Lakers Show Celtics What They Have Learned

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LOS ANGELES -- Yes, it means more against the Boston Celtics. Nothing to do with Bird, Russell, Hondo or anyone else you'd find on ESPN Classic. This is about scoring 102 points right out of the gate against the 2010 Celtics, a team that yielded triple digits about once a series in these playoffs. This was the Los Angeles Lakers using Game 1 to declare that these NBA Finals will be played on their terms. Given the stakes, the opponent and, yes, the history (recent edition) this 102-89 victory ranks as the most impressive Lakers playoff game of the season.

In the two years since they last met in the Finals it seems the Celtics have aged while the Lakers matured.

The Lakers all said the beatdown the Celtics gave them in 2008 gave them the drive to get the championship in 2009. I asked Kobe Bryant before the series what they took from beating Orlando.

"Just the poise," he replied. "The poise of playing through [adversity] and getting to our ultimate goal, that's something we've carried with us. You don't see us get rattled by anything."

Poise. The perfect word to describe the Lakers Thursday night. While the Celtics got bent when calls didn't go their way, Pau Gasol reacted to a couple of fouls whistled on him with that same disbelieving smirk flashed by Armando Galarraga when the umpire cost him a perfect game. Nor did he get out of character and flex after dunks or yell in Kevin Garnett's face. He made his point with a 23-point, 14-rebound stat line.

"It was important just to play hard, be aggressive and help as much as possible out there," Gasol said. "That was my mindset tonight. There was no statements to be made."

All of the eight men Phil Jackson called upon to play the bulk of the minutes were up to the challenge, whether it was Ron Artest getting all Greco-Roman with Paul Pierce in the opening minute or Gasol outplaying Garnett and even Jordan Farmar and Shannon Brown taking turns blowing past the immobile Michael Finley.

Bryant, of course, did what he's been doing. Kobe scoring 30 points is as regular a part of these playoffs as those Auto-Tuned commercials. He had 30 more on Thursday, even if it took him a 3-pointer on the final possession of an already-decided game to get there. But the Lakers deserved to have the honor of breaking the century mark against Boston, given how hard it's been to achieve lately. More impressively, they had 84 points through three quarters against a team that yielded 86 points or less in seven games this postseason.

"That was surprising," Bryant said. "That's not something we were hanging our hats on, to score 100 points. We hang our hats on defending and rebounding."

They did plenty of that as well, outrebounding Boston 42-31 and holding the Celtics without a single second-chance point. Whenever the Celtics did manage an offensive rebound or a close-range shot it seemed as if the Lakers blocked the attempt, whether it was Bryant elevating to swat a Tony Allen dunk try or Artest blocking a Glen Davis shot, leading to a Gasol fast-break dunk while Artest turned and stared into the crowd.

Artest made his mark early, when he and Pierce wrestled each other to the ground (Pierce went for the pin) and received double-technical fouls. Artest admitted "At that point I probably was a little emotional," but he quickly calmed down and maintained his job duties, holding Pierce to 11 points through the first three quarters.

The Lakers got more of Ron the defender than Ron the agitator. They got 10 points and 6 rebounds from Andrew Bynum, which were 10 more points and 6 more rebounds than he was able to contribute in the 2008 Finals when he was injured.

"Guys chipped in at different times, helped us out," Phil Jackson said. "I was particularly happy about [Bynum] being able to play the minutes he was able to play tonight and support us because of foul trouble that Lamar got in."

The Lakers were so dominant that Odom's five measly points weren't an issue. That's because they got out of the triangle offense and focused on using high-low passing to get the ball inside from the outset. Their shot chart was clustered in one area, like the cell phone ads mocking the competition's coverage zones. They scored 48 points in the paint and attempted only 10 3-pointers, far from the 3-happy group that jacked up more than 30 on multiple occasions in the playoffs.

It's as if they're finally comprehending the message about what's their best method of winning games. The Lakers had the better game plan and now the onus is on the Celtics to make the strategic adjustments, while their bodies have to adjust to less time off between games as the series progresses.

It's too early for the Lakers to plan a parade, even if Jackson has gone on to win the previous 47 times he won the series opener.

The whole emphasis from the Lakers in the buildup has been that this series isn't about history. Their debut performance, however, did contain at least one nod to the past.

"They were ready," Magic Johnson said as we walked out of the arena. "Just like the old days."

Source: Daily Dime

 

Keep this shit up and we'll finish them in Boston baby!