleTheTruth]

:lmaoStudy up on the rule book, son. An elbow and holding a guy to avoid getting beat on a screen is a foul.

The elbow was a weak one and the refs aren't consistent with it (Gasol gave KG an elbow/forearm to push off move that went uncalled and KG gave one to Odom that went uncalled), but it's a foul. Just not one you expect to be called, even when at home, against a superstar/marketable Kobe Bryant.

[UCantHandleTheTruth]

Back to the main point: so Lakers fans...were you actually pleased with your teams play last night and thought you deserved a win? Or did you think you were playing poorly and the Celtics stopped trying hard on defense, allowing a comeback?

Because if you thought that was a good effort and your defense was even half decent: you're in a world of trouble and have no shot this series. You guys got outplayed by a big amount last night and the scoreboard showed it for 3 1/2 quarters until the Celtics let up.

I have a hard time believing that the way you played last night was the best the "historically good" Western Conference had to offer.

[Pero]

Study up on the rule book, son. An elbow and holding a guy to avoid getting beat on a screen is a foul.

The elbow was a weak one and the refs aren't consistent with it (Gasol gave KG an elbow/forearm to push off move that went uncalled and KG gave one to Odom that went uncalled), but it's a foul.

Please that elbow shouldn't be called in the finals. But oh wait, it was Allen, that explains it.

[DazedAndConfused]

How can you play aggressive defense when everytime you touch a Celtic it's an automatic foul? I'm talking about ticky tacks here.

My problem is with the consistency. If the Lakers are getting called for the ticky tacks the Celtics should as well. But apparently KG is allowed to whack Gasol across the arms, Kobe can get bumped and knocked around in the paint and have his off hand held back as he elevates, etc. You can't win a game when things are that disproportionate.

When the refs finally swallowed their whistles in the 4th it's no coincidence the Lakers were able to make a comeback. Don't worry you'll understand exactly what I'm talking about when the series shifts to LA. Get ready for 3 games of horribly biased officiating towards the Lakers.

[UCantHandleTheTruth]

Please that elbow shouldn't be called in the finals. But oh wait, it was Allen, that explains it.Buddy, you need to pay better attention. I never claimed it should've been called and I wouldn't want a soft/by the rulebook call like that going against Pierce. The guy asked if it was a legit foul and while it was a soft one, an elbow to create space is an offensive foul.

Grabbing a guy trying to come off screens is a clear foul and one that is even called in the finals. That was just a dumb play by Kobe, so was plowing over Pierce for no reason.

[UCantHandleTheTruth]

How can you play aggressive defense when everytime you touch a Celtic it's an automatic foul? I'm talking about ticky tacks here.

My problem is with the consistency. If the Lakers are getting called for the ticky tacks the Celtics should as well. But apparently KG is allowed to whack Gasol across the arms, Kobe can get bumped and knocked around in the paint and have his off hand held back as he elevates, etc. You can't win a game when things are that disproportionate.

When the refs finally swallowed their whistles in the 4th it's no coincidence the Lakers were able to make a comeback. Don't worry you'll understand exactly what I'm talking about when the series shifts to LA. Get ready for 3 games of horribly biased officiating towards the Lakers.The refs called several ticky tack fouls on the Celtics. The Celtics had 20 fouls as a team, the Lakers had 28. The Lakers fouls were just when Boston was in the act of shooting.

And you've gotta be kidding me with that last part. Not even a Lakers homer like you can believe you came back in the 4th because the refs stopped making calls. You came back because the Celtics thought the game was over and stopped trying defensively. They allowed you to take a bunch of open 3's and you guys got hot. Simple as that.

What's your excuse for game 1, when the game was called evenly and the Celtics still held the Lakers to 88 points and scored 98?

Face it, the Celts are the better team.

[DazedAndConfused]

The refs called several ticky tack fouls on the Celtics. The Celtics had 20 fouls as a team, the Lakers had 28. The Lakers fouls were just when Boston was in the act of shooting.

And you've gotta be kidding me with that last part. Not even a Lakers homer like you can believe you came back in the 4th because the refs stopped making calls. You came back because the Celtics thought the game was over and stopped trying defensively. They allowed you to take a bunch of open 3's and you guys got hot. Simple as that.

