NBA Finals 2008 - Lakers vs. Celtics

[MaineDolFan]

I'm actually not negating her performance, actually.  Boston did it's job, they won both at home and took one on the road.  That's why you fight all year for home court advantage.  Now they have two chances to close it out on a floor where they haven't lost two in a row all year.

Paul didn't cost them the game.  That isn't what I am saying.  I would have been very interested in seeing how that game would have turned out had he not allowed that turnover.  I think the series would be over.

But to cowboys stance: KG shows up in game four and this thing is a sweep. 

At the end of the day, when you have KG and Pierce on the same team, the game shouldn't come down to sloppy play at the end.  KG hits three of four at the line instead of 1 of 4 and we're not having this discussion.

[TEKGOD]

I thought you had to play defense in the NBA. Do the Fakers know what defense is?
That was an ass-whooping of epic proportions. I expected the C's to win tonight, but I didn't expect LA to get smoked like that. I don't even feel the need to break this game down the C's stomped on that ass like a cockroach. Even Big Baby contributed.

I'm no fan but I have a newfound respect for this Boston team & Doc Rivers, who outcoached Phillip Jackson in almost every respect. Fakers could never defend the pick & roll, and made Kobe look ordinary.

Speaking of Jellybean Bryant, it should be a crime to compare him to Jordan again. A game 4 choke job & game 6 annihilation would have never happened under MJ's watch.

Congrats Celtic fans I was wrong, enjoy your championship

[bsmooth]

Pistons put up a better fight.

[Spider-Dan]

The Atlanta Hawks put up a better fight.

While I'm no great fan of Boston, I'm glad to see Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett finally get a title, and I'm absolutely ecstatic to see Kobe lose again and see Phil Jackson get coached under the table.

I will continue to believe that unless he has the talent balance absurdly stacked in his favor, Phil Jackson can't coach his way out of a wet paper bag.  My favorite Phil Jackson story was when someone asked Jeff Van Gundy about the secret of Phil Jackson's coaching genius, and he went to the chalkboard and wrote a giant 23 on it.

[ethurst2]

First of all, congratulations to the Celtics. The hammered L.A. and did what they were supposed to do.

Here's my observations

1. Weakest Lakers Finals Team Ever! - This was the weakest team the Lakers have ever had going into the Finals. I can't remember a Laker team so weak (even all the way back to the old highlights that I was watching of George Mikans Lakers) ever showing up for the Finals.


2. Revise the Playoffs - Maybe all this garbage talk of changing the playoff format will stop. The Eastern Conference has won two out of the last three and technically, the Spurs, if they were in the Eastern Conference, would fit right in.


3. Western Conference was average this year - The Western Conference may have had teams that were two games apart in the standings but no team really broke out of the pack.


4. Phil Jackson's Coaching Job - When you have a guy named Jordan, he basically wins championships by himself. How can you be outcoached by Doc Rivers? Rivers is no Auerbach, Fitch or K.C. Jones but yet, you get outcoached by Doc Rivers? Jackson looks like he's had it and I would be surprised if he retired.

Like it or not, Boston is in the center of the sports universe these days. On my astrological software, it has a Jupiter influence which means prosperity.

Miami giveth...Boston taketh away. Just like the Dolphins, now it's the Heat following the same pattern by letting ex-Miami players (Posey and House) get away to the Northeast to win championships.

[ethurst2]

I thought you had to play defense in the NBA. Do the Fakers know what defense is?
That was an ass-whooping of epic proportions. I expected the C's to win tonight, but I didn't expect LA to get smoked like that. I don't even feel the need to break this game down the C's stomped on that ass like a cockroach. Even Big Baby contributed.

I'm no fan but I have a newfound respect for this Boston team & Doc Rivers, who outcoached Phillip Jackson in almost every respect. Fakers could never defend the pick & roll, and made Kobe look ordinary.

Speaking of Jellybean Bryant, it should be a crime to compare him to Jordan again. A game 4 choke job & game 6 annihilation would have never happened under MJ's watch.

Congrats Celtic fans I was wrong, enjoy your championship

Somewhere I get the feeling that Shaquilla is laughing at Bryant and Jackson. Maybe Shaq was right. Kobe can't carry a team by himself.

[YoFuggedaboutit]

The Atlanta Hawks put up a better fight.

While I'm no great fan of Boston, I'm glad to see Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett finally get a title, and I'm absolutely ecstatic to see Kobe lose again and see Phil Jackson get coached under the table.

