Game 7 Baby!
So 120+ games for both teams comes down to one game, 48 minutes of action to determine how the new decade of NBA basketball starts. No matter who wins this game history is made, the Cetlics the half hearted underdog, and the Lakers the team everyone picked to be here. The season had some surprises, but generally speaking I think at the begining of this season more then a majority of people knew the safe money was on the the rematch of the past two years Champions. I might be alone in coming out to say that, but seriously if you picked the Cavs you obviously havent seen Lebron’s supporting cast play on their previous teams, if you picked the Magic you are jumping the gun early on Dwight Howard, who might be Superman but acts more like Robin in big games offensively, and Carter is NOT the answer (whatever the hell that question might be), if you picked the Mavs Im sorry your insane (I will come back to this in a follow up post on how the offseason and next season will shape up), and if you picked the Suns to make the finals, here have a pat on your back, you should have put money on them getting as far as they did.
So back to this game, intangibles are dead, there is no motivation story needed, no big speech that the teams need to make to themselves on what to do, the only fact, leave it out there on the floor, if you come out of this game not exhausted you wont have won a title. Ill come out with 3 keys to tonights game, and surprisingly 2 out of 3 fall on the Celtics. 1, The frontcourt, backcourt and coach need to rebound the ball. Game 6 was about how the Celtics were outhustled and outrebounded by the Lakers, I even commented in my last post about how often it was a Laker overload in the key on a shot, whether offensive or defensive, the Lakers focus was getting the ball in their hands. Rondo only had 5 rebounds in Game 6 after averaging just under 8 rebounds a game in the finals, the Celtic offense relies upon Rondo getting the ball early in possession, as early as the initial defensive rebound and then pushing the ball for the fast break or secondary fast break. If the Celtics dont get those quick buckets in that situation they get stagnant in a constant run of halfcourt offenses. Ive heard alot how the Celtics need to slow it down against the Lakers and really focus on running crisp clean plays. But lets face it the Lakers are a halfcourt team, the triangle was not designed with the fast break in mind. If this is a fast paced game the Lakers will suffer as their second unit is the only way they feel comfortable running the ball. 2, the Celtic frontcourt needs to score, simple as that, the defense is so good that the only points not scored in the paint are coming from Pierce and Kobe, players that can create their own shots. The Garnett, Davis, Wallace combo needs to knock down open shots and score in the halfcourt post up situations. If a team starts scoring from the post the outside opens up and defensive players cant play defense just focusing on their assignment, they have to always be checking on the post and cutting to the hoop from the wing gets easier. This is why I dont believe the Perkins injury hurts them in the short term situation of a game 7. If the Celtics get points from their frontcourt it negates the defensive presence that you are missing with Perkins, Garnett and Perkins never really light it up offensively, Garnett is more of a jump shooter these days and Perkins has been scared of the ball everywhere not near the hoop. Davis and Wallace are NEVER afraid to shoot the ball, they always want to score and they are really not bad defensive players. You need to remember that Wallace was the center of the Pistons championship team that won with defense, just hard nosed simple defense, so hes no scrub. And Davis was the defensive undersized stalwart of the LSU tigers. The only way you can argue that Perkins is better then a Davis/Wallace is against that extra height of Bynum and Gasol, Gasol can turn around with his Euro trash jumper from 5-10 feet out and Bynum can get to the rim off of broken plays. In game 5 Davis was infinitely better then his LA counterpart, Odom, and was the big story coming through with the big 3rd quarter and Celtic win. 3, Here comes the LA point, Kobe and either Artest/Odom need to attack the rim, there havent been that many successful shooting games, bar Allen game 2 and Kobe game 5. Outside shooting will not win this game, the defense is too good from both teams, outside shots are not consistently wide open, there are no slackers defensively on either team, ok I lie Odom sucks (I will expand in an Odom/Artest post at a later date). The Celtics have been leaving Odom and Artest open on anything 20-30 feet from the rim, they need to knock that down, I am leaning more towards Artest being big as he knows the gravity of what a game 7 win would mean for his career, how the Melee jokes would be dead, how people would actually care about what makes up Ron Artest rather then judging him on the exterior and not asking any questions. Artest is a warrior, plain and simple, he went through a rough time after the Melee, but hey who wouldnt, you have to respect him, and how he seeks out the big moment and the big story as he wants to meet and exceed everyones expectations of him. If Artest comes out and dominates the ball, plays both ends of the floor and puts his heart out there tonight, he is the hero, Kobe’s sidekick, and best of all a champion.
So thats my take on the game tonight, Im feeling a Lakers win, not because of a Celtics meltdown, but that Kobe death stare coming out for the 2nd half and Artest being the dark horse, just remember when he does come through in this game that I picked it. The media has really focused on how badly the Perkins injury affects the Celtics defense but again I contend that he is more of a motivational leader then a defensive stalwart, but his one on one defense, which I do admit is upper class, means that Gasol will become the focus of the Lakers team defensive effort and that means they will chose to let Kobe play the Allens with one on one coverage (good luck with that btw). Again the Celtics defense is too good as a team for one player to really change everything for them for one game, long term yeah it could change the team drastically, but for one game as important as this, they will be fine. The big players will play big, and the support players will play with fire, this game will come down to the wire, and we will have PLENTY to talk about no matter what happens in this game. This is what we wait for all season, breaking down game tapes, cheering for your teams and against everybody else, no matter if you team is in these epic, there is no other word for this rematch, game then you are still here as a happy fan just watching it with a smile on your face.
Again the Lakers will win and Artest will be the story, just my prediction.
