What's the biggest mismatch in this NBA Finals?

[Patterns]

There is one thing that hasn't been discussed much: refereeing.

In the two games that these 2 teams played, the refs heavily favored the Celtics. Maybe they were more aggressive, maybe not but the refs were definitely favoring the Celtics. And in general, the referees were pretty good to the Celtics this year.

I look at the way games will be called as the biggest factor in this series. Will the refs let the Celtics play physical or will they call ticky fouls on the Celtics?

[The Laker Kid]

Zen Master vs. Doc!!! I mean come on.. wasn't Doc Rivers a Circuit City salesman before he got the coaching job?

[greenbeans]

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You haven't watched the Lakers at all if you think they can't defend like the Cavs or Pistons for very long stretches.

I cant wait to see your posts after this series, itll be a fun read im sure.

and 16 championships say YOURE wrong

[EvadedHavoc]

Perkins - Gasol match up is going to be intresting.

[EHL]

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I cant wait to see your posts after this series, itll be a fun read im sure.

and 16 championships say YOURE wrong

rofl, obviously the point of that post flew directly over your head, as does reality apparentlyh.

[Slava]

Zen Master vs. Doc!!! I mean come on.. wasn't Doc Rivers a Circuit City salesman before he got the coaching job?

[greenbeans]

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rofl, obviously the point of that post flew directly over your head, as does reality apparentlyh.

no, it was ignorant. it didnt fly over my head

[ubernathan]

The biggest mismatch is certainly Gasol versus Perkins.

[Cruel_Ruin]

I want the Celtics to win, but these teams are pretty evenly matched. I expect Ray Allen to have a good series; he'll be aggressive to try and wear Kobe down on defense. But then again, Kobe is the big factor in this series. If his jumpshot is falling, then the Lakers win. If it's not, then they lose.

[NO-KG-AI]

I think the biggest gap is Phil and Doc, and then it's Pierce's offense vs. Radman/Walton whoever will be guarding him.

If Kobe guards Pierce, then It's Allen's offense Vs. those guys.

I expect Kobe on Pierce a lot with Sash left to chase Ray around...

[XxIronChainzxX]

I think people are really discounting the psychological match-up in this series. Kobe, Phil and Fisher are all very much battle tested veterans, that have been in the finals before, that know what it takes, etc. For the Celtics, this is their shot, what they've been brought here for. The Big 3 (or apparently according to this thread Ray Allen featuring the Other Two) don't have that presence.

Depending on how, deep down, the Celtics leadership reacts to the Finals, that could IMO be a very important and underrated factor.

I just can't understand how easily Kobe is being written off, especially after he took over that final quarter against SA, and the fact that he's put up 30 on 50% the entire playoffs.

[EHL]

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no, it was ignorant. it didnt fly over my head

Yes, it did, because you idiotically referenced the Celtics' 16 championships when I was mentioning the Spurs' last 3 titles, which was done by me to show you how proven the Spurs current core is defensively and championship-wise. What the hell do the Celtics' prior 16 championship teams with not a single player from those teams playing in the NBA have to do with my original point? Answer that one, kid.

[Patterns]

This is what I said before the series. Every Lakers fans disagreed with me on everything but everything seems to be happening.

It's Pierce vs Radman. Radman will get killed in this series. I don't have a very good feeling about this series. We just don't match up well with the Celtics.

I am still standing my ground that the Lakers will lose 4-2. The Celtics are the worst matchup for the Lakers out of all the teams.

From what I've seen in the Detroit series, it looks like they've recuperated from choking in the 4th which I thought they would sooner or later. Also, Ray Allen seems to be out of his slump and that's bad news if Kobe has to guard him because Kobe gives up open 3's all day. He only guards people if they challenge him by going to the basket or put some moves on him. He lets his defender shoot 3's if they want.

I think the Celtics can guard all 4 positions except Kobe but like some Celtic fans have said, Kobe has not shot well against them. Pau will get pushed around by Perkins, KG is bigger, longer, taller than Lamar. KG can guard Lamar but Lamar can't guard KG. Radman won't survive a quarter against Pierce. Rondo, IMO, is too quick for Fisher and he's tall and long enough to bother Fisher's jumpshot. Ray Allen has historically played well against Kobe and the last C's vs Lakers game I saw, he really shut Kobe down(6-25 shooting).

Like I've said all along, I really think that the Celtics are the worst matchup for the Lakers.

Plus, the Celtics are really built for the playoffs because of their defense.

You guys know how if Manu goes off on offense, the Spurs cannot be beaten right? Well, it's almost the same with the Celtics. Because they play defense so well, all they need is one of their stars to go off for 30 or 35 on a good FG% and they're damn near impossible to beat.