I will continue to believe that unless he has the talent balance absurdly stacked in his favor, Phil Jackson can't coach his way out of a wet paper bag.  My favorite Phil Jackson story was when someone asked Jeff Van Gundy about the secret of Phil Jackson's coaching genius, and he went to the chalkboard and wrote a giant 23 on it.

Phil Jackson is a fraud.  Larry Brown proved that in the 2004 NBA Finals.  Brown turned a shooter into a point guard (Billups), another shooter into a rebounder and defender (Prince), two rebounders and defenders into consistent scorers (the Wallace brothers), and he made an entire team believe they could topple Shaq and Kobe. 

Phil Jackson didn't even invent the triangle offense.   That claim to fame belongs to Tex Winter. 

[Phishfan]

Just an observation, how come everyone is saying Phil Jackson was outcoached and can only win when he has superior talent? In one case in the very same post a person calls this the weakest Lakers team ever in the finals, but blasts Jackson for being outcoached. The team with more talent usually wins. The Celtics outplayed the Lakers because they were soft. You can try to put that on Jackson and I guess you can somewhat if he had a hand in personell, but he had several players with a reputation of being soft. Players don't just change typically. If they are afraid to get dirty, they almost always will be afraid to get dirty.

[MaineDolFan]

This series would have been a little different with Bynum in the game.  It wouldn't have changed the overall outcome, but Bynum is the Lakers enforcer.

[bsmooth]

This series would have been a little different with Bynum in the game.  It wouldn't have changed the overall outcome, but Bynum is the Lakers enforcer.

I dont think thereis a 24 point comeback in game 4 with Bynum.

[ethurst2]

Just an observation, how come everyone is saying Phil Jackson was outcoached and can only win when he has superior talent? In one case in the very same post a person calls this the weakest Lakers team ever in the finals, but blasts Jackson for being outcoached. The team with more talent usually wins. The Celtics outplayed the Lakers because they were soft. You can try to put that on Jackson and I guess you can somewhat if he had a hand in personell, but he had several players with a reputation of being soft. Players don't just change typically. If they are afraid to get dirty, they almost always will be afraid to get dirty.

Hey Phish, now come on! Jackson was clearly outcoached even though he had the weaker team. I really thought that the Lakers would take this to seven games.

I think Lamar Odom got a bad rap. I don't think that he's soft. Odom does have an offensive arsenal but he has to tone down hs game because Kobe is on the court. Derek Fisher has been with them before and he is tough as nails.

You're home and you're up by 24. If you win that game, this series is different. There were times that KG disappeared like he did in Minnesota so the Lakers didn't take advantage of that. That was part of their downfall.

This Lakers team could have pulled what the 77 Portland Trailblazers did against a stacked Philadelphia 76ers team. The 76ers had an All-Star at EVERY position. Talk about the big three, they had the big five plus two All-Stars coming off the bench. The Blazers had nobody but Bill Walton and Maurice Lucas, spotted the 76ers two games and came back to win 4-2 with a bunch of guys that you've never even heard of. Phil Jackson could be, slightly, the most luckiest coach alive and maybe he's better when coaching All-Star squads.

[ethurst2]

This series would have been a little different with Bynum in the game.  It wouldn't have changed the overall outcome, but Bynum is the Lakers enforcer.

Maine,

When did Andrew Bynum become a superstar? Overnight? You really think that he would have made a big difference? I say that the series would have went to seven games but I don't see Bynum making that big of a difference.

Pau Gasol is soft as Kleenex tissue. Maybe Bynum will get a legend to school him over the summer.

[MaineDolFan]

I don't think he is that great a player at all, actually, but I do think he brings a toughness in the paint that the Lakers were lacking.

Look at game 5 when Perkins didn't play.  Odom and Gasol had massive nights on the boards and scoring.  Fast forward to game 6 - insert Perkins.  They couldn't match his level of physical play down low. 

I just think the Lakers could have used someone that isn't afraid to get in there and get dirty.  That's all.

[Phishfan]

Again those are references to physical play on the court. Since neither coach was miked and none of us were on the bench or in the locker room please explain how we know it was a clear case of being outcoached. The only defensive minded players on the entire Lkaers roster were Fisher and Bryant, while the Celtics had arguably the best defensive team ever. Bioston clearly had the better team in this series and yes the Lakers could have one, but as you said yourself the Western Conference was average this year. Boston definitely was not average all year so they were the clear favorites.

[SportsChick]

They were miked, ABC didn't use it. When Doc was doused with Gatorade by Pierce, you could see the mike transmitter on his waistband.