Guajalote
06-13-2008, 11:23 PM
Be A Man! Suck it up and take responsibility!:nope No way I want this guy on the Spurs now.
C's One Win Away From Proving Defense Wins Championships
By Chris Sheridan
ESPN.com
(Archive)
LOS ANGELES -- Defense wins championships, and the Celtics played D like the champs they almost are.
Sasha Vujacic's defense? Well, let's just say if we knew the Slovenian word for matador, we'd be typing it right here.
Whether you call Boston's 97-91 victory Thursday night in Game 4 of the NBA Finals an epic comeback by the Celtics or an epic collapse by the Lakers, there was one play that encapsulated the night-and-day difference between the defensive capabilities of the two teams.
It came late in the final minute of the fourth quarter, long after the Celtics had erased every last bit of an early 24-point deficit. The Lakers needed a stop, the Celtics needed a score, and Ray Allen found himself with the ball at the top of the key, isolated against Vujacic, with Kevin Garnett starting to come out top to set a screen.
"Paul [Pierce] was exhausted, and you could see it. He didn't want to come to the ball. It was really supposed to be a middle pick-and-roll with Kevin and Ray, and Ray waved Kevin off because he liked the matchup that he had, so he didn't want to bring in another defender to help," Boston coach Doc Rivers said. "It was a great call by Ray, and then him getting to the basket was huge. The layup was just tremendous."
The layup wasn't merely tremendous, putting Boston ahead 96-91, it was practically uncontested.
Vujacic simply allowed Allen to drive around him, waving a hand toward Allen's midsection but failing to move his feet to deny Allen the lane, and no help defenders came over in time to seriously contest the shot.
"The whole game, from the minute I came in, they called fouls on me. He fell down, foul. I was trying to find a way to guard him for 48 minutes, and everything I did was a foul. He got me. He went to the basket, and it was a good basket. I don't know what else to say," Vulajcic said, half-forlorn, half-disgusted as he stood in front of his locker in a morose Lakers dressing room.
Did he expect Allen to drive left instead of right? Did he expect stronger help to come?
"I wanted to stay with him, I wanted to stay aggressive, but again, there would be a foul. So I kind of stood back, I gave him the room to operate, and he went to the basket, so that was a bad defensive decision on my side," Vujacic said. "It doesn't matter, help or not, we came out and were supposed to be more aggressive, and not let him breathe at the top of the key. It's a tough loss, it hurts, but we're not done yet." :ihit
Well, the Lakers will be done -- perhaps Sunday, perhaps back in Boston next Tuesday or next Thursday -- if they don't find a way to get their offense back into whatever gear it was they found in the first quarter in opening a 35-14 lead, scoring two more points in those 12 minutes than they would in the entire second half.
Lamar Odom was 6-for-6 in the opening period and 7-for-7 at halftime when Los Angeles still held a 58-40 lead and was dominating virtually every statistical category (outshooting Boston 50 to 35 percent, outrebounding the Celtics 26-16, outassisting them 15-4 and holding a 14-1 edge in second-half points.
But Boston outscored the Lakers 31-15 in the third quarter (for the series, they've outscored Los Angeles by an average of almost 11 points in the third quarters) to cut the deficit to two, then went ahead for good when Eddie House knocked down an 18-footer with 4:07 left.
From there, Boston held Los Angeles to three buckets, the last of which -- a dunk by Pau Gasol with 40 seconds left -- preceded the key possession on which Allen was isolated against Vujacic.
"Kevin ran up to set a screen, and as he was setting the screen, I told him: 'Let me take him one-on-one,'" Allen said. "I made my move, and I looked up and he was behind me, and I had the whole basket free and clear."
The layup gave Allen the last of his 19 points on a night when the Celtics also got 20 points from Pierce, 16 from Garnett and a totally unexpected 18 from James Posey.
But the numbers that really made the difference for Boston were reflected in the second-half totals: holding the Lakers to 33 points on 33 percent shooting, outrebounding them 24-15 and knocking down four 3-pointers to the Lakers' zero.
"We let a huge opportunity slip away, so I'm upset, hurt disappointed. It's a huge loss, no doubt about it," Kobe Bryant said. "It was terrible."
Yes it was, unless you were watching that game clad in green and white. For Celtics' fans, there was nothing terrible about it.
And with one more win, we'll be talking all summer about how defense -- and Vujacic's lack thereof -- was a major, major reason why a 17th banner will be hanging from the rafters at the new Boston Garden.
