You really are trying for 6000 posts tonight, aren't you? :)

Who, me?!?

Yep, you.

How'd I get over 1000? Kool.

Wow. Pierce pulling off a not so impressive Bird moment.

Major bullet dodged there with Pierce. ESPN Radio says sprained knee

Nah. Not gonna happen tonight. Too tired.

But lame, no content posts like this one is getting me closer.

:)

sweet jesus. these celtics love to flop.

Celtics lead by 8, biggest lead in the game by either team so far.

Indeed.

Thank you Sam Cassel for being the lone Laker in Green.

Cassell is terrible. I have no idea what he is doing out there at such a critical time.

he has his "effective windows" but doc needs to have a quicker hook with him, because once he hits a bad streak he's fucking horrid

His effective window is about 1 minute per half.

Gotta hand it to PJ Brown. He kept the Celtics alive in the third and towards the late fourth.

I had a feeling the Celtics would draw first blood. They're far more balanced than the Lakers, yet I think in the end that this is Kobe's year.

The Lakers are going to have to get a hell of a lot tougher on the boards if that's going to be the case, DC.

I have no doubt they will.

they haven't been tough on the boards all year...what makes you think they will now?

way to hold kobe to 9/26 !!!!

Garnett's rebound-jam off the Pierce miss gave me wood.

Defense and Rebounding baby...Defense and Rebounding!

yes. I literally screamed in joy

Yup. It's quite simple really. If he takes a shot and it goes in, leave him out there until he misses or the quarter ends, after which he doesn't enter the game again. If he takes a shot and misses it, yank him straight away and don't put him back in the game.

honestly I agree with you. I have a feeling you might have been kidding, but that's about it. Also...when he commits one "stupid" turnover - yank him.

Nope, not kidding at all. That's been my observation of him these playoffs. He's really little more than a volume shooter with an OK handle at this point in his career. He was never much more than that for his entire career, but he was athletic enough and saw enough minutes to find a rhythm, but in limited minutes off the bench he struggles to warm up. Too much of a risk to have him playing like that in a Finals series.

Rondo may be a second year guy with a dodgy jumpshot, but the team looks a hell of a lot better when he's quarterbacking than Cassell. His hustle on the offensive glass as well as the height he gets when contesting jump shots (usually someone else's man, too) are pretty amazing.

Good win for the C's. Lakers need to match the intensity if they want to have a chance in the series. Luckily, Kobe probably won't miss some of those good looks in the next couple of games.

We also have Eddie House sitting on the bench... a fantastic shooter who doesn't need to warm up and usually contributes an energy play to fire up the crowd when he's in.

at what point does it become "oh Kobe's just having an off series" and become giving credit to the celtics?

As a Laker fan, it's wierd not being the team with the benefit of the calls

Man, looked like the Lakers were making a run, got it to single digits, BAM 11-0 run Lakers down by 20

could it be now that the C's are up by 20 at the end of the 3rd?

I love the guy, but anytime LEON POWE (or as I'm calling him right now, LEON POW!) is dunking at will on you.. you got problems.

Lakers, you got problems

Powe has 14 pts - Kobe has 17

Defense looked great that quarter!

powe is about to outscore kobe

powe now with more pts than kobe with 10:04 left in the 4th

15 assists for Rondo

leon powe just sprinted the length of the floor, dribbled through the whole laker team and dunked it

The Celtics can just grind the Lakers down if they keep rebounding like this. I didn't think they had a chance, but it looks they really are a much, much better rebounding team than the Lakers. That's been the biggest difference so far.

Eh, anything that happens at this point does mean much because the lakers are looking towards going home. I can't wait to catch Lakertalk after this game, Money is going to have to talk a bunch of fans off of the ledge

or taking a contract out on the officials (been hearing a lot of that from LA fans)

While I agree with you that everyone on the Lakers bench except Kobe has given up on this game, I disagree with the dismissive attitude toward the game that you imply. This is a serious issue now with the Lakers. Losing Game 1 in a pretty tight one, and after leading at half wasn't a big deal. Getting blown out like this is just ugly, and as the Celtics' fans have pointed out, has shown a couple serious flaws in the Lakers' roster set that may be their undoing.

