LAKERS -at- CELTICS - 2/5 - Thoughts and :-)) Ratings

[DancingBarry]

And There Was Much Gnashing of Teeth... Green storm clouds drench you with their polluted rain. You pick up your stride, following the road as the scent of Sewage, Vomit and Garbage gets stronger by the second. Finally, you come upon a cave on the side of the road and seek shelter. The scent is stronger in here.

A lantern lights your path and illuminates the green mold on the cave walls. You grab it, and against your better judgment, you follow the scent deeper into the cave. Screams echo from the darkness, and garbage litters the ground, crunching beneath your feet. A high-pitched wailing is followed by a gust of fresh air coming from deep within the cave. You stagger back. What was that?

Holding the lantern forward, you see Silverfish scatter from the light. Agitated rats stream past you, fleeing their cave from something. Ahead, you come to a massive cavern covered in that green mold. The stench smells like an armpit rubbed down by garlic and trash juice. This must be where the Green Menace lives. The cavern is empty, except for the few rats still scurrying for exits to your right and left.

Then it dawns on you. Could this possibly be the place where Little Larry O'Brien had been taken to? This can't be, can it? The thought makes your stomach lurch. It's a nausea-inducing abomination. You must get Larry back...whatever the price...you must do it.

On the ground, you see fresh tracks -- the Horsemen and their Death Riders. Nearby, a porcelin green leprechaun stares at you from the middle of the cavern. You know what this is. You stomp the smile from its face and pull a purple-and-gold paper from its pieces. It's DancingBarry:

Three of the Four Horsemen were here. They brought Famine, Pestilence and Death. They were road weary, but rose to the challenge. Their opponent tried to bark, bully and intimidate. The Horsemen and Death Riders pushed back. They would not back down, they would not go away. There was much gnashing of teeth from their opponent.

One by one, the Horsemen have knocked out opponents on the road.

I will continue to track them...

The Lakers marched into Boston without their starting center and on the second night of a back-to-back. They left 12 points at the freethrow line. They weathered some off shooting by their lead man. They overcame foul trouble. Yet despite all that adversity, they walked off the court victors in overtime, 110-109.

After snapping the Celtics 19-game win streak on Christmas, the Lakers broke another 12-game win streak tonight. The Celtics fell completely apart the last time the Lakers staggered them.

This game was about character and gut checks. It was about not getting pushed without pushing back. There were so many reasons why the Lakers shouldn't have won.

"We didn't play our best basketball at all, not even close," Kobe said, "but we still managed to get a win."

The Lakers shot 17-29 from the line, 58 percent. You can't expect to do that and survive on the road. Yet, they did, and against the Celtics...without Big Bynum.


