miggs wrote:GreenDreamer wrote:I didn't say that Rondo didn't care about your on the ball defenders or bigs because he was "hungry". He doesn't care about them because they cannot stop him from doing what he wants to do. For example, Kobe can be as determined as he wants to be. The problem is that doesn't make him one bit faster, and that is what he would need against Rondo. Fisher? The dude has been getting smoked by speed guards for a while now. Rondo is the speediest of the speedy. Farmar? Nope. The only one who I could see possibly giving him an issue is Brown, just because he is so athletic. The problem with him is that he is dumb, and Rondo is very smart.
Rondo, like any player, could be shut off fom getting his points if you threw enough people at him. The problem is that Rondo is an elite playmaking point guard. Throwing more people at him is doing him a FAVOR. He wants that, which is why it is so important to have a guy or two who can guard him man up, or a great shot blocker like Dwight Howard to patrol the paint. You have neither, which is going to be a big problem.
You have also missed the point regarding Ray and Tony, not to mention Pierce. Kobe will be stuck guarding a real threat the vast majority of his time on the floor, and will be guarded by a guy who can do a good job on him. single up, on the other end. He had a hard time dealing with the Celtics two years ago, and it will actually be worse for him this time around. Paul has hardly lost anything, and Ray can still shoot the lights out. Tony Allen, while not being a perimeter threat, is a physical player who cuts all over the place in teh halfcourt and drags people to the rim. Rondo is a nasty piece of work now.
Kobe was able to hide in previous series defending lesser players for long stretches, and only having to expend himself on the defensive end @ key points of the game. Jared Dudely, for example, did a fine job spacing the floor, but defending him was rather easy, effort wise. There is nowhere to hide now. On the other end the Celtics will be rotating FRESH defenders onto him, and ofcourse have the elite defensive bigs to back them up. There will be no oncourt vacations. He will have to play hard the WHOLE time. The moral of the story? The guys he will be going against won't have to work nearly as hard as Kobe does himself. In a 7 game series, that can wear a guy down bigtime. LeBron was totally exhausted by the time the second round was over, and he wasn't playing on a bum knee.
You don't need to remind me about the whole defense thing. These are the Boston Celtics you are talking about. They, not the Lakers, are the team with the hardnosed, dominanting defense. The one that has already stopped teams headlined by Wade, LeBron and Dwight Howard. Eastern Conference, in the trenches basketball. The Lakers are certainly a tougher team than they used to be, but are they tough like these guys? You have faced much softer defenses up to this point than what you will see in the Finals. The Celtics, meanwhile, have already knocked off two of the finest defenses in the league by going through the Cavs and Magic. They are used to the rough stuff. They LIKE it.
A lot will come down to the matchups. If you can stop Rondo from being effective, it will probably mean that you will win the series. If the Celts stop Kobe, then it is ours. The thing is that we have the personnel to do that. Do you?
Dude your replies are exhausting, first off, stop blowin your boy Rondo so hard man, you're gonna suck the 67% of health he's got left. As i said, even i'm a fan of Rondo, imagine that bein a Lakers fan. That should go to show you that i'm a basketball fan as well as a Lakers fan. But i digress, so Rondo is not the amazing offensive threat you seem to paint. I've watch the entire Celtics games in these playoffs so i'm well aware of Rondo's game. I think you're overrating him, thank God you're not the coach or your Celtics would bow down much quicker than in the 6 games as I anticipate.
You keep comparing your team's success only by saying how you beat Orlando but you seem to forget we're not a one man show (CLE) nor a team of shooters with no post game (ORL). Sure Howard is the best defender but TEAM DEFENSE is how the Lakers have been winning, i believe we're in the top 3 for defense in these playoffs right? Lakers have a complete team, on both offense and defense so your advantage with Rondo won't be as big an impact over the series as you think so, sure maybe for 2 games in Boston, Rondo will go off but other than that you'll see, we'll keep your boys on check.
Actually, the Lakers are 10th out of the 16 playoff teams in defensive efficiency with a 111.6 rating. The Celtics are first with a 100.4. Offensively the Lakers are 2nd with a 116.0 rating, while the Celtics are 8th with a 106.2. So, no, you are not even close to having an elite defense in these playoffs. Your offense is elite, though..... just as it was 2 years ago.
Now I know what you are thinking "But, we had to play such GREAT offensive teams." Well, you did face the Suns, who were the highest ranked offensive team in the regular season with a 115.3 rating. The problem is that the Magic (111.4) and the Cavs (111.2) finished 4th and 6th respectively. What happened to them? The Jazz finished 8th (110.7) and the Thunder 13th (108.3). The Celtics easily knocked off the Heat who wer 19th with a 106.6.
On the defensive end you faced the lesser squads. The Magic were 3rd (103.3), the Cavs 6th (104.1) and the Heat 7th (104.1). The Thunder were 9th (104.6), the Jazz 10th (105.0) and the Suns 23rd (110.2).
It really is no use actually comparing the Celtics and Lakers own team stats during the regular season, because neither is representative of what they are right now. The Celtics are rejuvenated and differently run (i.e. Rondo finally has the control he needed). The Lakers are in playoff mode, but have an injured Bynum who served as the meaty muscle of your defensive backline. Remove him, and you get small really fast.
The question is "Which will carry over? The offense or the defense?" Well, that question has been answered again and again in the playoffs. This Celtic team has already proven that it can shut down elite offenses. It has also proven that it can score on elite defenses. The Lakers have been playing severely flawed defensive teams to this point, and really haven't stopped the offenses of those teams from scoring. Yeah, you could score on THEM. The Thunder and Jazz didn't have defensive bigs. Pau looked as if he was shooting over midgets against them. The Suns had to resort to a gimmick 2-3 zone, which disturbingly worked quite well and should have been a major alarm bell. The Celtic 3-2 zone is lethal, and the worst defenders in our starting lineup are better than the best in Phoenix's. The best are better than ANY you have faced to this point.
So talking about TEAM defense is really beside the point. The team which plays it the best is the one you will be rooting against. The fact of the matter is that the ones we have faced are scarier than yours, and they didn't manage to shut Rondo and company down. If Bynum was healthy, and could play heavy minutes effectively, I'd be singing a different tune. The problem is that he is not. His injury slows him down, and effectively shortens him because he won't be able to jump high or quickly. His value to you was far more on the defensive end, despite his very good post game.