That's why teams like the Cavs always succeed in the playoffs because they play lock down defense and wait for someone to get hot on offense(usually Lebron) and they will win the game.

Teams like that always seem to win.

The Lakers, however, don't have that lock down d like the Spurs, Cavs, and Celtics. They have an insanely efficient offense and good enough defense. However, that offense won't always be there and facing one of the best defensive teams in the history of the NBA(by stats), it'll be tough to play that efficient. And I have a feeling that the "good enough" Lakers defense will get exploited by the matchup problems with KG and Odom, Radman and Pierce.

God I really wanted the Pistons.

And for those who talk about the Celtic breakdowns in the 4th, usually what happens is that one guy on the other team gets super hot(Lebron and Joe Johnson+Josh Smith) and just keep making tough shots after tough shots and blow the Celtics away in the 4th.

I don't see that from the Lakers. Kobe will hesitate to take over like that because playing within the system has brought him so much success. Lamar can't take over because of his shaky jumpshot. Pau can't either because he can't really deliver in the 4th quarter with all the pressure and he throws up super weak little hook shots that goes in sometimes but most of the time not.

See, the thing is, Celtic fans aren't afraid of those 2 things and they have reason not to. Kobe hasn't played well at all vs the Celtic defense this year and Ray Allen always brings his best D against Kobe.

The Celtic bench, imo, is better than the Lakers bench because of James Posey. Posey is better than anyone that comes out of the Lakers bench and yes, that inclues The Machine.

Farmar has been shaky in the playoffs and he can no longer hit the 3 like he did in the beginning of the season. Plus, his defense has been absolutely terrible. Turiaf, while I love, is a foul machine. Sasha plays pesky defense but he has trouble against bigger and stronger guys like Kyle Korver. Luke is trash and shows up sometimes. Most of the times, Lakers fans want his head. Just read some of the gamethreads when he played.

Well, why don't you try to argue against my points rather than accusing me of doing crack.

I mean, I am not a blind homer fan who thinks that my team is the best ever and will crush anyone in the way. I actually watch the game, pick out things that I notice and try to match them with the opposing team to see if we have an advantage or not.

I've watched every Celtic game this post season and some of the negative things said about them are blown out of proportions. Some of the things like a bad bench, choking KG, Ray Allen slump, Rondo's jumpshot, being old, playing 7 games every series, road troubles, blah blah blah aren't really that big of a deal. Even with all of that, they beat the defending East Champions, an experienced Detroit team, and made it to the Finals.

1. Guarding Kobe isn't one man's job. The fact is, during the regular season, they defended Kobe extremely well. Yes, Allen's defense isn't even close to Bowen's but in every game I've seen the Celtics this year, they've stopped all the big name players when they needed to. There is a reason why Lebron did so poorly against the Celtics and it's not just his poor jumpshot. Defense is the Celtics' pride and you can't take that away from them.

2.Doc Rivers didn't stop believing in his bench. He just played with matchups and shorten his rotation. I expect him to play House, Tony Allen, Davis more in the Finals. I didn't say that Posey = 4 or 5 guys. I said he's the best player coming off the bench in this series. Heck, even PJ brown does something good when he comes off the bench. If it wasn't for PJ, the Cavs would have won game 7. Boston's bench is one of the best benches in the NBA and is terribly underrated.

3.The Celtics and KG choking in the 4th quarter is blown out of proportion. They always play well but not fantastic. They also outscored the Pistons 29 to 13 in Detroit in game 6 in the 4th quarter.

1. If you are using what the Celtics have done up to this point in the playoffs to argue against them, why can't I use what the Celtics have done vs the Lakers this season to favor them? They're the same team with the same concept, same players, and same coaching staff. The Hawks caught the Celtics off guard and if it weren't for a few 4th quarter collapses, the Hawks would have been swept. Game 7 is an indication of just how much the Celtics were better than the Hawks when they blew them out by 30, 40 points. Everyone knew that the Cavs and Celtics were going to go to 7 games. We're talking about a hard-nosed Cavs team with Lebron James. They were the defending East Champs. Beating Detroit wasn't that big of a deal. I knew they would beat Detroit and they did it in 6 games which was what I thought.

2.The Lakers bench is overrated, imo. At times when I watch them, they seem lost of both defense and offense. They always pass the ball around without anyone doing anything and at the last second hoist up a bad shot because of shot clock. The Celtic bench has a more defined role. Each player knows exactly what they have to do when they come in. For example, House comes in to space the floor and give them instant offense. Posey goes in to defend the other team's top perimeter player and to space the floor. PJ Brown goes in there to defend and rebound. The Laker bench, however, are asked to be more dynamic and do more. That could be a good thing but it also creates inconsistency and isn't as solid.

