Thoughts on First Three Games of the 2008 NBA Finals

Hello Everyone I realize this rather late but here are my thoughts on the first three games of this series.

GAME ONE

For the Men in Green

1) Kevin Garnett, in his first NBA Finals run, was clearly the player of the game

(forgetting about his nine straight second-half misses) by dropping 24 on the Lakers while collecting 13 boards while providing a stifling defensive presence through out the game. In the fourth quarter he chased down a sloppy Ray Allen pass to the half-court line which kept a Beantown possession alive and a Sam Cassell jumper was the result. In the game’s final two minutes he then threw down a vicious follow-up jam off a James Posey long-range misfire (which was another possession he kept alive by getting his hands on a Rajon Rondo free throw clank) and knocking down two throws to seal Team Green’s triumph.

2) Props also goes to Paul “Willis Reed” Pierce“ for his gutsy performance last night by returning to the game after his sprain his knee and then nailing two trifectas when checking back into the contest and finishing the game with 18 points. It was also probably no coincidence that the Lakers ripped off a 14-6 run to end the first half after PP went to the bench after picking up his third foul with 5:14 remaining in the second quarter.

For the Purple and Gold

1) The Lakers can take comfort in the fact that their game one set-back comes on a night when Kobe had an off shooting-night, where he finished with just nine buckets on 26 attempts. The Mamba did have good miss several shots he would normally knock down but also credit the Celtic defense for clogging the lane which forced the Kobester into taking more jumpers then he might have wanted to. But do credit Kobe for making several outstanding passes to his teammates who knocked down some shots but weren't able to cash in on several other golden opportunites.

2) Phil Jackson and his staff have to be concerned that Vladamir Radmanovic can not keep up with Paul Pierce defensively, nor can Luke Walton. So that means Kobe will probably have to play a lot of small forward during this series which in turn means Sasha Vujacic see a lot of minutes at the two guard. Vujacic will give a good effort on Ray Allen defensively (although he got lost on a couple of occasions last night while on Allen) but if Sasha goes on cold streaks with his shooting as he did last night this could be a big problem for the Lake Show. The Zen Master may have to seriously consider giving Trevor Ariza minutes at small forward to lock down Pierce during the series assuming Ariza is in shape to handle such a duty. Or another possibility for Jackson: consider using Derek Fisher and Jordan Farmar backcourt at the same time while Kobe is at small forward.

3) Jackson pulled Lamar Odom with 1:49 left in the fourth quarter and brought Radmanovic back because the Celtics were sending defensive help off Odom. I would try to always keep Odom in the game-unless he was having a truly awful night while- because not only is Odom the better player and the Lakers need his rebounding, when Radmanovic checked in the game, Doc Rivers inserted James Posey into the lineup, meaning Kevin Garnett was the center. In my opinion, this smaller, quicker lineup with Kevin Garnett, James Posey and Paul Pierce in the frontcourt can be just as effective if not more effective for the Celtics for the entire season although PJ Brown did make a solid contribution off the bench last night.

GAME TWO

My Finals prediction before the series was the Los Angeles Lakers in five or six games and although this series is by no means over, it looks like the Boston Celtics will win this series in six games or possibly even in five.

With the exception of the final six minutes of the game, the Celtics could have beaten the 80’s Showtime Lakers or the 71-72 Lakers or any other great NBA clubs.

Of course having a 38-10 advantage at the free throw can help you beat anyone.

The Lakers had been able to win in the post-season with out him, but now in the Finals the team now officially misses Andrew Bynum. When one of the Celtics-like Paul Pierce or Rajon Rondo takes it to the hoop, the Lakers have no choice but to collapse on him because there’s no real defensive presence in the paint. Thus the Celtics can kick out to one of their shooters and the Laker defenders are having trouble rotating out to them.

It was the Lakers reserves: Jordan Farmar, Sasha Vujacic, Rony Turiaf and Luke Walton a.k.a. “The Bench Mob” that had played so well during the season and was supposed to give the Lakers an advantage in this series but after a quiet game one, they didn’t really show up last night either until six minutes were remaining in the fourth quarter of last night‘s game.

