2-1, but . . .
I'm not sure if I'm alone in this, but I felt much more comfortable about this series after watching the Lakers lose Game 2 than I do now after watching them win Game 3. After Game 2, well, you read the review, but to sum it up in one blurb, here was my feeling going into Game 3: Kobe will go off, our role players will execute and play with energy at home, and we will get every call.
I'm not quite sure what to say about Game 3. Watching the Lakers win Game 3 was like watching a buddy pick the Rosie O'Donnell look-a-like to hit on out of a group of cute girls and then make his way over to the dance floor with her. Sure, he's dancing with a girl, but after his alcohol level comes down and the lights go on at 1:30 . . . we've all been there. Then, of course, the next day, all of the guy's friends are calling each other to talk about his making out with the field hockey girl. So here's my question, your friend made out with a girl last night, she looked like Mrs. Doubtfire, is it still a confidence boost for him? Are his friends celebrating that he at least broke his slump, all be it in Mark Grace fashion? Sure the Lakers won, but in relaying texts with some friends, and talking about the game as it wound down with my Dad, sister, and my friend Ornstein, it was almost as if the Lakers hadn't won at all. It was at best a sigh of relief.
First the good news. The Lakers did make some solid adjustments. KG was no longer getting wide open jumpers at the free throw line. Every shot he took inside of 22 feet was contested. I don't think KG played horribly as much as the Lakers keyed on him. Next, the Lakers minimized the amount of important time that Vladimir Radmanovic spent isolated on Pierce. Any time the Lakers needed stops it was either Kobe or a double team. My favorite adjustment was taking Rondo out of the game by leaving him wide open. I LOVED watching Kobe guard Rondo with one foot inside the key at all times. Please Rondo, shoot the ball. Rondo didn't even play the last few minutes because whoever was guarding him could just doubleteam the ball and leave Rondo wide-open. And, every time someone set a screen for him, no matter where it was on the floor, his defender would go under it, even if it meant getting stuck under an illegal KG screen that lasted 4.5 seconds. Unfortunately, that didn't lead to more time for Sam Cassell as we all had hoped for. I celebrated again watching Cassell's first shot go in because, guess what, he took four shots in less than seven minutes, the most shot attempts per minute on his team. I love him. His bucket was well worth it as a Lakers fan. Last piece of good news: Sasha. I now want him in the game at all times. I would hate to be guarded by him (if you golf, think of trying to putt on the first green at 7:30 a.m. when there are 100 gnats flying around the brim of your hat and you don't have any bug spray). Moreover, I always think it's going in when Sasha shoots a wide-open shot. I'm sure there are a few other tidbits of good news, but I'm too pessimistic to think of them.
On to the bad news. Here's a text from my friend Gavin at halftime: "Earth to Odom. Do you copy? Gasol needs to go change his maxi pad in the locker room at halftime." Couldn't have said it any better myself. Gasol finally committed a hard foul, but I guess he got a hangnail in the process because the camera showed him sucking his thumb right after he committed the foul, literally. I know the Lakers aren't playing in the Finals without Pau, but c'mon man, the entire sports world has now labeled you a wuss. So your reaction is to start sucking your thumb? Lamar . . . I'll take a pass on hammering Lamar. He's been like this his whole career. I kind of feel bad for the guy. This year's playoffs have merely been an aberration for him up until the Finals. The Lakers' bench (I include Radmanovic here because I refuse to acknowledge him as a starter) was iffy again. Sasha was great. Farmar was fine. He hit a couple of shots and had only one bad take. The rest of the bench sucked again. Radmanovic needs to not play anymore, and while he's at it, he needs to throw a chop block at Luke so he can't play either. Or at least have Gary Vitti tell Luke that he has a whatever the basketball version of a strained oblique is. You know, trendy injury of the month. Moving on, Ronny's sole job should be to foul the crap out of Allen/Pierce/KG twice apiece because he's not good for much else. Ariza looks a little lost, not Rondo open in the corner lost, but you can't blame him after sitting for so long with an injury. The Lakers starters (again, don't count Radmanovic) cannot get into foul trouble anymore. The lineup needs to be Fish/Sasha/Kobe/Lamar's bruised psyche/Pau as much as possible with a little Turiaf and Farmar splashed in.
Today a lot of people are singing Kobe's praises but I'm too used to seeing Kobe making a bunch of "Holy Crap!" plays in the playoffs to be one of those people. Kobe needs some help from the supporting cast and he's not going to get it when he's part of the reason that not one of them plays with confidence. I've never been the best player in a basketball game. I shoot or penetrate when open and try not to let my guy score too much. I just want to be a positive impact player. I can tell you that I never play well when I screw up and am subjected to a belittling comment or condescending glare from my team's best player. I don't care how my team's Chris Mihm reacts toward me, but when my team's Kobe stares me down after I mess up, it kills my confidence because then I'm just thinking about not screwing up. So Kobe, these guys are your teammates but they think that at any moment you're about to go Bishop from Juice on them and murder them one by one. Let Phil work his Zen magic. That way you can play good cop and pretend like you care about your teammates rather than acting like you're better off without them and going 1 on 5.
