ElGee wrote:I do not have Garnett at #1 as of right now. I didn't think of his as #1 during that season. I do think he was the most valuable player, but a lot of that is circumstance. My understanding is that this is a "best player" project, and he wouldn't be my first pick in that regard.
The biggest issue with Garnett he wasn't really a true #1 scoring option. Now, that doesn't preclude someone from being the game's best, but KG's offense wasn't quite where it was at his peak in Minnesota. He was heavily criticized in Boston at times during the playoffs because of lack of offensive aggressiveness. Obviously, we have to weigh this against his defense.
He was excellent in the Detroit series, peaking in game 5. Pierce was better during the Finals. I think I want my #1 player to be the best player on the floor during the NBA Finals (if he's playing in them) and to be a larger offensive presence. These are my reservations about KG...counter-arguments?
Silver Bullet wrote:
So Paul Peirce and Ray Allen were responsible for the Celtics winning the Final.
You have Kobe first if they win that one series.
But somehow KG benefits from all of this ?
I've seen enough posts like teses from thoughtful posters that might still be on the fence that I think I should give my 2 cents about why I think Garnett was the best player on the floor during the NBA Finals. Both Pierce and Allen were great, and I respect the heck out of what they did those Finals. I even understand why Pierce was the Finals MVP. But let me at least give another perspective on what KG brought to the table specifically in the Finals (this'll be long, but in a 20-page thread hopefully some will find it worth it to read).
I'll start off broad, big picture. First and foremost, Garnett was the defensive epicenter of a team that won with defense first. I've read a lot of testimony about how poorly Kobe played during the Finals, and though those directly on him (mainly Allen, with Pierce and Posey also taking their turns) deserve credit it has to be noted that they were able to be much more aggressive on the perimeter because they knew that the interior help defense (spear-headed by Garnett) had their backs. Plus, Kobe knew it as well, so some of those jumpers that missed or were blocked, may well have been times that he would have drove against most defenses. But not this one.
Also, for the series as a whole Pierce and Allen did lead the team in scoring (21.8 and 20.3 ppg, respectively) and scored more efficiently than Garnett, but Garnett dominated the glass in addition to his defense(13 rpg in one of the rare cases that I've been able to find where the same player led their team in rebounds, blocks and steals in the Finals) and his 18.2 ppg. It should also be pointed out that while Pierce and Allen spent the majority of their time matched up 1-on-1 against Vlad Rad, Derek Fisher and Sasha Vujacic (Kobe spent a lot of time on Rondo) KG was being guarded by Gasol with first Lamar Odom and later Kobe Bryant sagging off of their man to double KG often even before the entry pass (the same defensive set-up that gave Duncan fits in '08, and Howard fits in '09).
That said, those are macroscopic big-picture arguments. I'd like to bring the focus in a bit to specific games.
Game 1: The series opener. Garnett led the Celtics with 24 points and 13 boards. In the first half of the game, he was the one that kept the Celtics in it when the Lakers were off to a strong start. Garnett scored 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting and grabbed 6 boards during the first half, when Pierce (3 points, 1-for-4 FG) and Allen (6 points, 2-for-8 FG) were off. On KG's back, they went into the half only down 5 points.
When they came out in the 3rd quarter, the Celtics went on a 12-5 run to briefly take the lead, and that run was entirely fueled by the Pierce/KG 2-man game that the Cs had just used to polish off the Pistons at the end of game 6. Pierce scored/assisted on all 5 of the scoring possessions, while KG scored/assisted on 4 of the 5. The Lakers had crept back up by 4 points when Pierce went down with the knee injury. Because of that injury/return and the subsequent 2 huge treys that Pierce hit when he returned, for many Game 1 is remembered as Pierce's game. What isn't often remembered is that during the time that Pierce was out the Cs had actually re-gained the lead, or that after Pierce's treys there was still a whole 4th quarter to play.
In the 4th Q, KG couldn't buy a shot. He was ice-cold, going only 1-for-6 from the field. That often gets remembered. What doesn't get remembered is that in the 4th quarter the entire game shifted to purely defense and grinding. The Celts held the entire Lakers team to only 15 points on 5-of-18 FG shooting. And in this ugly, grind it out period, Garnett made the 2 most impactful sequences that sealed that game.