Kobe -- -- "He just missed shots," Rivers said about Kobe's game at the start of the fourth. "And that's scary because it's a 4-point game." Kobe went 3-3 from behind the arc in the fourth quarter. Had we hit our FTs, that would have been plenty. In overtime, he definitely looked like the back-to-back game (and three in four nights) seemed to catch up to him. Some difficult attempts. Prior to that, he just looked off. He was missing FTs and some jumpers he normally knocks down with ease. A lot of his shots were hitting the back of the rim. Just one of those nights. Amazing we could survive and win when Kobe didn't have his A game. I wish we would have worked our two-man game a little more. It is very effective against the Celtics with their helps schemes. If we face the Celtics again, it will most likely be with Bynum out there and our two-man sequences are even more effective. Defensively, he's in Rondo's head. He sagged off him and roamed early and often. Later, he switched onto Pierce for a bit and played some scrappy D. The Stats: He scored 26 points on 10-29 shooting (4-8 from three, 2-4 from the line) to go with 10 boards, 5 assists, 1 steal, 2 blocks, 3 turnovers and 2 fouls in 45 minutes. He was a -3. The Action: He back-rimmed a wing jumper. He spun on the baseline and hit the short jumper. He blew past his man down the middle of the lane for the layup. He missed a three over KG. He poked a ball loose from Allen, then busted out for the dunk. He picked up a foul getting tied up with Perkins on the perimeter. He missed a scoop, not drawing iron. He hit Pau cutting for the dunk. He back-rimmed a wing jumper. He worked off the screen with speed, stretched out and scored a layup. He back-rimmed another jumper. He kicked out to Powell for the baseline jumper. He worked off the high screen and hit the elbow jumper. He scored 10 points on 5-10 shooting in that first stint. He missed an elbow jumper long. He sank a three from the wing. His layup was goaltended with no call but Pau cleaned it up. He tried to help off House (no reason to) and he gave up a wide open three. He missed a pull-up wing jumper. He had 13 points at the half. Second Half: He airballed a three getting fouled with no call. He was stripped on the next trip down, points the other way. He missed a fade at the elbow. Rondo shoved him and Kobe got in his face, double tech. Rondo fouled him off the ball as Fish scored, Kobe made the FT. He attacked and was blocked, but Pau dunked it back in. He swatted KG from behind and recovered it. He missed a fading turnaround. He drew FTs in transition, rare trip to the line, he made one. He posted up Pierce and banked easily. He missed a baseline jumper, long. He was 7-20 after three quarters. He missed a tech FT (arrgh!). He missed an easy elbow pull-up, (sheesh, those are usually money). He drained a three out of a timeout on our next possession. He tied the game 96-96 with a three over Pierce. He drained another three right in Pierce's grill to take a 101-100 lead with 1:29 left. Cheap foul call and Pierce got more FTs on the other end. He missed a tough heave from the 21 feet out with 7.7 seconds left. He knocked a ball loose from Pierce on the defensive end to help send the game to OT. Overtime: He lost the ball or was fouled on a jumper and came up way short. He missed a three. He attacked and looked like he was shooting when fouled, but they did't give the FTs to him. Finally, we went to the Kobe/Pau two-man game and it led to a dunk for Pau. Total forced jumper over Pierce with 40 seconds left, worst shot selection all road trip (got to work that two-man sequence again).

Gasol -- -- Pau seems to have a knack for making clutch defensive plays. He did it last time to the Celtics, too, blocking an Allen three and closing out to force a miss from Pierce. Tonight, he got a key block on a jumper and was in on a challenge on Allen on the last shot. Offensively, the Lakers took a while before they went to him. They also didn't run the two-man sequences that we killed the Celtics with last time we played. They did pull out a couple of those very late in the game, but I would have liked to see us go to that more instead of some of the iso ball sets we ran for Kobe. Great job crashing the glass anytime we got dribble penetration. Pau made the Celtics pay for their challenges on those. The Stats: He scored 24 points on 10-14 shooting (4-7 from the line) to go with 14 boards (7 offensive), 3 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 3 turnovers and 1 foul in 46 minutes. He was a +8. The Action: Finally a post touch after 6 minutes and he hits a face-up jumper. He dunked off the pass from Kobe. He airballed an underhanded attempt in the lane (not sure why he didn't stick with the jumphook). He posted up Powe, took contact and hit the And-1 jumphook, he made the FT. He dunked back in a Kobe drive and miss. He posted up Perkins and drew FTs on the attack, he made both. He had 11 points at the half. Second Half: He hit a baseline hook. He dunked back in a miss by Kobe. Sweet turnaround, swishing the baseline jumper. He iso'd on KG and drew his fourth, he missed both FTs, uggh. He lost the ball in the post when the chair was pulled. He threw a pass away the next time down. He attacked the paint, faked one way and hooked the other. He didn't hit rim on a drive, got it back and we had a shotclock violation with 46 seconds left (he wanted the foul). Overtime: He scored a layup off the slip screen with Kobe. He dunked, working the two-man game with Kobe (getting the ball from LO when Kobe hit him...should have been an And-1). He was fouled trailing the break with 1:11 (probably should have made the And-1), he missed the first FT...hit the second, 108-107 lead. He swatted Davis's jumper with a great close. He helped contest Allen's heave attempt at the buzzer.