Fans will be on the ledge--and they will be right to be there, because the Lakers are in trouble.

Well, you have to admit that might be warranted. 30 FTs to 6 last I checked. Really, how do the C's fit the officials' salaries under the cap anyway? :)

We just charge you bandwagon LA fans more for those courtside seats. :D

Y'see, one team is driving to the hoop, dunking at will, and the like, and the other team is flinging up threes and settling for jumpers. Gasol might have 4-6 more FT's, but that's it, and only 30-12..

this is really the key. The C's started the game by driving driving driving, getting the laker's shooters in foul trouble and getting in the penalty early.

I know you're joking, and this isn't really directed towards you, but I don't get how people always look at FT disparity as some sort of evidence of unfairness. If referees are required to call fouls equally regardless of what's actually going on on the court, why don't we just get all the FTs out of the way before the game starts?

Magic/Larry commercial :)

Celtics have to be better at finishing off games.

yeah...a 29-7 run is not acceptable

Pretty embarrassing to let up like that.

Niiiiiice travel. :p

It's not evidence of unfairness. It is evidence that one team is getting called for far more damaging fouls than the other team. The reasons why are to the judgment of the observer, hopefully using other observations.

The driving thing is one good reason for the disparity. That said, the Lakers have to my eyes actually driven more to the basket in this game than in Game One, and the disparity has actually gotten larger.

Also, you would be ignoring the fact that there is a general trend to giving the home team more calls, a fact that has borne itself out throughout this playoffs. To disregard that and assume everything is on the up and up would be silly. It seems pretty clear to the Celtics have benefited here (and the Lakers will likely see similar benefits at home, thus the value of home court advantage).

Oh, and BTW, wow, nice comeback.

kudos to the lakers for making it an actual game - celtics really need to close out games better

The Celtics gotta have Killer Instinct in LA, that's two straight series we've almost thrown a big game away

I know the Celtics are a good defensive team, but you really should give the Lakers some credit

Paul Pierce is on his way to being a Boston-area legend.

It's not evidence of unfairness, I agree. But just because it isn't, doesn't mean that it was reffed fairly as well either

I don't watch a lot of NBA basketball, but there was one point late in the game where Vujacic was shooting a wide-open 3 right in front of the Boston bench. As soon as Vujacic caught the ball, three Celtics jumped up off the bench and started running toward him, screaming and waving their arms to try to distract him. Is that normal? Seems kinda bush league to me, but I dunno. Whatever the case, I thought it was pretty funny.

They got really hot from 3 ball land. No lead is safe if they hit threes like that

Already there. Heck, he would have been there just for surviving multiple stabbings, regardless of what he does on the court.

If anyone actually uses that term, I would probably just laugh. Most of their fans have no problem doing it themselves :)

Heh, really? I missed that. Yeah, that's bush league. Don't think it's normal, but maybe every team does it, and I just never noticed.

I'd say that's somewhat commonplace. You should watch Ben Howland on UCLA's sideline. He's notorius for waving his hands around when someone is on that side of the court

Very one sided game in my opinion. If the Lakers can even the series up at 2-2 I can see them winning this series in 7.

I saw that too, but I thought they were yelling at the ref for some call they thought was missed. I could be wrong, and it's already deleted from my TIVO.

Well, depends which fans you're talking about. The ones in Jack's neighborhood take out contracts. The ones in Pedro and Long Beach do it themselves.

The ones in the OC just cry themselves to sleep.

Yeah, it was the 2-on-1 where Radmanovic stole the ball and passed crosscourt to Vujacic for the 3. I guess I'm wondering if every team does that, or if maybe there are just a few guys in the league who'd pull that stunt.

I feel good, that only two teams have won all three games at home since the finals went 2-3-2, and the Lakers have to get all three.. do you think they can come to Boston and win both?

