First things first: All credit to the Lakers. I've been saying for a while now that I didn't think they were ready for the physicality of whomever their Finals opponent would be, and I found myself eating my words on Thursday night. Boston hardly put up much of a fight, but from jump street the Lakers killed the Celtics on the boards and won the race to pretty much every loose ball. They're a much tougher team, mentally and physically, than they were two years ago.
With that said, it's hard to imagine Boston playing a worse game than they did in Game 1. Some individuals are more culpable than others, but no one played well defensively, and other than Paul Pierce shooting 13 free throws, almost nothing went right on the offensive end.
Boston's biggest problem, I think, was the early foul trouble to Ray Allen. Ray versus Derek Fisher is our mismatch, and it was encouraging to see us recognize that early by going to him often. But the whistles shut him down, limiting him to 12 points in 27 foul-plagued minutes, including a very large chunk of the fourth quarter, when he played despite carrying five personals.
Someone at ESPN -- I think it was Mark Jackson -- said that Boston needed to find a way to get Pierce going. I disagree somewhat. As I mentioned last time. Ron Artest always does a nice job on Pierce and Boston would be making a mistake by relying on him too heavily. Pierce was wonderfully efficient on Thursday, scoring 24 points on just 13 shots. Boston should be able to win with their captain posting those kinds of numbers; they just need a partner in crime to step up.
Whatever the opposite of stepping up is, that's what Kevin Garnett did. Rarely have I seen him so out of synch: missing layups; mistiming his jump; struggling to catch the ball; foregoing open shots; firing passes over people's heads. My hunch is that KG's legendary intensity got the best of him and he was a little too worked up for this one. If not, Boston could be in some trouble. The other explanations are that he's physically not right or that he shrank from the moment, a reputation he seemed to shed in 2008. But based on the way he was fumbling the ball out there, I cast my vote for too fired up.
Tony Allen also had a terrible game. Pressed into early action due to Ray's foul trouble, Tony spent most of his 16 minutes, 33 seconds of court time fouling and turning the ball over. A year ago, none of this would have surprised me, but Tony's play this year has been a revelation, and Boston is going to need a lot better from him as the series wears on.
Nate Robinson, by contrast, was a positive influence again tonight, earning a +10 despite missing all three of his shots from the field and going scoreless. With Michael Finley apparently unable to keep up with LA's bench guards, I expect Nate to see some more playing time in this series.
Anyway, though there's plenty of reason for disappointment, there's also no reason to panic. Boston played a terrible game and LA played a pretty damn good one and yet, although the Lakes won handily, it honestly should have been a bigger margin of victory. It's not the start we wanted, but it's also not the end of the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment