We are back to Boston. The Celtics achieve their goal stealing one in fron of Will Smith, Denzel and Jack. What can we expect for the rest of the series? The adjustements made by both coaches have worked for both of them. Jackson's decision to put Kobe on Rondo when he's on the floor and let him roam and screw Boston's offense has been the key to those opening huge leads. Last night he used Farmar to pressure House/Cassell when they are bringing up the ball. The result of that was Paul Pierce running the offense which takes a little bit more from their go to guy.
Rivers' adjustements aka Smallball has opened all kind of spaces for their big three. The diference last night: neither Allen nor Garnet sank those open jumpers they were going down in game 5. Specially Allen has we learned later that he have some family issues on his mind. (Good luck with that, Ray). House and Cassell were pretty effective last night.
The bad comes with the good. I think the Lakers failed to give a major role to Lamar Odom when he was guarded by Posey. I know he might be afraid of him but in the third quater - with KG in the bench - they went to him and good things happened for them. He's just to versatile to be roaming around without a north in the offense. What about Radmanovic's north? This guy can't defend nobody. He's a poor rebounder and his shot ain't falling. I know coaches can't start the game with their "adjustement line up" but playing him more than 5 minutes is just criminal. Mihm? Well, that was intersting. Who know, he could have been game 2's Leon Powe.
For my money, Rivers is playing Rondo too much.Unless he's driving to the basket at 250 mpg he's pretty much useless and apparently that ankle ain't allowing him that fifth gear. Again, I understand why he's seeing some minutes but when Kobe is running behind the ball like a 12 year old in a soccer match I think is time to put a shooter whose shot is not cheered by the Lakers. Another big issue that could have affected last night game: The Truth playing the entire game. I know this happens when you go down by 20 ( which happens when Kobe is everywhere where the ball is. Which happens when Rondo is in the game) but somehow u need to trust your bench and at least give him a minute off at the end of a quater or a couple of posetions after a TV time out.
This is also a players game. I've been saying all along that when Gasol and Odom stop shaking like little girls when KG is around them they can win any game (no matter state of the series) and that finally happened in game 5 (Actually it happened thanks to KG's foul trouble. By the time he got back to the game LO and PG where so pumped and their adrenaline were running so high that there was no fear ) Can they go back to that aggresiveness in Game 6? I really don't think but at least they saw what could happen when the play like big boys.
I can't believe I'm going to post this next paragrah: KG needs to cool down. Simmons wrote a piece some time ago about KG's lack of composure at crunch time. Totally truth. He has been playing subpar basketball this entire finals but somehow that lack of production hasn't directy affected any outcome so far.. until last night. He missed 3 free throws and two tip-ins inside two minutes to play with a 2 point game or 4 point game. He saids that he will play better but I ain't sure. For all the criticism that Gasol have received for being tissue soft he's not afraid of taking shots when the baskets matter the most. He came through last night (even when Kobe was looking in desbielf) . Sadly when can't expect that from Garnett. I can only hope and dream ( for history sake. I'm not cheering for the Celtics or the Lakers ) that KG comes with a huge 30 point, 17 rebound, 6 block game with the C's winning thanks to a KG's block shot or a couple of Garnett's free throws. Would that make 5 games of practically not showing up? Right away not. But in a couple of years the public will only remember that monster game . Take my word if happens but until it does I'm ashame to say that KG has become a reliability in crunch time.
The bad comes with the good. I think the Lakers failed to give a major role to Lamar Odom when he was guarded by Posey. I know he might be afraid of him but in the third quater - with KG in the bench - they went to him and good things happened for them. He's just to versatile to be roaming around without a north in the offense. What about Radmanovic's north? This guy can't defend nobody. He's a poor rebounder and his shot ain't falling. I know coaches can't start the game with their "adjustement line up" but playing him more than 5 minutes is just criminal. Mihm? Well, that was intersting. Who know, he could have been game 2's Leon Powe.
For my money, Rivers is playing Rondo too much.Unless he's driving to the basket at 250 mpg he's pretty much useless and apparently that ankle ain't allowing him that fifth gear. Again, I understand why he's seeing some minutes but when Kobe is running behind the ball like a 12 year old in a soccer match I think is time to put a shooter whose shot is not cheered by the Lakers. Another big issue that could have affected last night game: The Truth playing the entire game. I know this happens when you go down by 20 ( which happens when Kobe is everywhere where the ball is. Which happens when Rondo is in the game) but somehow u need to trust your bench and at least give him a minute off at the end of a quater or a couple of posetions after a TV time out.
This is also a players game. I've been saying all along that when Gasol and Odom stop shaking like little girls when KG is around them they can win any game (no matter state of the series) and that finally happened in game 5 (Actually it happened thanks to KG's foul trouble. By the time he got back to the game LO and PG where so pumped and their adrenaline were running so high that there was no fear ) Can they go back to that aggresiveness in Game 6? I really don't think but at least they saw what could happen when the play like big boys.
I can't believe I'm going to post this next paragrah: KG needs to cool down. Simmons wrote a piece some time ago about KG's lack of composure at crunch time. Totally truth. He has been playing subpar basketball this entire finals but somehow that lack of production hasn't directy affected any outcome so far.. until last night. He missed 3 free throws and two tip-ins inside two minutes to play with a 2 point game or 4 point game. He saids that he will play better but I ain't sure. For all the criticism that Gasol have received for being tissue soft he's not afraid of taking shots when the baskets matter the most. He came through last night (even when Kobe was looking in desbielf) . Sadly when can't expect that from Garnett. I can only hope and dream ( for history sake. I'm not cheering for the Celtics or the Lakers ) that KG comes with a huge 30 point, 17 rebound, 6 block game with the C's winning thanks to a KG's block shot or a couple of Garnett's free throws. Would that make 5 games of practically not showing up? Right away not. But in a couple of years the public will only remember that monster game . Take my word if happens but until it does I'm ashame to say that KG has become a reliability in crunch time.
Ps: What happend to Simmons' game 5 column? I hope his dad is ok. If something happened to his heart we should trial KG for murder.
No comments:
Post a Comment