No, they didn't jump up until Vujacic caught the ball and was clearly about to start his shooting motion.

If they are up 3-2, yes. If they are down 3-2, no

I assume this is about the Vlady fastbreak dunk? I see a lot of travels in the NBA go uncalled (and probably saw about 5 off the top off my head tonight), but that was perhaps the most obvious travel I've ever seen go unwhistled. He shuffled his feet after picking up the ball, and then took 3 steps after that just in case anyone missed it the first time.

It'd be a pretty neat trick if the Lakers won two games in Boston if they go up 3-2. :D

Lakers fans shouldn't be complaining about the refs. They got destroyed by Boston for 3 quarters and deserved to lose. The Lakers made a nice run in the end, but ultimately the Celtics have them in a position where they have to sweep all 3 games at home or they're finished.

Wait, when did the NBA start calling traveling again, especially on a breakaway dunk?

There are four quarters in game if anything the Lakers should take this game as a positive.

It was a makeup call for the play right before where Kobe was grabbed and twisted. I'm at peace with it :)

Ya, I think it's like a language at this point - after some time, it changes, no matter what the dictionary/rules say. Traveling hasn't been called by the rules as long as I've been watching the NBA (since around 1986). At some point, people will finally give up and accept it.

You know what I mean :)

Newsflash, a game is four quarters long. You play all four before the game is in the books. And if that game is called straight, maybe the Lakers go back with a split right now. Lakers' fans have every right to complain.

The "Arizona Hop" rule

Traveling never gets called when a player is that far ahead of the defense.

That's been my experience with it, too, as I watched the NBA a lot from the early '80s up until John Stockton retired. Yeah, Radmanovic did travel, but nobody's calling that. Hell, once he got clear of the defense, he could've gone the whole way without dribbling and they wouldn't have called it.

Ummm no they don't. That game was called just fine.

I have no horse in this race but I think the Celtics got the best of that deal.

Easily. No one is blaming the refs for the loss, that is on the Lakers still. But the Lakers weren't the home team and didn't get the benefit of the calls. It's the unfortunate break

Yeah, and W is a good president!

Any NBA game = losing team's fans (and 50% of neutral fans) think they were screwed by refs

The Celtics play a weak schedule/can't win against the West/can't beat a good team in the playoffs/can't win on the road/get the benefit of referee calls.

You guys are hilarious!

dola

I'd also add that if it's true that home teams get the benefit of calls, then perhaps the Lakers should have won more games in the regular season.

It's fine to say that now, but there was good evidence for all of those except the second one (they always had a good record against the West). Can't really say people saying that at the time could have been said to be wrong at that point. It's only in hindsight that you can dismiss #3 and #4. And the Celtics did play a weak schedule (that is still true), 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.

Both your comments make little sense.

Chief, you know that physical teams rarely foul. :)

As much as I hate to see a Boston team be successful --- GO FOR THE SWEEP!!

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

maybe if the lakers drove to the rim instead of settling for jumpers they'd get more FT's

Playing the maybe if/what if game will get us no where. Maybe if the refs called the game a bit more balanced, we are tied 1-1 :)

KOBE CAN'T WIN WITHOUT SHAQ

JORDAN CAN"T WIN WITHOUT PIPPEN ;)

so when the C's lose a game in LA (and I have no doubt they will lose at least one) you Lakers fans are going to be okay with us Celtics fans bitching about all the calls the Lakers got, right?

you're not all going to be a bunch of hypocrites, right?

Whether or not they played a weak schedule is irrelevant. The criticism was that they only had a good record because of that weak schedule, which is a stupid criticism since they played very well when they did face tough teams.

Free throw disparity is a pretty dumb way to criticize refereeing. Do you think it is impossible for a team to commit 30 fouls and the other team to commit only 6? I don't think it is.

Let me ask you, what is a reasonable disparity? If the Lakers got 10 more calls, so it was 30-16? Then maybe the Celtics don't ease up and still win. Or would it have to be 30-30 for the game to be fair?