C's One Win Away From Proving Defense Wins Championships
By Chris Sheridan
ESPN.com
(Archive)
LOS ANGELES -- Defense wins championships, and the Celtics played D like the champs they almost are.
Sasha Vujacic's defense? Well, let's just say if we knew the Slovenian word for matador, we'd be typing it right here.
Whether you call Boston's 97-91 victory Thursday night in Game 4 of the NBA Finals an epic comeback by the Celtics or an epic collapse by the Lakers, there was one play that encapsulated the night-and-day difference between the defensive capabilities of the two teams.
It came late in the final minute of the fourth quarter, long after the Celtics had erased every last bit of an early 24-point deficit. The Lakers needed a stop, the Celtics needed a score, and Ray Allen found himself with the ball at the top of the key, isolated against Vujacic, with Kevin Garnett starting to come out top to set a screen.
"Paul [Pierce] was exhausted, and you could see it. He didn't want to come to the ball. It was really supposed to be a middle pick-and-roll with Kevin and Ray, and Ray waved Kevin off because he liked the matchup that he had, so he didn't want to bring in another defender to help," Boston coach Doc Rivers said. "It was a great call by Ray, and then him getting to the basket was huge. The layup was just tremendous."
The layup wasn't merely tremendous, putting Boston ahead 96-91, it was practically uncontested.
Vujacic simply allowed Allen to drive around him, waving a hand toward Allen's midsection but failing to move his feet to deny Allen the lane, and no help defenders came over in time to seriously contest the shot.
"The whole game, from the minute I came in, they called fouls on me. He fell down, foul. I was trying to find a way to guard him for 48 minutes, and everything I did was a foul. He got me. He went to the basket, and it was a good basket. I don't know what else to say," Vulajcic said, half-forlorn, half-disgusted as he stood in front of his locker in a morose Lakers dressing room.
Did he expect Allen to drive left instead of right? Did he expect stronger help to come?
"I wanted to stay with him, I wanted to stay aggressive, but again, there would be a foul. So I kind of stood back, I gave him the room to operate, and he went to the basket, so that was a bad defensive decision on my side," Vujacic said. "It doesn't matter, help or not, we came out and were supposed to be more aggressive, and not let him breathe at the top of the key. It's a tough loss, it hurts, but we're not done yet." :ihit
Well, the Lakers will be done -- perhaps Sunday, perhaps back in Boston next Tuesday or next Thursday -- if they don't find a way to get their offense back into whatever gear it was they found in the first quarter in opening a 35-14 lead, scoring two more points in those 12 minutes than they would in the entire second half.
Lamar Odom was 6-for-6 in the opening period and 7-for-7 at halftime when Los Angeles still held a 58-40 lead and was dominating virtually every statistical category (outshooting Boston 50 to 35 percent, outrebounding the Celtics 26-16, outassisting them 15-4 and holding a 14-1 edge in second-half points.
But Boston outscored the Lakers 31-15 in the third quarter (for the series, they've outscored Los Angeles by an average of almost 11 points in the third quarters) to cut the deficit to two, then went ahead for good when Eddie House knocked down an 18-footer with 4:07 left.
From there, Boston held Los Angeles to three buckets, the last of which -- a dunk by Pau Gasol with 40 seconds left -- preceded the key possession on which Allen was isolated against Vujacic.
"Kevin ran up to set a screen, and as he was setting the screen, I told him: 'Let me take him one-on-one,'" Allen said. "I made my move, and I looked up and he was behind me, and I had the whole basket free and clear."
The layup gave Allen the last of his 19 points on a night when the Celtics also got 20 points from Pierce, 16 from Garnett and a totally unexpected 18 from James Posey.
But the numbers that really made the difference for Boston were reflected in the second-half totals: holding the Lakers to 33 points on 33 percent shooting, outrebounding them 24-15 and knocking down four 3-pointers to the Lakers' zero.
"We let a huge opportunity slip away, so I'm upset, hurt disappointed. It's a huge loss, no doubt about it," Kobe Bryant said. "It was terrible."
Yes it was, unless you were watching that game clad in green and white. For Celtics' fans, there was nothing terrible about it.
And with one more win, we'll be talking all summer about how defense -- and Vujacic's lack thereof -- was a major, major reason why a 17th banner will be hanging from the rafters at the new Boston Garden.