You seriously think the Celts are a better matchup for us??

[KOBE_PAUER]

Im reading some Lakers fans rooting for the Celtics in the East. WTF? I still think they are the worst matchup for us. "Theyre old", "we want revenge", and bla bla bla, but theyre outplaying the Cravaliers so far. Rondo would kill Fisher, Ray Ray and Pierce are a better perimeter than ours, Odom and Gasol use to play soft against the Celtics. What about the Cavs?? Mo Williams would be the best matchup in the entire competition for Fisher, hes a scrub who can hit some jumpers(like Fish). Our best defender plays in the same position of their superstar, our frontline is far better than the Cavs's frontline, etc.....

I think we can beat the Celtics with HCA, and it would be cool, but Rondo would be a nightmare. We can beat the Lebrons without HCA, Im sure, theyre a better matchup for us than Orlando or Boston. And kill Lebron in national tv in Cleveland would be 2x cooler. (*All this if we get finals....)

[snaquille oatmeal]

go Celtics!

I can give a toss about LeCavs. I want revenge! bring it Ronda!

[hourockman]

Some people don't want the creative refereeing that comes attached to the Cavs. It's the kind of thing you can pretend not to care about now, but you surely will about 3 gms into the series. Some people remember 2004.

[KOBE_PAUER]

Some people don't want the creative refereeing that comes attached to the Cavs. It's the kind of thing you can pretend not to care about now, but you surely will about 3 gms into the series. Some people remember 2004.

I know, the referring would be absolutely pro-Lebron. But I dont know the Celtics would be better in that way....remember 2008...

[That Nicka]

We definitely match up better with the Celtics. not that I think the Cavs are a terrible matchup for us

[USA]

I do think the Lakers have a better chance at beating the Celtics than the Cavs.

[KOBE_PAUER]

We definitely match up better with the Celtics. not that I think the Cavs are a terrible matchup for us

Odom-Gasol-Bynum kills Old Shaq Flopajao and Z
Artest on Lebron
Kobe cant be stopped.
Mo is a way better match up for our weakest link.

Rondo kills Fisher
Pierce-Allen destroys our perimeter
Gasol has Garnettitis, even being way better than him at this point of their careers.
Celtics dont choke in play offs. Cavs choke....

[kobeaki]

ooh, good topic....

1) the celts are older, and should they get there to the finals, they will be gassed, they would still have to also go through(most likely) orlando, we ahve artest now, they dont have posey, advantage us. weve got pau/bynum, they lost kendrick, without posey and with ron ron, kobe can guard rondo, while ron neutralizes pee-pee...and then there is lamar, a true "x" factor here...

2) the cavs were built to dethrone the champs; us! that is how that team is constructed, its also why we have artest, mainly for lebronze....

3) either team will present creative reffing, no doubt about that...whether its lebron being "protected"
or the kelts being allowed to play rugby-within-nba rules, it will be an issue...

4) as much as i id LOOOOOOOOVE to beat lebron, id like much much much more to beat the celtics, for 2008, for 1984, for the 1960's, for wilt for jerry(both) , etc....

the question is ; assuming the lakers come out of the west, would stern/nba rather see the kelts or the lecrabs in that matchup? i.e., whats better for the league?

[dockingsched]

i hope the lakers can beat the jazz and then the suns/spurs winner. yup.

[Optms]

Is this about who we WANT to face or who do we have a better chance at knocking for the title?

The more I see Boston play great, the more I think to pull for them. With revenge in mind, this may be the best and only opportunity we might have of settling some old some old debs with the team they currently have.

That said, I find Boston to be our worst match up for a multitude of reasons. Rondo is playing out of his mind and is going to be a nightmare for whoever we put on him. Nothing new there. Options Pierce, Allen, Sheed roaming around the perimeter however give him plenty of options who can do damage and if Sheed starts hitting from the outside, things will get more complex. He'll stretch the floor causing our bigs to come out freeing up the lanes. They're versatility on the perimeter impresses me especially if Allen (tony) can contribute anything on O as he will on D. We know he'll bring it on defense consistently. Yeah, right now Boston is playing all 48 minutes of the game consistently and contain the more balanced offense over Cleveland. They're even better defensively then Cleveland aka the one man show has been thus far. Cleveland weakness' have been exposed big time here.

[Danny Darko]

We definitely match up better with the Celtics. not that I think the Cavs are a terrible matchup for us

Odom-Gasol-Bynum kills Old Shaq Flopajao and Z
Artest on Lebron
Kobe cant be stopped.
Mo is a way better match up for our weakest link.

Rondo kills Fisher
Pierce-Allen destroys our perimeter
Gasol has Garnettitis, even being way better than him at this point of their careers.
Celtics dont choke in play offs. Cavs choke....

Ahh no they really haven't. Shaq has Drew and Gasols number and between Z and Shaq they can be long paint cloggers who put down a physical onslaught. check the games we played them during regular season.

If we play the Cavs, it's the only time I would really condone going small and trying to run them out. the problem is our smaller unit isn't a bunch of marksmen or fast break killers to space the floor and make the paint hogs pay. You know you can pick and roll the crap out of Shaq, too so maybe Kobe and Gasol go back to a 2man game.