Lamar -- -- Lamar Odom stood nose-to-nose with KG returning his trash talk. The Lakers weren't having any of that. LO was aggressive and locked in for this game. Although Lamar struggled from the freethrow line all night, it was his two makes when we were trailing by a point with 16 seconds left in overtime that got the Lakers the win. Huge FTs. Huge. Foul trouble forced Lamar into Invisible Man mode in the first half. It wasn't LO just fading. He wasn't able to play until the second half. When he did, he brought it. Great job, great OT. The Stats: He scored 20 points on 6-10 shooting (1-2 from three, 7-11 from the line) to go with 6 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals, 1 turnover and 4 fouls in 35 minutes. He was a +8. The Action: He attacked quickly to his right on our first possession to draw FTs, he missed both. He forced a pass on the next possession, turnover, score the other way. He overpowered Pierce for an easy jumphook. He missed an open wing jumper. He picked up his second foul midway through the first quarter and had to sit. Back in and he picked up his third foul on the defensive glass. Done for the half. Second Half: He drew FTs plowing down KG in transition, he made both. He attacked from the top of the key and scored with his left. KG tried to talk some trash to Lamar and Lamar got right in his face. He had Pierce on him, he posted him up and drew FTs, he made one. Bogus fourth foul, he never touched Pierce on a drive late in the third. He posted up Powe and drew FTs, he made one (arrgh!). He sank a wing three on the next trip down. He missed a corner three on iso over KG. He scored a layup in early offense, running the floor and getting good position against a smaller man. He attacked off the two-man with Pau, missed, got it back and scored the And-1 over KG (his fifth), he made the FT. Overtime: He curled from the weakside, posted up and hit the jumphook with his right. He set up Pau for the dunk when Kobe ran the two-man with Pau. Down by 1 with 16 seconds left (5-9 from the line at this point), he made the first to tie, made the second to take the 1-point lead.

Luke -- -- How nervous were you with Luke on Pierce late in the game? Luke crowded Pierce and didn't give him a straight line to the hoop. This allowed us to help. Pierce did get to the line a few times, although some of those were cheap fouls. Pierce would continually look for Laker switches off screens and try to attack those. He also looked to attack from the top and not the wings where our help schemes are stronger. We got cooked a lot from the wings last year. The Stats: He scored 5 points on 2-5 shooting (1-1 from three) to go with 2 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals, 2 turnovers and 1 foul in 33 minutes. The Action: He sank a pull-up wing jumper. He missed a fade over Allen. He pulled the ball out, worked the two-man game and hit Powell with the bounce pass for a dunk. He swiped a pass. He got tapped on a short teardrop. He forced a pass trying to get it to Kobe who was going into he post, turnover. He swiped a pass, then swished a three on the other end. He missed a contested layup badly (didn't hit the rim and we got a shotclock violation). With 1.9 seconds left in the half, he threw a pass the length of the court right out of bounds. Second Half: He didn't jump out on Allen to contest a shot in the two-man D. He tried to tap an offensive board out when it looked like he might have been able to grab it, we couldn't recover it. He was called for a weak touch foul on the perimeter on Pierce giving up FTs. Overtime: No notes.

