Celtics weathered the early storm by the lakers and are playing them even, despite virtually no offense from the big 3

Celtics looked terrible in the 1st quarter and are still tied. Looks like they'll have to overcome the refs just as I suspected. 14 FT attempts for the Lakers and just 2 for the Celtics. That's a pretty big margin to ignore if it continues. Will the NBA do everything in its power to extend this series just as they did in 2002?

celtics needed the break here to figure out what the lakers are doing different on the defensive end so they can start driving and scoring

enuf of sam cassel

This is funny on so many levels

and now the C's are in trouble...

the offense is just not clicking at all

and yet only down by 6

Apparently Kobe has decided that he doesn't want to shoot FT's at an acceptable rate

Celtics lead (although Pierce has 4 fouls)

C's with a nice comeback here in this game. One possession game

It's really painful to watch Eddie House bring the ball up the court.

I would have never have thought that Sasha Vujacic would ever turn into a productive player. He's turning into one of my favorite players

Doc needs to take Rondo out. Good attempt to come back, but he's just a step too slow

c's aren't going to be able to pull it out - but at least they kept it close which is really what was important I suppose

Kobe Dagger :/

So....why aren't the Celtics double-teaming Kobe again? Especially with the shot clock winding down with under a minute to go.

Thank goodness Sasha showed up

Ugly game, I didn't think the score would be that low in LA

Ended up caving in and watching the 4th Q. Ugly basketball from both teams, but the Celtics in particular looked bad on offense, mostly due to House taking 12 seconds to get the ball across court and start running a play.

Solid finish from Kobe too.

Game 4 now becomes very important for the Celtics.

I think the fact the celtics were in it till the end will put them in good shape for game 4 -- better than if they were blown out

It was an ugly game. Game 4 is not very important for the Celtics, it is for the Lakers though. The Lakers have to sweep at home or they're finished. Remember, the Celtics have home court advantage not the Lakers. Pierce won't go 2-14 again and KG didn't play that well either, but the Celtics were still in it to the end.

Why can't Kevin Garnett post up Pau Gasol? This really baffles me.

3 games in a row on the road isn't much of a home court advantage. Very easy to drop three in a row on the road.

FREE THROW ATTEMPTS 34-22 HOW HOW

Just ask yourself this question- Who's in more trouble if they go down 3-2, the Lakers or the Celtics? The Lakers absoutely need to sweep at home. And they just said on tv that sweeping games 3,4,5 doesn't occur very often in the 2-3-2 format.

KG doesn't like to post anybody up in general. He needs to though

I never said FTs should be even, or that fouls cost the Lakers Game Two. I challenge you to find where I said that. Anywhere.


And since I never did that (pin the loss on the refs), I am hoping you will man up and apologize. Frankly, I doubt you will.

It's not really Garnett's game, and Gasol is a pretty sound defender too. Garnett falls in love with those turn around fade aways far too often.

Agreed. Game Four is still relatively meaningless for the C's. If they lose Four, then Five will have a little bit more tension for them, I think, but even that not so much. Those two home games in their back pocket are huge right now. Every game at home is a Game Seven for the Lakers right now, while the Celtics have deservedly placed themselves inside a comfort zone.

Heh...like me trying to figure out Odom.

Actually, I was wondering that very thing as I was watching the game. KG is certainly not as flighty and inconsistent as Odom (in fact, he is generally frighteningly consistent), but there seems to be a certain softness to his game approach that I recognize from watching Odom's game. He's almost European in play style.

I liked how Odom tried to dunk the ball at the end of the game but missed anyways. It was quite fitting

Did Kobe just say shit on live TV?

Actually, Odom missed so many dunks, I think they're considering creating a new stat category for it.

He's a very unusual player, that's for sure. I can't think of anybody with Garnett's same set of strengths and weaknesses.

Even with the all the Donaghy hoopla, and the other conspiracy theories, I'm enjoying watching this series so far. I think it'll get much, much better.