Bottom line we're too big for the Celtics we are not too big for the Cavs.

[ChuckTaylors310]

Rondo kills Fisher
Pierce-Allen destroys our perimeter
Gasol has Garnettitis, even being way better than him at this point of their careers.
Celtics dont choke in play offs. Cavs choke....

Kobe guards Rondo all the time if you haven't noticed. Ray Allen doesn't destroy anybody, and Paul Peirce has his hands full with Ron. Our chances are much better when we play the Celtics.

[TylersLakers]

I would love nothing more than the Boston Celtics. I'm still miffed about a couple years ago.

[chyau.00]

i think lakers can beat any team.

Bring them on

Bring them bothh on

have lakers play them bothh at the same time!
monday cavs
tuesday celtics
wed cavs
thurs celtics
and so on

for a best of 14 round!

YEA!

[KOBE_PAUER]

We definitely match up better with the Celtics. not that I think the Cavs are a terrible matchup for us

Odom-Gasol-Bynum kills Old Shaq Flopajao and Z
Artest on Lebron
Kobe cant be stopped.
Mo is a way better match up for our weakest link.

Rondo kills Fisher
Pierce-Allen destroys our perimeter
Gasol has Garnettitis, even being way better than him at this point of their careers.
Celtics dont choke in play offs. Cavs choke....

Ahh no they really haven't. Shaq has Drew and Gasols number and between Z and Shaq they can be long paint cloggers who put down a physical onslaught. check the games we played them during regular season.

If we play the Cavs, it's the only time I would really condone going small and trying to run them out. the problem is our smaller unit isn't a bunch of marksmen or fast break killers to space the floor and make the paint hogs pay. You know you can pick and roll the crap out of Shaq, too so maybe Kobe and Gasol go back to a 2man game.

Bottom line we're too big for the Celtics we are not too big for the Cavs.

Not really. If you remember Shaq playing for the Suns, Gasol and the rest of our frontline dominated him. I still think we lost those games against the Cavs because Kobe was injured and Gasol was coming from his hamstring injury. If our two boys cant play at his best, everybody can beat LA. We are a better team than the Cavs. They have more depth, but we have a more talented starting 5. The celtics, playing at the level theyre playing now, are a team with 4 allstars and deeper than LA. KG is the best defender on Pau in all the NBA, Pierce+Allen is a powerful combo. And Rondo is the key. Maybe Id need grow some balls, but seriously, the Celtics beating us again after their horrible season, is my worst nightmare.

[Edrees]

Reasons I want the celtics in the finals

1) Revenge
2) Home Court Advantage
3) Better matchup
4) Lakers will be MUCH MORE MOTIVATED and hungry to beat the celtics than anyone else and you know it. they will be way more focused.
5) Lebron and the cavs get way more calls than the celts

All the above is PLENTY reason to root for boston in the east!

[KOBE_PAUER]

Reasons I want the celtics in the finals

1) Revenge
2) Home Court Advantage
3) Better matchup
4) Lakers will be MUCH MORE MOTIVATED and hungry to beat the celtics than anyone else and you know it. they will be way more focused.
5) Lebron and the cavs get way more calls than the celts

All the above is PLENTY reason to root for boston in the east!

well, boys you really got me, Go Greens!!!!!!!

[JustBlaze]

I want to play the Celtics too, but I agree with what you are saying. There is no one on the Cavs that scares me at all except for LeBron. I still think they aren't really that good of a team, LeBron is just great at making them win, but I'm not sold on them in the playoffs.

Home court advantage would be huge though. The way the Lakers have been playing the last few months, I would be scared if they had to start the series out 2 games on the road.

That being said, the Magic is the team I least want to play out of these 3 right now.

[chefy]

I think both pretty much causes the same problem for us match-up wise. physical C and PF, cavs has a very talented wing player (plus williams), same with the celtics: pierce, allen, rondo. so I would say it's a wash match up wise. 0-0

but we beat the celtics this season and almost beat them without kobe. so boston 1 point

plus we would have HCA against celtics. boston = 2 points

our defensive stopper has been a nightmare for the celtic's best player. = 3 points

and yea revenge and as I said before this is probably the last chance the celtics can compete for the chip. their big three loses step every season. = boston 4 points.

[KOBE_PAUER]

I think both pretty much causes the same problem for us match-up wise. physical C and PF, cavs has a very talented wing player (plus williams), same with the celtics: pierce, allen, rondo. so I would say it's a wash match up wise. 0-0

but we beat the celtics this season and almost beat them without kobe. so boston 1 point

plus we would have HCA against celtics. boston = 2 points

our defensive stopper has been a nightmare for the celtic's best player. = 3 points

and yea revenge and as I said before this is probably the last chance the celtics can compete for the chip. their big three loses step every season. = boston 4 points.

I would love to play the Celtics when I saw them a few months ago. But watching them now, KG seems younger, Rondo seems the best PG in the game, and Ray is hitting three after three. Drama Queen Paulina hitting game winners. I didnt see anything of that in the regular season. Theyre a truly experimented team which dont choke. Same that the Spurs. We beat the Spurs without Kobe with a blowout. Now watch them....