though from boston, not a homer. this is simply my take on upcoming game 7. fwiw, i have equal disdain for both paul pierce and kobe bryant, though recognize, both have certain talent / skill sets that cant be denied -specially kobe.
i wasnt able to catch the entirety of game 6, though what i was able to see, was a team, frontrunning once they got the lead (lakers). thats not taking anything away from their game--as was well played. they made ALL of the plays they needed. their bench stepped up, kobe hit his shots and more importantly was allowed to get everyone involved.
perkins being out will hurt. speically if they anykinda contribution from bynum (i havent the foggiest idea on his status). i cant recall the last time a team, on such a stage as this, lost a starter mid-game and was able to make up for it -in game. not like the gameplan flowed through perkins soo much, though, trying to shift adjust on the fly -on top of lakers already playing aggressive spelled disaster for boston.
as much as the lakers were hitting their shots, the celtics were more soo -missing theirs. layup after layup didnt fall--and the big stat that commentators were parrying around: rebounds, well, no new news there.
no one could hit yestereday for boston. ray allen couldnt get a shot--rondo cant take one (not sure if you would want him to) and pierce was cold/looking tired. all in all, they got blindsided by the in game injury, that made a would-be loss, a blowout.
i didnt see much on bad calls for the game (like i said, only caught end of 3rd, 4th), though a couple plays stuck out in my mind -caught my attention.
yes, tony allen did grab kobe's arm, in the steal he got up the floor, that eventually yielded the tech for kobe. that said, he (kobe) had a play, driving the lane on the right (against sheldon williams) where he jumped to spot, and then took an additional 2 more steps (not a pivot step), for total of four, and finished with an up and under lay in (that the announcers were wowed by) though was clearly traveling. granted, at that point, game was outta hand, and even still, a travelling call woulda hardly changed anything. then too, was a situation where tony allen jumped for a board with kobe and they both came down jostling for the ball, with tony allen ripping it away--and getting called for foul -that amounted to FT's for kobe and tony allen walking the length of the floor to pout the bad call. actually, i dont think it pouting as much as i recognize it being him realizing was a bad call and tempering himself from any further issue--as, at that point cant do anything to uncall the (non)foul.
it was a perfect storm of the lakers being sharp--playing hard, and the celtics giving ground early (shell shock in perkins injury) coupled with their inability to hit shots that allowed floodgates of lead to balloon and get outta hand from there. thats not to take anything away from lakers defense, it was there, as i didnt see (ray)allen get much room to setup for a shot, and pierce never got into a flow for shooting.
i'm not a homer i assure, though i am entirely more critical of the celtics. will i be pulling for them?, yes, only because i am a fan of both rondo and tony allen... whom i believe will be the players that will find the CELTICS winning game 7.
their intensity will be hard to match, as no one from the lakers strikes me as a "passion", "intenisty" player -aside from kobe, and to a lesser degree, pau. it will be back to the kobe plus whom else from the bench? pau will get minutes, and points, and boards.. though, the cross the half court line and throw it in from the ocean, make the extra pass, no defense contested shots that found the lakers up by soo many in gm 6, will be fewer, harder to come by
the difference, should be free throws actually. theres no doubt that boston will foul more, there is question if the fouling will keep enough of the aggressive play by LA at bay. it doesnt sound right-, i know: oh, we got fouled, so pull back, shy away from" -if anything would make you wanna push even more to exacerbate the foul trouble- though, the in your face defense will be problematic for a whole team perfomance as we saw last night.
either ray allen or pierce WILL be hot -if not both, which would obviously spell disaster. kobe'll be there too, scowling away...though after the game to go along with his usual during.
BOS 109, LA 101
i forsee a highly contested, hard fought--enjoyable game. regardless of the outcome, should be a good one -exactly what stern wanted.
:0corn
i wasnt able to catch the entirety of game 6, though what i was able to see, was a team, frontrunning once they got the lead (lakers). thats not taking anything away from their game--as was well played. they made ALL of the plays they needed. their bench stepped up, kobe hit his shots and more importantly was allowed to get everyone involved.
perkins being out will hurt. speically if they anykinda contribution from bynum (i havent the foggiest idea on his status). i cant recall the last time a team, on such a stage as this, lost a starter mid-game and was able to make up for it -in game. not like the gameplan flowed through perkins soo much, though, trying to shift adjust on the fly -on top of lakers already playing aggressive spelled disaster for boston.
as much as the lakers were hitting their shots, the celtics were more soo -missing theirs. layup after layup didnt fall--and the big stat that commentators were parrying around: rebounds, well, no new news there.
no one could hit yestereday for boston. ray allen couldnt get a shot--rondo cant take one (not sure if you would want him to) and pierce was cold/looking tired. all in all, they got blindsided by the in game injury, that made a would-be loss, a blowout.
i didnt see much on bad calls for the game (like i said, only caught end of 3rd, 4th), though a couple plays stuck out in my mind -caught my attention.
yes, tony allen did grab kobe's arm, in the steal he got up the floor, that eventually yielded the tech for kobe. that said, he (kobe) had a play, driving the lane on the right (against sheldon williams) where he jumped to spot, and then took an additional 2 more steps (not a pivot step), for total of four, and finished with an up and under lay in (that the announcers were wowed by) though was clearly traveling. granted, at that point, game was outta hand, and even still, a travelling call woulda hardly changed anything. then too, was a situation where tony allen jumped for a board with kobe and they both came down jostling for the ball, with tony allen ripping it away--and getting called for foul -that amounted to FT's for kobe and tony allen walking the length of the floor to pout the bad call. actually, i dont think it pouting as much as i recognize it being him realizing was a bad call and tempering himself from any further issue--as, at that point cant do anything to uncall the (non)foul.
it was a perfect storm of the lakers being sharp--playing hard, and the celtics giving ground early (shell shock in perkins injury) coupled with their inability to hit shots that allowed floodgates of lead to balloon and get outta hand from there. thats not to take anything away from lakers defense, it was there, as i didnt see (ray)allen get much room to setup for a shot, and pierce never got into a flow for shooting.
i'm not a homer i assure, though i am entirely more critical of the celtics. will i be pulling for them?, yes, only because i am a fan of both rondo and tony allen... whom i believe will be the players that will find the CELTICS winning game 7.
their intensity will be hard to match, as no one from the lakers strikes me as a "passion", "intenisty" player -aside from kobe, and to a lesser degree, pau. it will be back to the kobe plus whom else from the bench? pau will get minutes, and points, and boards.. though, the cross the half court line and throw it in from the ocean, make the extra pass, no defense contested shots that found the lakers up by soo many in gm 6, will be fewer, harder to come by
the difference, should be free throws actually. theres no doubt that boston will foul more, there is question if the fouling will keep enough of the aggressive play by LA at bay. it doesnt sound right-, i know: oh, we got fouled, so pull back, shy away from" -if anything would make you wanna push even more to exacerbate the foul trouble- though, the in your face defense will be problematic for a whole team perfomance as we saw last night.
either ray allen or pierce WILL be hot -if not both, which would obviously spell disaster. kobe'll be there too, scowling away...though after the game to go along with his usual during.
BOS 109, LA 101
i forsee a highly contested, hard fought--enjoyable game. regardless of the outcome, should be a good one -exactly what stern wanted.
:0corn