As it turned out it’s the reserves for the Men in Green--Leon Powe, PJ Brown, James Posey and Sam Cassell--who have had the most impact in the first two games of the series.

Of course Leon Powe was the story of last night’s game. A 2006 second round draft pick of the Denver Nuggets, he was the the Pacific 10 Conference Freshman of the Year during the 2003-04 season and think how good he could have been if he hadn’t suffered that knee injury before his sophomore season at California. Needless to say Powe was awesome last night as he morphed from former-college-basketball-star-trying-to-revive-his-career into a hybrid of Bob McAdoo (scoring 21 points in 15 minutes), Adrian Dantley (getting to the charity stripe 13 times) and Julius Erving (throwing down a couple of crazy power dunks).

And was that Rajon Rondo running the Celtics offense/picking apart the Lakers defense/handing out 16 assists last night or was it Chris Paul in disguise?

Is it possible for a player to be both terrific and awful at the same time? Well, Vladamir Ramanovic showed it was possible last night. He scored 13 points, pulled down 13 rebounds and played a key role in last night’s fourth quarter rally. However he also helped snuff out the clubs third quarter rally where the Celtics lead was cut to nine points as he took an ill-advised shot and made a bad pass while being burned twice on defense which allowed Paul Pierce to score twice and the Celtics re-claimed control of the game. During the club’s fourth quarter comeback, Vlad failed to pull a KG miss shot which went straight to him, resulting in a Ray Allen layup. He also lost track of James Posey, who hit a three pointer in the corner to put the Celtics up 102-88 with 3:38 remaining in the game.

Was the Lakers rally good for them as it gives them more confidence as the Finals now shifts back to their crib or was it bad for them because it may make the Celtics sharper and more focused for the rest of the series?

One thing is a must for the Lakers: attack the Celtics defense-which has been so good so far-with the Side Pick and Roll as it really confused Doc Rivers club when they started using it in the third quarter. I’m puzzled as why the club didn’t to it more often in the same way I was when Oscar De La Hoya stopped using his jab against Floyd Mayweather,

The Lakers ran the wrong play with 22 seconds left in the game and triailing 106-102 by deciding to have Kobe Bryant inbounds the ball and then run to the other side of the floor and post him up on the weak side. It instead resulted in a Vujacic three pointer which was blocked by that Paul Pierce guy.

Everyone outside of Beantown think Paul Pierce was acting/faking his knee injury in game one, but I think PP did his best acting job drawing Kobe’s third foul in the second quarter as he flew backwards and landed on his back after Kobe simply bumped into him while chasing Ray Allen on defense.

Do you get the feeling that Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson are going to get into a fight--and a real bad one--really soon? They just don't belong on the same announcing crew as they seem to vehemently disagree on almost everything that they say.

GAME THREE

Game Three was perhaps the “ugliest” exciting contest in NBA Finals history.

At times the Lakers and Celtics looked as graceful as contestants on “Wipeout” and “I Survived A Japanese Game Show” The Celtics shoot just a notch under 35% from the field while the Lakers convert on 44.5% of their attempts. The biggest surprise is that Kevin Garnett (6-of-21) and Paul Pierce (2-of-14) are the Celtics chief contributors to last night’s Brick-A-Thon. Meanwhile Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom, the number two and three options in the Laker attack have 3-of-9 and 2-of-9 efforts from the field. The shooting from the charity-stripe wasn’t much better as Doc River’s crew shot just 15-22 while Phil Jackson’s unit finally had their free throw advantage, going to the line 34 times (after just getting 10 attempts on Sunday,) but unfortunately didn’t fully capitalize on it, sinking just 61.8 % of their throws.

Kobe, who went just-11-of-18 from the foul line, on his free throw shooting woes last night: “I felt like I was in a foreign territory, because I haven‘t been there in so long. It‘s like somebody took me and just dropped me off the middle of Shangai with no translator.” He then added “At least I got there. So that’s a positive”

If the Spurs and Pistons had both reached the Finals and played a game like this, the Nielsen’s ratings for game four would drop to single digits and everyone would moan and groan about the sad state of the NBA is currently in. However because this is the Celtics and the Lakers, last night’s bump-and-grind below the century mark affair is tolerated and even viewed as another classic chapter in the rivalry.