What's your excuse for game 1, when the game was called evenly and the Celtics still held the Lakers to 88 points and scored 98?

Face it, the Celts are the better team.

I never said the Celtics weren't the better team. We're talking about the refs right now, and you are wrong on all counts if you think ticky tack fouls were called on the Celtics. The Celtics outshot the Lakers from the foul line 26-2 through the 3rd quarter. It wasn't until the game was a blowout that they decided to make it up to the Lakers, at which point it was pretty much a lost cause.


30 shots by LA were layups or dunks. Boston had 18. Let's amend that somewhat by noting that the Celtics were the recipients of a number of 2-shot shooting fouls. They were credited with SEVENTEEN shooting fouls - LA got THREE. If we were to give every one of Boston's 2-shot fouls to the Celtics as a 'layup' or 'dunk' attempt (they had 14), that gives them 32 shots at the rim. Both of LA's two-shot attempts were on layups, I believe (one by Fisher, one by Bryant). That gives LA 32 shots at the rim. Gasol and Odom had 16 of them, and received, again, one foul shot for their troubles.

I'll reiterate simply because it bears repeating: Exactly even at the rim in shot attempts. Seventeen shooting fouls to three. On a night when the two teams took the exact same number of shots at the rim. That's not bad, that's borderline absurd. You pretend like the officiating got better in the second half? First half: 19-2, Boston. Second half: 19-8, Boston. Oh good, the Lakers got 6 extra free throws. "Fouls at the end of the game" don't hold water, because LA only fouled once on Posey - let's take that out. 17-8 in the second half, despite long stretches that saw LA play more at being matadors than at defenders because they were trying to avoid getting called for fouls!

I don't expect LA necessarily be -ahead- in free throws. But one expects them to be within, oh, I don't know, twenty? Fifteen too much to ask, perhaps? You're calling out Odom - maybe he struggled because every time he tried to go in the lane, he got hammered or called for an offensive foul? The same is true of Gasol, who admittedly allowed the officiating to take him out of the game - but it took him out of the game because it was so egregiously bad that he attempted 11 shots right in the paint amidst a significant amount of contact, and was rewarded with one foul shot.

Lost in all of this is the fact that Kobe actually played really well against the "Kobe stopper" Boston defense. 30 points on 23 shots is plenty efficient (that's just as efficient as 39 points on 30 shots, which was how he played in game 5 against the Spurs, when everybody couldn't stop talking about how well he played). He tossed in 8 assists to boot. All this despite being saddled with 3 fouls early, all of which were on the floor. I don't know that being "MVP" is worth the 20 or so FTAs it seemed to be against Utah, but, really, Kobe gets called for ticky-tack stuff 3x in the first half while Leon Powe spends his first 10 minutes in the game shoving Pau Gasol half into the stanchion every time down the court!

The 'comeback' almost buries the story more than it should, because the fact is that the officiating killed the Lakers. It pulled Kobe out of the game early, and as soon as he left the early LA lead evaporated (Lakers were up by 1 when he left, were down by 8 when he returned). When he got his 3rd on yet another nonsense call (I was unaware that being shoved into Paul Pierce by PJ Brown was considered a foul, but hey, I'm not an NBA ref - on the flipside, I can see better than Stevie Wonder, which seems to be something they all lack), the Celtics extended a 7-point lead to 12 at the half. And you're fooling yourself if you don't think that the tight officiating (at the Lakers' end, and ONLY at the Lakers' end, for the 2nd quarter) didn't affect how LA played defense for the remainder of the game.

[angelbelow]

i hate both teams as well, and i honestly did not see a tremendous amount of bad calls. the lakers love to "flop" and overreact, as do the spurs. every play looks like a foul, i saw many replays in slow mo where the lakers werent even touched, including the kobe technical one. the celtics won fair and square imo.

[UCantHandleTheTruth]

A. That's from a biased source. PJ Brown didn't throw Kobe into Pierce. Kobe was getting double screened all game, wasn't playing well offensively and Ray was about to get an open jumper, so he plowed into Pierce. Dumb foul and obvious foul.

