Poor Gasol. He's being thrown around like a ragdoll on every offensive rebound

"Hi, I'm Paul Pierce. I'm going to dribble in one spot for 20 seconds and then hit a three in your face, k?"

Pierce did a little Jimmy Chitwood there.

Can Phil Jackson make the right halftime adjustments for once?

In the four games so far, the Celtics have outscored the Lakers by a collective 116-73 in the third quarter

I think that is the fourth time I have seen that stat in this thread :)

Way late call there.

So now that Tony Allen is having his show, when do we finally get to see the dominant Scalabrine-Pruitt tandem? Is there anyone else on the Celtics' bench we're missing?

Pierce through FOUR people.

And Chief, only if Big Baby gets some time ;)

I don't think Pruitt is suited up. I'd love to see Scalabrine come in. Davis hasn't played in the series yet, and I think it would be worth it to bring him in for a few minutes and push Gasol around a little bit.

Four on Kobe!

Well, that was an unconventional 6-0 run, good run by the lakers.

BTW, odds that Kobe will get his fifth foul at all? I think Stern would shoot the refs from the luxury boxes if Kobe picked up a cheap fifth foul.

Even if the Lakers hang on tonight, I haven't seen anything to suggest they can come close to winning one in Boston, let alone two.

I agree. He prolly has the remote for the old ref's pacemaker as his insurance just in case.

Ugh. Odom for three, come on Celtics.

I wish I didn't hate the NBA, so I could enjoy my favorite team closing in on a championship. :(

Well, to be fair, they almost took each of the games in Boston playing this same way, from what I can tell (even if it took close to a phenomenal comeback to get back into one of them). So not sure we'll see anything here that will suggest one or another how games back in Boston would go (should we get to that).

All that said, yeah, I am in the camp that thinks if the C's don't win it tonight, they'll win a single digit victory on Tuesday and take the trophy.

Posey has hit some huge three's in this series.

dola

I love the "fall down so the defense converges and leaves Posey wide open for a three" play. Please draw up more of those.

lol

just told foz, the funny thing about that play is it was the exact same image as game 4...same wide-open-ness, same defender flashing over, same "nothing but net" same off-balance...same follow-through...etc.

you could superimpose the two and it'd be one look I bet

I dunno CR. There seems to be no toughness, no teamwork, absolutely no consistency. Really it shouldn't be THAT hard to hang onto a big lead. They are just letting the Celtics score at will for long periods of the game.

I don't remember it being this bad for games 1 and 2. Game 2 in particular they showed a lot of really good qualities in nearly coming back.

Anyway, it might be moot. Celtics have the momentum now and could finish it tonight.

Garnett with five fouls and Pierce with five.

Wonder if Stern finally decided enough is enough? (kidding)

Maybe Scals will make it into the game after all.

That's a big non call there. Looked like a reach in on Kobe.

Heh, Sack said to me that he thought that was a foul on Kobe's reach on that steal, but late in the game, you can't expect that call

I was just ranting about that. There were two off-the-ball fouls called on Pierce and Garnett, and I'm still not sure what they did wrong, but on this one, the whistle gets swallowed?

Really?

of course. The league wants a game 6 (well they want game 7, but they gotta start somewhere)

See ya in Boston for Game Six

BTW, was I right or was I right about Kobe not picking up any more fouls?

Even as they win, poor defense from the Lakers. House was wide open for the 3 that would have made this a really interesting game - he just blew the shot.

I agree with the announcers, if the Lakers defense doesn't improve, they have no shot in Boston.

WOW - circus shot from House and then the Lakers nearly throw it away.

Heh. Just had a foz go ranty/ravey moment about the "Well, the refs calling fouls let them back into the game" comment in the post game interview.

I agree and I'm a Laker fan. :(

I think the thing that stood out to me that the announcers said that is on the mark is when they noted how the Celtics' shots all look easier than the Lakers' shots. That's so true, and says a lot about why this series is going the way it is.

And it's not all about the defense, although that's certainly the main part of it. It's also about the decision-making on offense.

Anyone catch the Odom post game interview? I didn't catch the reporter, but I bet it was a Boston area guy. He asks Odom why he disappears at times and other tiems shows up, and LO is like, "Sorry, I didn't hear your question"? To which the reporter says, "You heard me", lol.

I like LO but he is a guy that deserves to be grilled for his inconsistency. After he gets of the stage, let's get Gasol up there and have that reporter ask the same question. :)

I'd love for somebody to ask Gasol how he's 7 feet, 260+ lbs and consistently gets beaten inside by guys like Paul Pierce & James Posey.

I'm guessing his English might get real bad all of a sudden :D

Actually it was resident LA area media asshole TJ Simers who asked the question. Well, that's fitting.

Still good to see the question being asked.

Thank goodness that Perkins didn't play Game 5. It was obvious how weak the Celtics front-court is without him inside pushing Odom/Gasol. The Lakers were able to play the highpost-lowpost game between Gasol and Odom with Perk on the sidelines.

Anyone know if he'll be back for game 6?

To be fair, the refs swallowed their whistle numerous times on Garnett in the last bit of the game

Solid win for the Lakers, considering they played well for 3.5 quarters of the game. (Part of the second quarter notwithstanding). Doubt they win 2 at Boston.

Kobe showed a lot about his character and will to win tonight. Unfortunately for him, everyone will look at his shooting stats and the non call on the steal he had (Nevermind the illegal screen right before :))

I can't hazard a guess as to who wins either of these next 2 games. Boston seems like the logical choice, as they're at home, and have played better basketball overall during the series. Kobe Bryant has a superhuman performance in him. Enough to carry his team on his back and climb Chowd Mountain. Will we see it? I dunno. I hope so. That's always the best thing about the NBA Playoffs. Bird's steal and pass to Dennis Johnson, Jordan's "Beats me!" shoulder shrug against Portland, Jordan's flu game, LeBron's assault on the Pistons last year.....It's all about the moments that have Billy and Steve Q. Suburbia talking the next day at the IT water cooler.

HERE We Go. End it, Celtics.

1. What was Paula Cole wearing.
2. I gotta say, I do like NBA introductions. I'd be pretty pumped to play getting introduced as a starter in a big NBA finals game.

Ugh, Salvatore's reffing? Be interesting to see who gets the ticky-tack fouls.. the other two have a reputation for letting em play.

Who are the refs tonight? Is it really Bennett Salvatore and Joey Crawford? (I think Crawford is even worse than a biased ref - seeing that look in his eye as he hopes to get a chance call technicals and interject himself into the proceedings is no fun at all.)

Salvatore, Crawford and Rush.

NBA wants a game 7...

Perkins didn't jump for the initial jump ball.. That doesn't fill me with confidence.

Ok, time to put Pierce on Kobe to start.

pierce on kobe and give me backups instead of perk (big baby time?) perk's fighting for boards, but he's not going up strong with them

I like the combo of Van Gundy and Jackson by ESPN. Nice having two colour guys - Van Gundy in particular - who know what they are talking about.