Paul Peirce really has a knack for spiraling into awfulness when he's having a bad night. You can see it coming every time - he misses some early shots and then he spends the rest of the game taking terrible shots and wildly dribbling into people. It's really surprising to me how many people are trying to elevate him into the list of Celtics greats.

Not everything from my venting yesterday was directed towards you specifically. I disagreed with your quotes that "And if that game is called straight, maybe the Lakers go back with a split right now. Lakers' fans have every right to complain", and "they clearly benefited from referee calls tonight. Really, it's unbelievable that that is even in dispute when the FT discrepancy was almost four to one". That's all. I don't think I need to apologize for disagreeing. You felt I implied things that I don't think I did, and I feel you implied things that you're claiming not to. We'll agree to disagree and move on.

Really, I have to pull your quotes for you? Noting this above was a response directly quoting me and specifically states my argument was supposedly blaming the refs for the loss and claiming FTs should be equal, neither of which claim could be further from the truth.

How far will you go before you man up and say you screwed up? Now you're just flat lying. Honestly, at this moment, I don't think there's anyone in this forum's history I could muster less respect for.

Removed my response as molson apologized.

"And if that game is called straight, maybe the Lakers go back with a split right now. Lakers fans have every right to complain"

I don't get why you're so worked up over this. How is this quote not blaming the refs on the loss? That's how I took it, and your other 8 posts bringing up the FT disparity. If that's not what you mean, fine, I believe you, and apologize for the misunderstanding.

You accused me earlier of making "inferences" that I wasn't intending to make at all. I understand how you could have thought that, so I clarified. This is the same thing.

If's and maybe's don't mean I am saying that's what I believe. To believe that also directly contradicts at least three or four posts where I specifically stated that the Celtics won on merit. Surely you read those?

I only said the above as a framework for how Lakers fans would have a right to complain. I still believe the idea they somehow don't have the right to complain is ridiculous.

Since you have apologized, I will go back and amend my previous post.

Good game for the Lakers.

On defense, they moved to a wierd zone defense where they double-team less than when they did on man-to-man. I didn't think they'd be able to pull it off.

They came out strong offensively and were constantly attacking the basket. Vujacic was excellent for the Lakers tonight.

Similar to how the Lakers lost Game 2 due to horrible defense, the Celtics lost Game 3 due to horrible offense. Paul Pierce was just a non-entity due to foul trouble and Luke Walton simply riding him like a madman whenever he was in the court.

A couple of notes:

- Lamar Odom has YET to show up in this series. As aggressive as he has been tonight, he certianly looks too relaxed.

- I am starting to hate PJ Brown's smirk. I noticed it during his altercation with Farmar, and I couldn't get my mind off of it since then. It's like he's constantly amused at something.

- Someone remind Radmanovic that he is not a dribble-drive player. For the LOVE OF GOD.

- I am almost 100% sure that Doc Rivers does no actual in-game coaching and is just a motivational speaker and a human hand towel.

- Thank you, Danny Crawford. You are my favorite pro-Laker ref. :)

Lakers need to ditch Luke Walton this offseason. Get some scrub post player

I actually think Walton put in a very good 11 minutes during the game. He had did a decent job of manning Pierce while Kobe was resting and even cleanly blocked a shot from PP.

Celtics lost this game because Pierce AND Garnett both dissapeared and were non-entities offensively. They were in the game right up until the end, but getting basically nothing from those two players all night killed them. It would have been amazing had they managed to pull it out, but frankly i'm not surprised they didn't. If there was ever a game the Lakers were "supposed" to win (by virtue of it being the first home game of the series) this was it.

1) Who is Jeffery Osbourne?
2) What the hell was he singing?

Go Green!

Ok, the refs aren't exactly NOT taking attention away from the Donaghy accusations so far.

Celtics - blowing chunks early

ballgame

I wonder if the Celtics pussies are hurting