Wow. It is everything I hoped to avoid (Kobe winning another Title and MVP in the same year & rehabbing himself enuff to become the face of the game again - thus crippling it in the U.S. until that changes or the the Celtics adding to their legacy and becoming resurgent).
I’ll not pretend that this isn’t a compelling match-up though or a really interesting Final. It is. Very exciting and very neat.
Dan Patrick yesterday ran an interview he had with Kobe 1 year before and Kobe was pissed that the Bynum for Jason Kidd trade was not made. No one dreamed that there could be a Kwame for Gasol in the future.
I guess I look to see what the Celtics can do defensively, especially with Gasol and Odom, San Antonio had some sucsess disrupting them (Esp. in Game 3) and we saw it some in the Jazz Series as well. To get 4 wins I think they need to do that in 5 Games because I think Kobe is good for a win by himself.
I think the Celtics won’t do that and the Lakers will win 4-2 Which implies a Lakers win in Boston which is really hard to see but that is my best Guess*
*Like the Detroit over Celts Guess, SA over LA guess, Wizards over Cleveland Guess.
It’s cool to see a Celtics-Lakers Finals, even though it’s not really anything like it used to be.
I have a feeling it’s going to be the Lakers in 5 or 6. As much as I’d like to see KG get a ring, I think Kobe is too hot right now, and you have to respect Phil Jackson’s record in the Finals.
Diehard Lakers fan here (since Magic was a rookie) and I have a lot of concerns about Boston’s stifling defense. Lakers have a ton of weapons now, but those two regular season blowouts still weigh heavily in my mind. And ever since the Ray Allen-Kobe tiff a few years ago Allen always does serious damage on the Lakers.
Big key is how Garnett handles Lakers big men down low. Odom has a way of getting his panties in a bunch when we most need him. Big Daddy Garnett could sure turn Odom into his bitch. He could also do the same to Gasol on weakside help situations, who oftentimes suffers from Eurowimpitis.
Biggest advantage for the Lakers (well, besides Kobe turning into an offensive juggernaut at any given moment) is that Phil should coach circles around Doc Rivers.
But then, which Boston team is showing up? The one that Atlanta took to seven games or the one that won 66 in the regular season?
I don’t like this 2-3-2 format (somebody had to say it). I can see the Lakers up 3-2 going back to Boston and close calls going to the home team. Not that the Lakers haven’t benefited from it in the past (see: 1988 NBA Finals).
I’ll say Lakers in six, but could easily see Boston in seven.
Boston in 6. But this looks like a great matchup. I haven’t seen many Lakers games this year but they’ve looked impressive in the playoffs, much better then Boston’s spotty play. Still, the home field advantage should loom large.
I’m excited about this matchup, although I’m sure it’ll get tiresome to hear about the history over the next five gameless days. I do want Garnett to have a chance to win one, but I also like this Lakers team and I think this is their year.
I have friends who actually have tickets to some games in the Finals and they are saying blowout, Lakers in 5. They’re not of the myopic sort and the Lakers have played impressively in the playoffs and the Celts have been off and on, so they may have something.
I hope they’re right!!!
Re: the whole history thing and how it will be overblown: I think a big reason this won’t have the same air is because there aren’t really any players to loathe on either team (well, Kobe, but he’s more polarizing than a free-for-all hatefest magnet and, let’s face it, a complete stud on the court). I mean K.G., Ray Allen, Pierce, they’re all pretty likable guys. Lakers, too – well Sasha can be something of an irritant knucklehead, but his antics often come more out of ignorance than being a genuine mean-spirited baiter. You look back in the day, how could you not hate Mouth Loud Carr, whiny Ainge, clothesline master McHale, etc. And as Johnny Most once said, “Kurt Rambis didn’t come out of a phone booth, he came out of a sewer.”
I’m a huge Lakers fan from way back. This will be an exciting matchup between two excellent teams. I find it remarkable that the Lakers are here, as I would’ve never thunk it at the beginning of the season. I’m sure as hell not going to make any predictions, but I’ll go ahead and make a bet on the series with my diehard Celtics fan buddy.
I’m with you, Darryl. Who foresaw this season coming?
I saw an improvement (if Kobe stayed) just due to the fact the team playing together for another season would get them on the same page learning the triangle, but good God, this has been a storybook season, damn-near perfect except for Bynum’s injury. So good it almost seems surreal. So good it almost seems like Jerry West convinced Memphis brass to help make the Lakers great again…
I’ve lived in Boston and rooted for my home teams all my life. But with the exception of the Red Sox (I’m a baseball fan more than a team fan) my attention to the teams definately ebs and flows proportionally with how well they are doing. So before this season started going so well the last time I watched a Celtic’s game was when they were in the playoffs with New Jersey a couple of years ago.
Now I’m back into Green again, and I’m actually enjoying the game of basketball more. I watched a couple games where the Lakers took apart their opponent, and I thought the New Orleans/San Diego series was very entertaining. Needless to say though, I’m very excited about the Boston/LA finals.
Good game tonight, I listened to it on the radio and you could hear everyone in The Garden going nuts for most of the night, especially when Paul Pierce came back out of the locker room. I don’t think the Celtics will win by 10 points every game though, especially when they have to go back to LA. In every series so far leading up to the finals the Celtics have had at least one or two bad games, games that make you think that this team shouldn’t have made it to the finals. Luckily tonight was a night where the team clicked and they did look like the deserved Eastern Conference Champions.
And for those one or two bad games I talked about, Kobe will also have a couple monster games. Not that he didn’t play well tonight but he’ll really explode in some games. Still picking Boston though, won’t be easy, it’ll be in seven
Yeah, guess who went to bed at halftime, BUT …
was smart enough to TiVo it and watch the rest while eating breakfast. :mad: :eek:
A 24-point comeback on the road from either of these teams I would have believed, but if you’d told me that the key in the series was going to be Doc Rivers outcoaching Phil Jackson, I’d have started finding nice men in white coats to take care of you.
Looks like telemark has the inside spot on winning the prediction contest.
It’s nice to see Pierce win one at last, but Ray Allen deserves at least as much credit.
On the other hand, I’ve seen a bunch of ‘This proves Kobe is no MJ’ articles. Now I despise Kobe’s character as much as the next guy*, but that’s hardly a fair comparison: if Kobe had Pippen and Rodman, while Jordan had Ariza and Radmonovich, we’d be saying “MJ was OK, but he was no Kobe”.
Am I the only one who finds it really disturbing that “No means no” Kobe compared their performance to an unpleasant wet spot on a bed? (In context, he apparently means a child bet-wetting, but still…)
The fair comparison is Pippen/Rodman to Odom/Gasol. Advantage is still to MJ but it’s much, closer. I think the Lakers have better team depth and they get to play against a more watered down league with more teams and the better players more spread out.
And, Jordan never wet the bed and let his team allow the other team to stage the greatest comeback in finals history on his home floor.
Kobe is good, he is not and never will be in Jordan’s class.
I just wanted to say that having championship games in the middle of the night during the week is utterly asinine. Would it kill them to have at least one game on a Friday night, Saturday, or during the day on Sunday? One game? If there’s a Game 7, it starts on a Thursday at 9, and we’re lucky it’s in Boston, if it were in LA, it would be 10:30? Completely moronic.
Other than that, I think the Lakers take the next one; the Celtics are pretty beat up at the moment.
He’s also one HELLUVA wild-emotions guy, huh? Loved it when he raced to center court and knelt to kiss the Celtics logo. I wonder if he managed to hug everybody in the entire Garden?
I was out at a bar last night with a friend who’s a Boston cop, and he really wants them to win the series out in LA.