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Boston wins Game 1 over the Lakers 98-88
It wasn’t looking good for Boston. The heart of their team was crumpled up on the floor, writhing and clutching his knee in pain. The look on his face said he was done, his season over, his knee destroyed. Watching on TV, I could just see the deflation in the building as the Lakers took control of the game. A few minutes later, here comes Pierce, much to the joy and relief of the entire city of Boston.
With the Lakers up 71-69 late in the 3rd, Rajon Rondo perfectly set up Pierce for open three…BAM! Later, same connection, Pierce nails the three again, and Boston really never looked back. As much as people say Kobe’s determination and drive for a Title will win it for the Lakers, how about Paul Pierce? After years of playing with a team that never did ANYTHING and just plain sucked last year, he’s finally playing for a Title.
And naturally, a la Curt Schilling and his bloody sock, the media questions how badly Pierce was hurt. LA Times writer and occasional Around the Horn participant Bill Plaschke thinks it was all just a big show. I call that crap sour grapes, Plaschke. Sure, Pierce isn’t getting an MRI on his knee or anything, but I’m gonna take the man’s word for it. Most professional athletes – except for maybe soccer players and the softer hockey players – aren’t that good at acting. Pierce’s face said “No #%&! way, I get to the Finals finally, and blow my knee up in the first game.” Who knows, we may find out in a couple years it WAS all a ploy to fire up the Celtics. However, at this point, I don’t buy any of that “He was faking it” garbage.
And what about KG? Other than reaching the conference finals with the T-Wolves a few years back, he hasn’t sniffed a title. Now he gets this opportunity with Pierce and fellow I’ve-never-won-a-title shooter Ray Allen. Man, did he have a game last night. His save of a certain backcourt violation (Sam Cassell, who also stepped up offensively, scored off Garnett’s hustle) made me say “Wow!”. And his putback of a miss by Rondo (below) over Pau Gasol the Wienie pretty much sealed the result.
Let’s face it, Gasol can’t guard KG. Being a hater of Pau from my years of watching his soft play for the Grizz (he plays half-ass defense, rarely boxes out, and is more scared of contact than Erik Ainge), I think I will enjoy KG owning him for however long this series goes on.
That said, why did the Celtics win? Couple of things: first, the Celtics defense was all over Kobe Bryant, holding Kobe to 4 points in the 4th quarter, and the Lakers as a team to just 33% shooting. Sure, Kobe admittedly missed some shots he usually hits, nothing was easy (other than his alley-oop finish from Derek Fisher on a fast break that I saw coming from halfcourt). Also, the Celtics got more contributions from its reserves. Cassell hit some shots that I didn’t know he had, my boy Posey (I liked his style of play from watching his Grizz days) hits his usual couple of dagger threes, and PJ Brown…PJ Brown! was a beast on defense and on the boards in the place of Kendrick Perkins, who left with an injury. The Farmar/Turiaf/Vujacic group struggled. But it really was the Celtics defense that was the difference.
Like I said in my post earlier this morning, I can DEFINITELY take six more games between these two great teams.
I’ll have much, much more on Lakers-Celtics Game 1 later today, since I’m rushed again. All I gotta say is was that a fun game to watch or what! I know it’s the Finals and all, but the star power in this series is ridiculous – Kobe, Paul Pierce, KG, Ray Allen, Odom, Gasol (which I say reluctantly), and even other guys like Posey, Perkins (despite his injury), Rondo, Fisher, Sasha, and you can’t forget Phil Jackson.
David Stern is one happy fella. The NBA is definitely living right with these two teams playing for the championship. I know the NBA gets a bad rep from so-called “true basketball” fans, but how can you NOT enjoy watching that game last night?? Like the title of this post says, we fans can only hope for six more games like the one we watched last night.
I’ll have a much more in-depth analysis and my own thoughts on the game later today…