Fisher -- -- Some very good D by DFish. The match up between him an Allen isn't easy, but he brought his lunchbox and went to work. Down the stretch how quiet was Ray Allen? I had to look to make sure he was still in the game. He and Pau teamed up to force Allen into a ridiculous attempt at the buzzer. Great D by both of them on that sequence. "I was fouled," Allen whined in the press. "I was pushed. I think I did twist my ankle." Not to be outdone, Eddie House: "They looked like they'd won the Finals the way they were celebrating. It's only Game 51." Ha! The Lakers just won in OT at the last second. They didn't do anything the Celtics haven't done in the past after a regular season win. Are the Lakers in their heads now? It sure sounds like it. The Stats: He scored 13 points on 5-13 shooting (1-5 from three, 2-3 from the line) to go with 1 board, 5 assists, 3 steals and 5 fouls in 41 minutes. He was a +1. The Action: Allen hit a three when Fish got cleared out on a screen. Fish went back and drained a three on him on the other end. He missed a three out of a timeout (didn't really run a play). He pushed out the break, took a reach and scored the And-1 layup, he made the FT. He missed a pull-up fom the elbow out of a timeout. He deflected a pass, chased it down, attacked in transition and banked the runner. He swiped a pass, then was blocked in transition. He had 8 points at the half. Second Half: He picked up two quick fouls in the first minute of the half. He swished a toe-on-the-three-line jumper. He attacked baseline and scored a reverse layup. He drew FTs trying to turn the corner off the dribble on Rondo, he made one. He missed a wing three with the shotclock low. He hit Lamar who had position on Allen in transition and scored easily. He drew KG's 6th foul after going for a loose ball and taking a shove (KG out with 4:22). He missed a long three. Cheap foul when Pierce attacked him off the dribble and it led to FTs. Overtime: He missed a wing jumper. He tripped over a Celtic's leg and fell, tripping Rondo in turn, foul-to-give with 3.0 left...thank goodness. He played tight on Allen across the top of the arc and helped to force him into an off-balance heave (apparently Ray can't handle the Kobe Rules D).

Ariza -- -- Fairly quiet game from Ariza. He didn't play much as Phil opted to go with some other lineups with Luke and Sasha. Ariza wasn't hitting from the perimeter and wasn't able to get any garbage points. We need to try to run some specific sequences for both him and Lamar to get the ball on the move down the lane. We did that for Lamar a few times. No reason why we can't work Trevor into some similar plays, especially when his perimeter shot isn't there. The Stats: He scored 2 points on 1-5 shooting (0-2 from three, 0-1 from the line) to go with 2 boards, 1 steal and 3 fouls in 11 minutes. He was a +2. The Action: He missed a three on his first attempt. Poor clock awareness, pump-faking on a jumper when he needed to shoot at the end of the corner, the clock expired as he attacked. Quick attack off the feed from Pau in the paint and he powered in an And-1 layup, he missed the FT. He swiped the ball from Pierce on the other end and drew a foul. He missed a corner three. Second Half: He took a knee from Pierce on a drive at the end of the third and went down. He missed a transition layup attempt, should have tried to throw down. He missed a three.

Farmar -- -- Farmar helped hold down the fort during those first few minutes of the fourth quarter. He had several key plays that kept the Lakers neck and neck with the Celtics. Again, very good to see some quality play from Farmar in those minutes and on the road. Well done. Defensively, he wasn't stellar, but he kept it together. It seemed like he wasn't quite in tune with some defensive schemes, however. The Stats: He scored 7 points on 3-3 shooting (1-1 from three, 0-1 from the line) to go with 2 boards, 1 assist, 1 steal and 3 fouls in 12 minutes. The Action: Nice foul in transition to prevent an oop and FTs. Bad foul on the immediate in-bounds off that deadball to then give up FTs. He gave up a layup to Rondo on a drive. He picked up his third foul trying to use his footspeed to draw a charge on Allen (very close, but I like this from Farmar...keep that up and study Master Fisher). He had to sit after that foul. Second Half: House hit a three in transition, Farmar got it back with a three on the other end. He scooped up a loose ball, went behind his back and ignited a break, it led to a Sasha three. He caught the Celtics off guard with a quick attack in transition and scored high off the glass on the drive. Next trip down, he worked House with a change of speed, took contact and banked a 13-foot And-1, he missed the FT (got to hit your FTs, Jordan).

Vujacic -- -- Back-to-back turnovers by Sasha in the second quarter helped the Celtics erase a 9-point lead with 5 quick points. That was a brief stretch that seemed to turn things around for the Celtics. It's the kind of thing Farmar had hurt us with in the past. Sasha cleaned it up and ran some key minutes for the team. Phil even put him in for some defensive stands to cover House. Sasha looked disgusted when Pau missed a crunch-time freethrow heading into one timeout. Looked like he said something to him. The Stats: He scored 5 points on 1-3 shooting (1-3 from three, 2-2 from the line), 1 board, 1 assist, 1 steal, 2 turnovers and 3 fouls in 17 minutes. He was a -1. The Action: He fouled Pierce on a jumper. He missed a wing three, way long (hit the backboard first). He whipped a jump pass to Mihm off the dribble for a layup. He drew FTs working off the ball to try to get open, he made both. He forced a pass to Mihm at the FT line, layup the other way. He was stripped next time down, three the other way. Second Half: He left House open for a three trying to sag and recover. He drained a sideline three in transition, big make. He missed a rushed wing three. Overtime: No notes.