3.I am one of the few people who believe that if the Lakers face the Cavs in the playoffs, they would lose. The Celtics are basically a better version of the Cavs. They have similar defense and offense but the Celtics are a lot more versatile and have more offensive players.

The only way I see the Lakers winning this series is if the Refs don't allow Perkins to be physical on Gasol and KG misses most of his jumpshots.

I am just so damn tired of Pau missing so many stupid close shots. Even Doug Collins mentioned it so many times during the Spurs series with Phil complaining also. It frustrates me in the same way Lamar always misses layups.

The matchup problems we have against the Celtics cannot be underrated.

Do you guys remember how we always got blown out by the Suns when we had Kwame with an undeveloped Bynum and no Pau? Because we just couldn't match up with them. We were always down by 20, 25 playing the Suns. The Suns were the only team we could never beat and we drew them twice in the playoffs. While all the Lakers fans were celebrating like we won the series when we went up 3-1, I still thought that the Suns would come back and beat us and they did.

You have to look at little intangibles when you look at a series. You can't just base things off of games vs other teams. To play the Suns, you have to have a big man who can rebound and finish at the rim. We had Kwame freaking Brown. When we had Bynum this year, we took the Suns out easily.

Same thing with the Celtics. If you want to beat the Celtics, you have to either have an athletic team like the Bobcats(did extremely well vs the Celtics) and Hawks, or a big physical team like the Cavs.

We have neither of those. We have Kobe and Phil Jackson. I pray that we'll be able to pull out a miracle and I hope Phil has a master game plan to hide our weaknesses.

Yes. The Celtics are to the Lakers now as the Suns were to the Lakers when we had Kwame: the team that match up well against us and has the right approach to the game that we simply cannot beat in a 7 game series. We couldn't beat the Suns run and gun style no matter what in 04-07 and I don't think we can beat the Celtics with their physical philosophy.

That's not to say that they don't have any weaknesses. We're just not the team that can exploit that weakness.

For example, the pre-Shaq Suns' weakness was that a good big man like Duncan will outrebound them and wear them off. But for us, we had Kwame, possibly the worst player to use against Phx at that time. Back in 05-07, if you told me that the Lakers had to play the Suns, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. If you told me that the Lakers had to play the Spurs or Mavericks, I would at least have some hope.

I feel like the Celtics are what the Suns to us before. They're not necessarily the better team but they are the team I don't think we can beat in the playoffs.

Hey Suns fans, do you agree with what I just said? You're probably more objective than most Lakers fans.

Celtics defend just as well as the Spurs if not better but they don't have nearly the troubles of scoring.

There is one thing that hasn't been discussed much: refereeing.

In the two games that these 2 teams played, the refs heavily favored the Celtics. Maybe they were more aggressive, maybe not but the refs were definitely favoring the Celtics. And in general, the referees were pretty good to the Celtics this year.

I look at the way games will be called as the biggest factor in this series. Will the refs let the Celtics play physical or will they call ticky fouls on the Celtics?

[B-Ball Freak]

As of right now, the refs vs the lakers

[ToffKobe]

I'd have to agree with other people here. The biggest mismatch is the refs against the Lakers right now.

[LakerRings]

referees by far. its a joke

[ToffKobe]

The Lakers didn't help themselves by settling for jumpshot after jumpshot at one point. So it's not only on the refs shoulders but I'd have to admit after two games the refs have easily favored the Celtics over the Lakers.

Also, where's the option for VladRad vs VladRad?

[Chessboxer]

I find it funny that Laker fans somehow think the refs are biased against LA. Now considering they are arguably the most popular team in the league wnd have who many regard as the best plaeyr in the league who is very popular himself.

Yet somehow Stern magically doesn't want this Laker team to win. Yup, makes a lot of sense.

What motivation does Stern have for reffing against the Lakers?

This ridiculouse conspiracy theory is baseless

[KungPauChicken]

What motivation does Stern have for reffing against the Lakers?

To stretch this farce out to seven games.

[ToffKobe]

I find it funny that Laker fans somehow think the refs are biased against LA. Now considering they are arguably the most popular team in the league wnd have who many regard as the best plaeyr in the league who is very popular himself.

Yet somehow Stern magically doesn't want this Laker team to win. Yup, makes a lot of sense.

What motivation does Stern have for reffing against the Lakers?

This ridiculouse conspiracy theory is baseless

I don't think anyone is saying Stern has any motivation to have the refs against the Lakers. It's pretty clear that the reffing right now is one sided. This coming from a neutral fan.