Game 1 Wrap-Up
By Coup
Adversity.
The Boston Celtics continue to overcome adversity every time it comes their direction. When Paul Pierce went down with a knee injury it looked as if all was lost. Not just Game 1 but the entire Finals. Goodbye championship. Phones across the nation blew up with text messages encoded with some combination of the words “series” and “over”. The Boston faithful were completely deflated. The ‘Beat LA’ chants lost the majority of their zip and were as forced as an interaction with your high school physics teacher. As Pierce was carried off so was their hopes, dreams, admirations and all the hard work put into the entire year.
Unbelievably to Boston fans, Adversity had reared her head back into Boston’s life. This time she came with a vengeance. However, as they had all playoffs they overcame. Ray Allen hit one of the biggest shots of the game, a three pointer from the corner to even the game at 62. And then from a moment out of a movie, ABC captured it perfectly as Paul Pierce came bouncing out of the tunnel. The Garden erupted and the Celtics were revived. Momentarily as the Lakers survived the onslaught thanks to Phil Jackson calling a timeout. The storm was halted…until Paul Pierce hit two back to back three’s and turned this into an amazing moment.
…that Mark Jackson had to ruin by mentioning Willis Reed.
All of that aside, Pierce was phenomenal in the third quarter. Aside from being carried out like he was in the WNBA and his overreaction to being scratched by Lamar Odom, this was a great game for Paul Pierce. It was clear that he was the piece of the puzzle that Phil Jackson wanted to take away. His response in the third quarter, even before the injury was major league. It was just what the Celtics needed from their Captain.
The Celtics have to be happy. Not just because they survived another night where Sam Cassell did more harm than good. And not just because of a simple victory. Because they know they can beat the Lakers. For one they know that they can get help in this series. One of the biggest questions coming into this series was the bench play. Everyone was questioning Boston’s and lauding LA’s. The fact of the matter is that tonight Boston’s bench outplayed the Lakers bench and LA cannot allow that to happen. Boston is a team that really relies on their role players in a major way. When they are getting a lift from the bench that means more rest time for at least 2 of the Big 3. They have a tremendous rebounding advantage, one that was exposed even though Kendrick Perkins did next to nothing. Too many times Odom and Gasol allow themselves to get shoved under the basket or all Lakers stare at the ball instead of finding their man and blocking him out.
Another reason to be happy? Kevin Garnett cannot be guarded by any one person in a Los Angeles Lakers uniform. This is just the truth. The only person that is going to stop Kevin Garnett in this series is going to be Kevin Garnett. If he keeps settling for the jumpshot than he is just going to self-check himself and leave Odom and Gasol off the hook. KG can go by Pau and attack the basket or post him up but too often he settles for a pullup or that stepback fadeaway. That’s why he missed his last 8 shots, because he continued to settle instead of attacking. If KG goes into attack mode he cannot be stopped. For some reason he wants to pull back.
For the Lakers…no time for crisis. This may have been their best chance to steal home-court advantage but it is not their last. They have to be comforted knowing they were in that game and that they have a masterful coach at the helm. Phil will make the right adjustments, the Lakers just have to go out and play. Lamar Odom was not very aggressive today at all and he’s a major reason why the Lakers did not pull out the W. I think Kobe played another great game tonight. Early in the first quarter he seemed to force it instead of letting it come to him. In the third quarter he just continued being Silent Assassin and taking what the C’s gave him, including some amazing fadeaways. The only problem is when it came time for him to transform into Mamba…the C’s wouldn’t let him do it. Last series against the Spurs he was getting layups and getting to the line, And-1’s galore. Tonight those were airball layups. He went to the line 4 less times than Rajon Rondo. Boston is going to let him take contested jumpers, but they proved that they can do a great job of protecting the paint I think Kobe only got 4-6 points in the paint. They will make an adjustment to make it easier so I wouldn’t get too happy Boston fans.
This is going to be a great series. If we learned anything from tonight it is that these two teams are more evenly matched up than we could have ever imagined. It was a pleasant surprise to be honest with you, very refreshing after last year’s Cavs/Spurs snoozefest. You could blame it on the nerves or the ‘feeling out’ process but that was a back and forth game for 45+ minutes. Now it comes down to what team is going to make the correct adjustments.
Or if Sam Cassell keeps jacking up jumpers.