Game one goes to Boston as the Celts beat the Lakers 98-88
NBA Finals: Boston leads Los Angeles 1-0, Game 2 Sunday, ABC
Pierce, KG, Allen power the home team, game two is Sunday
SCOTT JACOBS
Paul Pierce had waited 10 years for his shot to play in the Finals.
So when he went down midway through the third with what appeared to be a gruesome knee injury, it was hard not to think the worst. The Celtics simply cannot keep up with the Lakers if Pierce is out of this game.
When Pierce’s fellow teammates helped carry him off the court, and he was put in a wheelchair, it had the appearance of a devastating blow that Boston was not going to recover from. But just about 3 minutes later, Pierce gently walked through the tunnel in the middle of the game to a standing ovation that sent the Celtic fans into oblivion.
And just a minute later he was back. In the game!
Pierce scored 15 huge third quarter points, Ray Allen and KG had very good games, and the Boston Celtics just overpowered the Lakers (46-33 rebounding disparity) to win a hotly contested game one, inside the gawwwwwwwden.
The Lakers played sloppy in the second half, failed to find a rhythm, and had a lackadaisical look where they looked a little lost late in the game. Trailing by eight late in the game and forced to foul to keep their fading hopes alive, they instead let the Celts eat up the 24 second clock, and by then time had just about run out on LA’s nearly 1 1/2 month of not trailing in a post-season series.
“I thought that was it,” said Pierce. “I couldn’t move it at first.”
Celtic fans probably thought that was it too for a dream season that looked like a nightmarish finish.
But Pierce came back, the Celtics confidence never seemed to waver, and the leprechauns were able to hold Kobe and the Lakers outside the paint.
“We’ll see,” said Pierce, when asked whether he was going to play in game two.
At least for Boston’s sake they have that cushion. Well sort of. With the 2-3-3 format, games 3-5 shift to LA after game 2 on Sunday, and the Celts can’t be too comfortable that getting one at home is enough. They need two, to put the young and energetic Lakers in a must win position for game three.
But we’ll touch on that after game 2.
As for game one, how about P.J. Brown? Did you see him dive to the ground to grab a loose ball, and find the open man. And there was KG somehow avoiding midcourt and a over and back violation, as Sam Cassel calmy knocked down a big jump shot. Garnett had a pretty sweet slammer jammer to seal the deal as he rose above Pau Gasol.
And that was it.
Kobe’s numbers look pretty good from a distance, but he looked frustrated all game. Unable to really penetrate Boston’s renowned team defense, number 24 struggled to consistently get off quality shots. Gasol was okay. No one on LA really played a great game, and that’s encouraging for game two.
After a relatively eh game one, LA still had a late chance to steal game one.
They didn’t, but they also didn’t have their A game either. Barely a B- if you ask me.
Tonight the Celts were the better team. Their big three all had 20 plus. They had a rhythm going all night.
Will they have that on Sunday? Good question.
“We got a little stagnant. But we played well enough to almost steal a game,” said Bryant.
Almost won’t win a championship.
Perfect will. That was Pierce in the second half. He didn’t miss a shot.
The Celtics didn’t miss a beat.
They lead this series one to none.
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The Fakers aren’t looking so unbeatable now, are they?
I’m just waiting for the bandwagon to crash and all the talking heads to start gravitating Boston’s way becuase NO ONE was giving the Celts a chance in this series except Jon Barry.
I am so sick of the never-ending NBA Season! I’m just waiting for the REAL MEN to take the field. Of course I’m talking obout THE STEELERS!
Why the hell does ESPN have all but one of the experts picking the Lakas? Don’t they know the Celts had the best record in the league?
On a sidenote, the NBA might want to tone down fouls, especially fouls late in the game on the Lakers, if they want the series to actually get TV ratings.
It wasn’t just the ESPN guys picking the Fakers, Mitch, everyone everywhere seemed to be drinking the Kobe Kool Aid. They’re acting like this is the greatest team of all time and the Cs were just going to crumble under the greatness of Kobe and his band of merry men.
Like I said in a previous post the Celts had already played a 1-man team (Cavs) and shut down their superstar, so I knew they could do it again. Game 1 proved me right.
We’ll see what happens from here. But that Kool Aid is starting to taste awful funky right now.
Here’s the thing. There was more on the line in my opinion for the Celts in game one than there was for the Lakers. For one, the Celts don’t have the cushion anymore of a game five at home, so losing off the bat would have been tough for them. Two, Kobe had a very mediocre shooting night, missed a lot of easy shots (at least they usually are for Kobe), The Big Three actually played like the big three for the first time in a while, and the game was very sloppy in the second half, which favored the Celts, because it disrupted LA’s uptempo attack.
I think the Celtics held home court for game one, with a solid defensive performance, but I’d be very much shocked, if number 24 doesn’t come out flying out of the gates for game two. Plus, Phil Jackson has a few extra days to prepare his team, because game 2 is on Sunday, not Saturday.
So let’s keep the conversation flowing, because I’m curious what people have to say about that.
I’m picking the Celts cuz their D can hold Kobes in check, and cuz the refs can hold the Lakas in check, like I mentioned in my latest post.
The thing that everyone’s missing here is that the Celts have been the best defensive team in the league all year, so the results of Game 1 are in line with that rather than being a mere aberration.
Everyone just got so caught up in the Kobe hype and the fact that the Cs played like shit in some road games this postseason, but look what they did to LeBron, look what they did to the vaunted, experienced Pistons, and you’ll see that Game 1 was a microcosm of how this series should go, not a fluke or the result of Kobe mssing some “easy shots”.
If you’ll remember LeBron missed a lot of “easy” shots, too, because the Celts were covering him like a blanket and making him do things he didn’t want to do. Boston is more balanced, better on defense, and doesn’t need one guy to have a great game in order to win.
The Truth shall soon be known.