If you’re a fan of the Purple and Gold you’re certainly delighted that the squad got its first W of the series rather then falling into a 3-0 hole which would’ve essentially ended the series but you’ve got to be a little concerned that even with KG and Inglewood’s favorite son, Paul Pierce taking unofficial vacations while Rajon Rondo is limited to 18 minutes after suffering a slight ankle sprain that the Lakers barely escaped with a victory.

Of course, one reason for the Lakers struggles is that Lamar Odom and Vladamir Radmonovic both got into foul trouble again while Pau Gasol frustrated the club’s fans with an awful night blowing several chip shots and could soon have his picture in the dictionary when you look up the word “soft”.

Phil Jackson really should really consider starting Luke Walton at small forward for the Lakers. Radmanovic can’t stay out of foul trouble and although Walton isn’t having a good offensive series his passing skills and court sense would be valuable against the Celtics tough D. Also when Luke Walton has come off the bench, he often winds up as the second unit’s power forward matching up against Leon Powe, something Radmanovic would be better suited for. The Serbian long-range shooting specialist would also be good option in certain situations to replace Lamar Odom.

I think Phil Jackson is an outstanding NBA coach and have always vehemently disagreed with those that claim he has only won his nine titles because he simply had the luxury of coaching Kobe, Shaquille O’Neal, Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. However I do think he does makes questionable coaching decisions at times. Tonight there were a few things that caused me to scratch my head as the Celtics went on a 15-3 run in the middle of the third quarter to take a 54-50 lead .

1) Where was the side pick-and-roll that was so effective for the Lakers in the second half of game two? Perhaps Doc Rivers and his staff drew up a defensive scheme that could counter it by why not try it once or twice when the team went cold, scoring just three points in nine possessions as Team Green took control of the game.

2) Why was Trevor Ariza inserted into the game at the 7:54 mark of the third quarter instead of red-hot Sasha Vujacic who had dropped 12 points on the Celtics in the first half? OK, perhaps Phil didn’t want to burn out Kobe by having him defend Pierce, but with 4:58 remaining in the quarter, Doc Rivers sat down PP and brought James Posey into the game. This would have been the ideal time to bring in Sasha and assign him to Ray Allen while Kobe could save energy while watching Posey and also double off him when necessary. But Phil stuck with Ariza and waited to bring Sasha until there was only 1:07 left in the third quarter, again when the Lakers were in need of some scoring punch as the Celtics reclaimed the lead.

It reminded me of game two of the 2004 NBA Finals when Phil kept Luke Walton on the bench after he racked up eight assists in the first half but stayed with Devean George and didn’t bring him back Luke back into the game until there were ten minutes left in the game.

Fortunately for the Lakers, No. 24/The Black Mamba/ was on his game tonight (except when shooting free throws) and willed his team to victory in crunch time finishing the game with 36 points on 12-of-20 shooting and showed us all that he is the best player in the game today.

For the Lake Show as great as Kobe was, it’s a good thing their Machine from Bosnia showed up and assumed the role of super-sub off the bench as he complemented Kobe‘s 36 with 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting (while the rest of the squad provided just 31 points) as Leon Powe of Beantown was bumped back into the role of KG”s ineffective caddy logging just six minutes of PT and scoring only one point.

I’m glad that PJ Brown and Jordan Farmar didn’t start throwing down with each other after getting tangled up for a rebound in the second quarter. If they had, we might have witnessed another ugly Kermit Washington-Rudy Tomjanovich moment.

Speaking of PJ Brown, anyone notice that he is a dead-on ringer with Guru from Gang Starr?

Bill Laimbeer was a guest analyst along with Michael Cooper for the Laker post-game show here on the ABC affiliate in Los Angeles. What’s next? Will Kevin McHale volunteer to be Kurt Rambis’ personnel body guard during the Finals?