Mihm -- -- He came in for Pau 3 minutes into the second quarter. He ran just a couple minutes and managed to get a score. The Stats: He scored 2 points on 1-1 shooting. The Action: Good hands (not his strength) catching a bullet pass from Sasha off the dribble and he scored a layup. Second Half: He did not play.

Powell -- -- In midway through the first quarter for Lamar, Powell was thrown in the mix early. I like his physical play. It wasn't as effective as he can sometimes be, but he's banging bodies and ticking off Celtics. He drained a couple jumpers out of the offense. When we were in some of the awkward bench lineups, I'd really like to see us work the two-man game with him more. That's a weapon that unit should be able to utilize. The Stats: He scored 6 points on 3-5 shooting, grabbed 4 boards and had 2 fouls in 22 minutes. He was a -7. The Action: He missed a long baseline jumper (then didn't get back in transition). He swished a baseline jumper off the Kobe kickout. He dunked off the bounce pass from Luke. He drained the FT jumper. Second Half: He missed a turnaround in the post. He picked up a couple loose-ball fouls trying to fight for offensive boards, then a double tech.

Phil -- -- Wow. Some kind of a win. Some interesting subs by Phil late in the game, too. We'll get to that... According to TNT, Bynum said it was a partial tear of the MCL. That restates the idea that he could be back sooner than 8-12 weeks vs. a full tear. Good to hear... The Lakers got burned in transition to start the game. A lot of easy looks for the Celtics in that situation early on. Lamar picked up his second foul midway through the quarter and Phil went to Powell... The Lakers went on a 15-5 run to lead 17-14 when Phil called a timeout... The Lakers led 23-20 after the first. Phil said the transition D was horrible. "They just missed shots," he said of the Celts. He was right. A lot of open looks that we could have paid for... The Lakers were in the bonus 2 minutes into the second quarter.... Phil went with a Mihm, Powell, Ariza, Sasha, Fisher lineup. Both Farmar and Lamar were in foul trouble and Pau and Kobe were resting. Kobe came in for Ariza shortly later... Sasha had two quick turnovers which resulted in 5 points for House to cut the lead to 35-31. Phil called a timeout... The Lakers gave up a ton of offensive boards in the second quarter. Biggest difference in the game at this point was the second and third chances the Celtics were able to convert into scores. (No Bynum, but no LO, too, because of the foul trouble... The Lakers trailed 52-51 at the half. The Celtics had 10 second-chance points, the Lakers 2. The Lakers shot 48 percent, the Celtics 44 percent... Phil went to Sasha for Luke midway through the third quarter. Usually don't see that until the fourth... Lakers were 12-20 from the line with 2 minutes left in the third... The Lakers trailed 81-77 heading into the fourth. They cleaned up the offensive board issues, but left too many points at the line... Phil started the quarter with a Powell, Lamar, Ariza, Sasha, Farmar lineup... After the Lakers gave up a series of easy layups and dunks, Phil called a timeout. We were still down by 4, but the second-unit defense was making things too easy. He kept the same lineup in, however. We shot several straight threes. Not good execution... He finally went back to the starters and Sasha after 4 minutes... Phil went with Luke for Sasha later, no Ariza on Pierce... Lakers didn't run any two-man game sequences down the stretch of regulation. Not sure why. This was our bread and butter in our win in L.A... He subbed in Sasha for Lamar with 7.7 seconds on the defensive stand. Kobe poked a ball loose forcing the Celtics into a heave attempt. Overtime: Same lineups until the last 3 seconds when he subbed in Sasha for Lamar and put Sasha on House. Pau blocked Allen... We had a couple sequences of the two-man game with Kobe/Pau and it worked well. Pau got a dunk on one. We should have milked it more... No Vlad in this game at all... The Lakers shot 47 percent, the Celtics 45 percent. The Lakers scored 24 points off 16 turnovers. The Celtics scored 15 points off 13 Laker turnovers...