Finally, the refs. As I'm sure you know, Tim Donaghy came out and stated that the NBA conspired to alter the officiating in the 2002 and 2005 playoffs. I'm not going to address whether or not I think the guy is lying, other than to say that lying to feds gets you more Martha Stewart time, but that I am happy we have an excuse to talk about how awful the NBA officiating is. It has to be the worst of any sport. Maybe I'm saying that because it's going on right now and everything in the moment seems bigger, but it's just plain awful. Everybody waited for the Lakers-Celtics NBA Finals and it's being ruined by gawd-awful officiating. Pierce was taken out of Game 3 by the refs and the worst part is, nobody was surprised. Everybody knew and talked about how the Lakers would get every call at home and go to the line a slew of times. I know the Lakers were more aggressive in Game 3. Thanks for the insight Mark Jackson. But were they a 40 free throw attempts differential swing from Game 2 more aggressive? 38-10 against in Game 2. 34-22 in favor for Game 3. You can try and sell it, but I'm not buying it. Nobody else is either. Imagine the field day Charles Barkley would be having with this! Instead, we have to listen to ABC and ESPN qualify everything so we'll watch the games, like we weren't going to watch a Lakers-Celtics Finals anyway. When the bad officiating is this transparent during the game's biggest show, something needs to change. Of course Bennett Salvatore was a lock to work Game 3. Of course the Lakers threw themselves into the Celtics' bodies and got calls (only to miss free throws). Of course Pierce picked up the same nonsensical fouls that Kobe got whistled for in Game 2. And again, what's bad is that of course you are not surprised by any of the last three sentences.
To sum it all up, Game 3 was an improvement but it's like comparing our next President to Dubya. Anything would be an improvement.*
*Dubya said today that he still doesn't think that invading Iraq was a mistake. I deleted about 5 things that I tried to compare that statement to with all of them ending in "except multiplied by a thousand." I won't subject you to the trivial mistakes I was going to list.
I'm not quite sure what to say about Game 3. Watching the Lakers win Game 3 was like watching a buddy pick the Rosie O'Donnell look-a-like to hit on out of a group of cute girls and then make his way over to the dance floor with her. Sure, he's dancing with a girl, but after his alcohol level comes down and the lights go on at 1:30 . . . we've all been there. Then, of course, the next day, all of the guy's friends are calling each other to talk about his making out with the field hockey girl. So here's my question, your friend made out with a girl last night, she looked like Mrs. Doubtfire, is it still a confidence boost for him? Are his friends celebrating that he at least broke his slump, all be it in Mark Grace fashion? Sure the Lakers won, but in relaying texts with some friends, and talking about the game as it wound down with my Dad, sister, and my friend Ornstein, it was almost as if the Lakers hadn't won at all. It was at best a sigh of relief.
First the good news. The Lakers did make some solid adjustments. KG was no longer getting wide open jumpers at the free throw line. Every shot he took inside of 22 feet was contested. I don't think KG played horribly as much as the Lakers keyed on him. Next, the Lakers minimized the amount of important time that Vladimir Radmanovic spent isolated on Pierce. Any time the Lakers needed stops it was either Kobe or a double team. My favorite adjustment was taking Rondo out of the game by leaving him wide open. I LOVED watching Kobe guard Rondo with one foot inside the key at all times. Please Rondo, shoot the ball. Rondo didn't even play the last few minutes because whoever was guarding him could just doubleteam the ball and leave Rondo wide-open. And, every time someone set a screen for him, no matter where it was on the floor, his defender would go under it, even if it meant getting stuck under an illegal KG screen that lasted 4.5 seconds. Unfortunately, that didn't lead to more time for Sam Cassell as we all had hoped for. I celebrated again watching Cassell's first shot go in because, guess what, he took four shots in less than seven minutes, the most shot attempts per minute on his team. I love him. His bucket was well worth it as a Lakers fan. Last piece of good news: Sasha. I now want him in the game at all times. I would hate to be guarded by him (if you golf, think of trying to putt on the first green at 7:30 a.m. when there are 100 gnats flying around the brim of your hat and you don't have any bug spray). Moreover, I always think it's going in when Sasha shoots a wide-open shot. I'm sure there are a few other tidbits of good news, but I'm too pessimistic to think of them.