1) With 9:44 left and the Celtics up 3 points with the ball, someone threw a pass that sailed over everyone's head towards the backcourt. It looked like either the start of a Lakers' fast break or at the least a backcourt violation turnover. But Garnett took off after the ball and plastic-man lunged over halfcourt to save it back to PJ Brown, who set up Cassell for a jumper. On the ensuing defensive possession, Garnett stole a pass from Kobe. Cassell missed for the Cs, but on the next possession Garnett set up Posey for a 3-pointer with 8:44 left. In a minute the Celtics lead went from 3 points to 8 points with Garnett tied into every score and the defensive stops. Timeout Lakers.
2) With 1:49 left the Cs were still hanging onto their 5 point lead and had the ball. Rondo gets fouled and makes the first FT, but misses the second. Garnett gets into the lane and keeps the rebound alive, and the Lakers eventually knock it out of bounds trying to keep it from him. On that possession, Posey spots up for a 3-ptr but misses. Nobody boxes out Garnett, who follows the miss with a put-back dunk posterization of Pau Gasol that becomes an instant classic moment. Kobe gets fouled and makes 2 FTs at the other end to cut it back to 6, but on the next possession they go back to Garnett, who draws the shooting foul and makes both free throws. Celtics up 8, 1 minute left, timeout Lakers, game-over.
Game 4: The comeback game. Pierce, Allen, Posey and House were all critical to that comeback. But the lynchpin was Garnett. Consider, the Lakers came out hyped that game and punched the Cs in the mouth. But they were only up 11 when Garnett had to go to the bench with 2 fouls. It was with him on the bench that the lead ballooned up over 20 points. The team was down 21 entering the 2nd quarter when Garnett came back in and helped right the ship, and by the time KG sat the last minute to prevent picking up another foul the lead was down to 13. Of course, in that last minute without KG the Lakers immediately pushed the lead back to 18 by the hslf.
The second half, though, was the masterpiece. Pierce (14 points), Allen (10 points), Garnett (10 points), House (9 points) and Posey (8 points) all contributed about equally to the scoring column. But the only reason the Cs could play House for so much of the half was because Pierce and Garnett (3 assists each in the 3rd quarter) could handle the distribution which let House (a natural SG in a PG's body) play off the ball. But more importantly, the only reason that the Cs could play with 4 wing shooters for most of a half is because Garnett DOMINATED the paint. In that fateful 3rd quarter, Gasol and Odom combined to shoot 1-for-5 from the field with KG as the only interior defender. And KG grabbed almost as many 3rd Q rebounds (5) as the entire Lakers TEAM (6). Individual game +/- is a very sketchy, very noisy stat to track...but this was a time I think it was right, as Garnett's interior mastery that helped spearhead the turnaround led to him posting a +17 for the game against Pierce's +9 and Allen's +6.
Game 6: The Eff-you game. This game is remembered as the 39-point blowout, one of the biggest wins in Finals history. Ray Allen set a 3-point record in this game. Rajon Rondo flirted from a distance with a quadruple-double. But really, if you look at it, Garnett was the one that came out and put his foot on the Lakers' throats. Rondo was 2-for-8 from the field with 3 boards and 1 assist at the half, and Allen sat out most of the first half with an eye injury. It wasn't until the second half, with the game already a blowout, that Allen hit his 6 more 3-pointers and Rondo contributed another 15 points and 7 assists.
No, in the first half, the player that made it a blowout was Kevin Garnett. Garnett, who scored 10 points with 3 boards in the first quarter when Kobe was on fire and keeping the Lakers in it. Garnett, who re-entered the game with 7:31 left in the second quarter and the Celtics only up by 3 points and immediately touched off a huge run that would have the Cs up 23 at the half. Garnett, who had two of the signature moments of the series in that half when he tied up a frustrated Pau Gasol for a jumpball and also hit probably the highlight shot of his career, a crazy hanging, fading, one-handed runner in the lane in which he got fouled and was flat on his back when it went in. Garnett, who had as many field goals in the first half as the ENTIRE LAKERS TEAM.
At the half KG was dominating the game with 17 points on 8-for-12 FG, 6 boards, and 3 assists. Celtics up 23. Game over. Yes, after it was decided Allen and Rondo put some icing on the cake, but Garnett was locked into eff-you mode in that game on a level that I hadn't seen since Game 7 against the Kings in '04. If the game was close he was absolutely headed for 30 and 15. That game was his.
In summary, you can make (and I just made) a very strong argument that Garnett was the best player on the floor in 3 of the 4 Celtics Finals wins. As I said at the start, I give Allen and Pierce all types of credit for their play in that series and I'm not campaigning against Pierce's Finals MVP. But when you look at it in depth, Garnett definitely played a huge role (and likely the largest role) specifically in the Finals for the Cs bringing home the title.
It's 1/832of the vote, anyways... not a big deal.
