RealGM

For the 11th time in the NBA's history the Lakers face the Celtics in the NBA finals. Although the Celtics have an 8-2 record in the finals against the Lakers that was then and this is now, what a great finals it will be!

One more thing . . . LAKERS!!! WOO HOO!!!


For general talk about the 2008 NBA finals matchup, use this thread. For specific in-game talk, use the game threads. Thanks,

E11

This is going to be the hardest team Kobe's ever faced in the NBA Finals, this is going to be an epic series, the Lakers on the biggest stage vs. the most hyped team ever.


this is going to be a tough series, celtics have so much experience and vets

pierce is excited to go to LA

he's from there, and always is scorching hot when he plays them, especially in LA



"I think the lakers are the best offensive team in basketball, and I dont think that's even close"


JVG

magicfan4life05 wrote:This is going to be the hardest team Kobe's ever faced in the NBA Finals, this is going to be an epic series, the Lakers on the biggest stage vs. the most hyped team ever.

im scared

What about the pistons series in 04. The were a good defensive team also.

I'm very confident the Lakers will win. It will be a fun series...for the Lakers. 4-2 Lakers at the worst. We got plenty of bigs for KG. Ray isn't Ray especially when Sasha is bugging the shi* outta him, and Pierce will get 25 a night. LOB trophy is a near formality.

The pistons were a great collection of talented team players who brought it and stuck it to the Lakers who were in turmoil.

This Celtics team has 3 HOF players and that's a tough order.

In the past, it was shaq and kobe man, they were primetime, superstars who were unstoppable, but can gasol and odom step up? They are going against big time players, no more good players, these celtics are hungry, and got the talent, Can Kobe lead them against the odds...He's got to the the best star and shine the brightest out there, to take those 3 down...


the celtics must be taken down, and the lakers must take back what is theirs...it's all on the line now

Of the big three lakers can shut down Ray Allen with both kobe and sasha on him (Ray allen has struggled against good defense in the playoffs). The problem will be paul pierce's offense, but kobe will cancel that out. The combination of gasol and odom should be better than KG and perkins although perkins has played very well in the playoffs so that might change. The big thing is the bench... both teams have great bench players. I really hope Ariza gets the green light to go against Pierce as that might be the key to lakers success. Stopping Pierce needs to be priority, if Ray can't buy a shot double teaming pierce might work.

Rondo's speed might be a problem, but fisher's strength will be a problem for Rondo... and farmar should do fine gaurding rondo, so unlike against utah we won't have to worry about guarding the PG as much.

Boston isn't a very high offensive team, rarely do all three put up big numbers... in a lot of ways they are very similar to spurs. As long as the defense doesn't shut down the lakers... I don't think Boston can keep up on the offensive end if lakers can keep them from getting easy shots (layups, dunks, or in the paint )

This is going to be insane...this will be Kobe's toughest challenge. I think we can do this. It'll be super-hard, but we can do this. All we have to figure out for now is who guards Paul Pierce? That bothers me the most.

Making sure Allen doesn't score will be huge. Defensively, I expect us to play similar as we did against the Spurs, whoever guards Rondo and Perkins will roam. Also, it'll be interesting to see if Doc can make any adjustments against us, because that is the biggest mismatch in this series, the coaching. We have to get a split, I say our game 1 is our best chance. Go Lakers!!!!

In this series Id highly consider start Sasha to guard Ray Allen.

Gasol . . . Perkins
Odom . . . Garnett
Bryant . . . Pierce
Vujacic . . . Allen
Fisher . . . Rondo


Gasol would cause match up problems for the Celtics with his height and speed against Perkins. Bryant moved to SF to play Pierce because if Radmanovic was started Pierce would have a field day with him, Rad wouldnt be able to guard him well but we all know Kobe could. Sasha has proven throughout the season and playoffs to be a pesky pain-in-the-@ss defender, I believe he could do the same against Allen as he did Iverson and Ginobili.

This is epic, I was only 5 years old the last time Lakers played the Celtics in the finals.

I feel pretty confident in the Lakers, I think we match up well with them. Kobe is on the verge of becoming a basketball god, I can't wait to see what he does in this series.

JVG says he thinks kobe will matchup with rondo and conserve energy on D and be able to roam defensively on their other better scorers

Pierce always goes off against Kobe, he's just too strong for Kobe. Rad did a decent job on Melo, we kept him out of the post and took him out of his comfort spots, we have to do something similar here. JVG said something interesting, he think Kobe will guard Rondo, allowing Kobe to roam, so possibly putting Fish on Allen. Should be interesting.

YiYaoYue wrote:Of the big three lakers can shut down Ray Allen with both kobe and sasha on him (Ray allen has struggled against good defense in the playoffs). The problem will be paul pierce's offense, but kobe will cancel that out. The combination of gasol and odom should be better than KG and perkins although perkins has played very well in the playoffs so that might change. The big thing is the bench... both teams have great bench players. I really hope Ariza gets the green light to go against Pierce as that might be the key to lakers success. Stopping Pierce needs to be priority, if Ray can't buy a shot double teaming pierce might work.

Rondo's speed might be a problem, but fisher's strength will be a problem for Rondo... and farmar should do fine gaurding rondo, so unlike against utah we won't have to worry about guarding the PG as much.

Boston isn't a very high offensive team, rarely do all three put up big numbers... in a lot of ways they are very similar to spurs. As long as the defense doesn't shut down the lakers... I don't think Boston can keep up on the offensive end if lakers can keep them from getting easy shots (layups, dunks, or in the paint )

They said the same thing about Tony Parker and his speed, you saw how that went . . . Fisher did just fine against him. We will be ok . . . tons of experience (Fisher) versus no experience (Rondo) at all

magicfan4life05 wrote:JVG says he thinks kobe will matchup with rondo and conserve energy on D and be able to roam defensively on their other better scorers

i think he conserves more energy guarding ray allen. ray allen has nothing on kobe... not strenght, not speed, no quickness... nothing... all he has is the ability to catch and shoot with great accuracy... put a hand or bother him on defense a bit and he'll stink like he has throughout the playoffs.

IN BEFORE THE LOCK.

Come on, Trixx already called it. Your thread sucks anyways.

Oh yeah, we're going to pressure the heck out of Rondo, he doesn't make good decisions when he is put under pressure, so I expect us to trap him a lot and crowd the paint again with our the people that will be roaming.

Good luck guys. I personally think the Lakers will win, but that is why they play the games.

change this to pre-finals discussion instead of official finals thread which we can discuss the actual game.

We should see more of Trevor and Ronny and less of Vlad and Luke this series. Otherwise, Paul will single handedly win it. Neither Vlad or Luke can stay in front of him. I want to see Lamar on him. His length will bother him and he won't be able to get off good shots. Pau has done well on KG in the past and Ronny is our best bet for Perkins.

I have no worries about Rondo. Fisher and Farmar have had to guard AI, Deron, and Parker throughout the playoffs. Rondo is obviously inferior to these 3 and will be a piece of cake. However, we cannot let him drive all game.

My biggest concern is rebounding. The Celtics are one of the best rebounding teams in the league and without Bynum, we are average at best. Pau has to be all over the boards like he was last night and everyone 1 through 5 has to crash the boards everytime a shot goes up.

KB8MVP wrote:Oh yeah, we're going to pressure the heck out of Rondo, he doesn't make good decisions when he is put under pressure, so I expect us to trap him a lot and crowd the paint again with our the people that will be roaming.

Rondo is good at advancing vs. the pressure. I give him a huge cushion and let him pass to covered players or drive into traffic.