On to the bad news. Here's a text from my friend Gavin at halftime: "Earth to Odom. Do you copy? Gasol needs to go change his maxi pad in the locker room at halftime." Couldn't have said it any better myself. Gasol finally committed a hard foul, but I guess he got a hangnail in the process because the camera showed him sucking his thumb right after he committed the foul, literally. I know the Lakers aren't playing in the Finals without Pau, but c'mon man, the entire sports world has now labeled you a wuss. So your reaction is to start sucking your thumb? Lamar . . . I'll take a pass on hammering Lamar. He's been like this his whole career. I kind of feel bad for the guy. This year's playoffs have merely been an aberration for him up until the Finals. The Lakers' bench (I include Radmanovic here because I refuse to acknowledge him as a starter) was iffy again. Sasha was great. Farmar was fine. He hit a couple of shots and had only one bad take. The rest of the bench sucked again. Radmanovic needs to not play anymore, and while he's at it, he needs to throw a chop block at Luke so he can't play either. Or at least have Gary Vitti tell Luke that he has a whatever the basketball version of a strained oblique is. You know, trendy injury of the month. Moving on, Ronny's sole job should be to foul the crap out of Allen/Pierce/KG twice apiece because he's not good for much else. Ariza looks a little lost, not Rondo open in the corner lost, but you can't blame him after sitting for so long with an injury. The Lakers starters (again, don't count Radmanovic) cannot get into foul trouble anymore. The lineup needs to be Fish/Sasha/Kobe/Lamar's bruised psyche/Pau as much as possible with a little Turiaf and Farmar splashed in.
Today a lot of people are singing Kobe's praises but I'm too used to seeing Kobe making a bunch of "Holy Crap!" plays in the playoffs to be one of those people. Kobe needs some help from the supporting cast and he's not going to get it when he's part of the reason that not one of them plays with confidence. I've never been the best player in a basketball game. I shoot or penetrate when open and try not to let my guy score too much. I just want to be a positive impact player. I can tell you that I never play well when I screw up and am subjected to a belittling comment or condescending glare from my team's best player. I don't care how my team's Chris Mihm reacts toward me, but when my team's Kobe stares me down after I mess up, it kills my confidence because then I'm just thinking about not screwing up. So Kobe, these guys are your teammates but they think that at any moment you're about to go Bishop from Juice on them and murder them one by one. Let Phil work his Zen magic. That way you can play good cop and pretend like you care about your teammates rather than acting like you're better off without them and going 1 on 5.
Finally, the refs. As I'm sure you know, Tim Donaghy came out and stated that the NBA conspired to alter the officiating in the 2002 and 2005 playoffs. I'm not going to address whether or not I think the guy is lying, other than to say that lying to feds gets you more Martha Stewart time, but that I am happy we have an excuse to talk about how awful the NBA officiating is. It has to be the worst of any sport. Maybe I'm saying that because it's going on right now and everything in the moment seems bigger, but it's just plain awful. Everybody waited for the Lakers-Celtics NBA Finals and it's being ruined by gawd-awful officiating. Pierce was taken out of Game 3 by the refs and the worst part is, nobody was surprised. Everybody knew and talked about how the Lakers would get every call at home and go to the line a slew of times. I know the Lakers were more aggressive in Game 3. Thanks for the insight Mark Jackson. But were they a 40 free throw attempts differential swing from Game 2 more aggressive? 38-10 against in Game 2. 34-22 in favor for Game 3. You can try and sell it, but I'm not buying it. Nobody else is either. Imagine the field day Charles Barkley would be having with this! Instead, we have to listen to ABC and ESPN qualify everything so we'll watch the games, like we weren't going to watch a Lakers-Celtics Finals anyway. When the bad officiating is this transparent during the game's biggest show, something needs to change. Of course Bennett Salvatore was a lock to work Game 3. Of course the Lakers threw themselves into the Celtics' bodies and got calls (only to miss free throws). Of course Pierce picked up the same nonsensical fouls that Kobe got whistled for in Game 2. And again, what's bad is that of course you are not surprised by any of the last three sentences.
To sum it all up, Game 3 was an improvement but it's like comparing our next President to Dubya. Anything would be an improvement.*
*Dubya said today that he still doesn't think that invading Iraq was a mistake. I deleted about 5 things that I tried to compare that statement to with all of them ending in "except multiplied by a thousand." I won't subject you to the trivial mistakes I was going to list.
Nice analysis, very SportsGuy-esque. A little hard on the Lake Show, I see them slowly sucking away at the confidence of Boston, Game 4 should be a better showing. If they go up 3-2 which is a likely possibility, I see a closeout in 6.
As much as Boston wants it, the mental toughness and experience of Kobe and Fish will be the difference. I agree that Kobe should ease up on the tough love now, but it did sorta work earlier in the season.
The refs are definitely having too much of an impact. I read an interesting article from Adrian Wojo from Yahoo sports about how Donaghy is using all his ammo because David Stern is trying to squeeze him for the $1 million is cost to investigate him and he can't afford it. Like the NBA can't afford it, makes you wonder...
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