B. Those shots in the paint stats mean shit to me. Rondo was abusing Fisher, pulling the Lakers bigs out of position and dishing to Powe, who they had to foul or give a layup. Pierce also got Powe several free throw attempts with dribble penetration and dishing. The Celtics perimeter defense was significantly better, weren't pulling their bigs out of position by getting beat off the dribble every time and the Celtics were able to play much better defense without fouling.

It's really no surprise the Celtics got quite a few more free throws. It was at home and the Lakers perimeter defense was nothing short of atrocious, forcing their bigs to help out all game, pulling them out of position so Leon Powe could erupt for 21 points while missing 1 field goal attempt all game. Should it have been 38-10? Of course not, that was so home cooking, but the Celtics were far more aggressive with their dribble penetration and it led to free throw attempts.

C. Kobe has already come out and essentially admitted he was going to be a jump shooter this series by saying the Celtics defense forces you into being one after game 1. Don't expect 20+ free throw attempts consistently like against Utah.

Speaking of which, after that series, Lakers fans have no right to ever complain about officiating not going their way until they admit they were HANDED that series and a WCF trip.

[Spur-Addict]

This is the playoffs, not the reg season. Man up, and no, I didn't complain about fouls in the forums when SA was still alive. Certainly there were fouls, but players must adjust and so must coaches. If there idea of adjusting is complaining, then so be it.

[Spur-Addict]

Also, it's impossible to make every call. I'll tell you what I did see, I saw Odom shut down. KG had him on smash. Pau can't be stopped by KG. But Odom was no where to be found. Fisher is a jump shooter, I didn't see much from him as well. Pau did work, so did Kobe, your cast will play better at home, that's what those young kids can do. If Boston gets a bench performance like that on the road in one of the next two games, you can forget this series.

[The Franchise]

A week ago this was a Laker sweep and the start of a Dynasty wasn't it? Kobe was better than Jordan and nobody could challenge this teams supremacy was the company line. These Celtics were an afterthought on their way to a title huh. Reality is a bitch!!!! :lol

[DazedAndConfused]

A week ago this was a Laker sweep and the start of a Dynasty wasn't it? Kobe was better than Jordan and nobody could challenge this teams supremacy was the company line. These Celtics were an afterthought on their way to a title huh. Reality is a bitch!!!! :lol

Yes reality is a bitch. The Lakers got to the Finals without Bynum and the Rockets yet again went fishing in the 1st round. You are one feisty little Rocket fan, trying to talk smack with the big boys. Run along now.

[The Franchise]

Yes reality is a bitch. The Lakers got to the Finals without Bynum and the Rockets yet again went fishing in the 1st round. You are one feisty little Rocket fan, trying to talk smack with the big boys. Run along now.

I will oblige you after two more Boston victories.

[endrity]

Just wait Celtic fan. Most Mavs felt the same after the first two games in 06, and then Wade got 'the treatment'. After all the talking the Lakers have done I would not be surprised to see Kobe get the same in LA.

[MateoNeygro]

And rasho, Kobe averaged like 2 free throws per game against the Spurs. I don't want to hear shit from you about conspiracies. The Spurs were favored by the refs all series long against LA as well and 1 missed call doesn't change that.

The Spurs lost because they played terrible and choked two 17+ point leads. The Lakers were clearly the far better team in the series and the refs didn't cost you anything. You guys should be embarrassed at your own team for playing so awful, not blaming the refs/Stern.

CHiLL man yeah ya'll beat the spurs or whatever but you should probably stop falling back on that, cause the CELTICS are owning the Lakers i really thought the lakers would win it easy. But the Celtics are shitting on LA so sorry hahah SPURS 09 CHAMPS:flag:

[Lakers08Champs]

CHiLL man yeah ya'll beat the spurs or whatever but you should probably stop falling back on that, cause the CELTICS are owning the Lakers i really thought the lakers would win it easy. But the Celtics are shitting on LA so sorry hahah SPURS 09 CHAMPS:flag:

09 champs spur my ass, your team is too old to compete even in the WEST, so quit kidding yourself!! :lmao

[MadDog73]

09 champs spur my ass, your team is too old to compete even in the WEST, so quit kidding yourself!! :lmao

Yeah, making it to the WCF isn't "competing."

Whatever. Hope you guys get swept (but the refs won't allow it, so Celtics in 6).

[Medvedenko]

Yup, the lakers have been outplayed, no kidding...