Game Flow -- LINK -- Neither team pulled out to a significant lead. Pau and LO had all 9 points of OT.

[TooMuchMajicBuss]

THANKS DB!!!

[sia_kb8]

Great Win.
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[OscarWang]

LAKERS!
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"Everything negative - pressure, challenges - is all an opportunity for me to rise."

- Kobe Bryant

[Vishnu]

thanks

[LakersFan_73]

Fun game to watch. Thanks for the recap.

[City_Dawg]

Thanks DB

Onward to Cleveland.
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*sighs*

!...

[Klone_dd]

Too happy to comment now. Gutsy win.

[Phitenks]

Good read! Keep up the good work.

What an INTENSE game. So glad Lakers won. Whatever the Celtics say, they know it was more than just a regular season game. I'm glad the team as a whole was able to overcome fatigue due to the road games. They focused and pulled out with an amazing win.

I wish Kobe didn't shoot so much in the end, but he did what he thought was best to get the win. They could have gone to Gasol more often (such a mismatch down low), but maybe he was tired too. Through it all, everybody pretty much played well. No real complaints here.

[Jeffs]

Game definitely deserves a double smiley. Thanks, DB!
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Jeffs

I feel like I just watched someone TRULY give 100%. Not the BS I'm-gonna-give-a-110%-just-like-everyone-else-says platitudes, but someone that went until he just....broke. - GT

[Tony Almeida]

[lakersfreak]

DB
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Forget carbon, reduce your government footprint

[japanesebeef1]

I love the cave . . . apt.

[Jeffs]

[The_Lakers_Show]

Celebrating like we won the finals?...... God I hate the (bleep) Celtics
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Go Lakers
Go Packers
Go Angels
Go Trojans

Buck Foston

[dna.]

They said the same thing about our Christmas day win too

[Omar Little]

This just in: The Celtics are soft...
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“We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” ― Elie Wiesel

[StuLantz#1]

Thanks DB. Great win. They'll always be a big concern until they're knocked out of postseason, and it was a really close game, but a win is a win and this was another one against Boston. Funny to see Allen claiming that was a foul, or House's posturing (or Garnett during the game). They're trying to be the same tough, physical team they were last year, but this year's Lakers hasn't been at all intimidated and are instead ramming it back down their throats. I love it. But given the whole context of the game it was an impressive win and deep down they know our confidence is at another level. Rivers is going to really try to convince Brown to unretire (or go after someone like Brad Miller if that's at all possible).

Cleveland is going to be tough--undefeated at home. Hopefully we didn't use all our intensity on these guys.

[TooMuchMajicBuss]

[Texas_Pete]

Thanks DB!

LO: 18 second half points including 2 clutch FTs!! This LO dude sure can play when he wants to. I just wish he gives that kind of effort every game. His aggression was key in KG fouling out. KG couldn't just roam around like he always do. I'm proud of LO.

[ReaListik]

What was incredible is how they pulled out the win even after playing the worst ball they'd played the entire year. It's all due to their mental toughness tonight and unwillingness to back down. They stood up to the bully and pulled out the win.

Kobe's finger point reminded me of someone who is on an entirely different plane of superiority telling the enemy to step off.
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"We are the goodest." - Shaq ESPN interview

[TooMuchMajicBuss]

[AllorNothing]

Anybody know what's going on with sasha's shot? It's horribly flat and rushed.

[8750]

thanks, DB
this team is showing a great attitude... lamar and pau played this game with something that they didn't have last june... the celtics definitely miss not only posey but also and maybe more p.j. brown... it would be wonderful playing always defense as we did at the end, standing man on man and not letting their shooters wide open...

[jordanplusone]

Kobe with pointing at Lil Bow wow was totally the move of the night. LOL. "I'm Kobe Bryant, even unborn babies know me, and you are?"