Anyone for a Game 7?

The Lakers are coming back to LA down 3-2

I keep hearing about the team that wins the battle of the boards has won every game so far in this series, and while that held true again last night can we at least stay within the grasp of reality. Boston out rebounded the Lakers 35-34 last night. The Lakers actually had a 16-7 edge in offensive rebounds a stat that surprised me since it seemed like the Celtics must have got the majority of those in the 4th quarter, and a couple during crunch time. Boston did outscore LA 46-32 on points in the paint, however the Lakers attempted 13 more free throws than the Celtics, many of those the result of drives to the basket (which don’t register as Points in the Paint). But those were not the telling moments of game #5.

No, I felt this game turned in the first few minutes of the third quarter. Kobe Bryant put on another brilliant but not unfamiliar shooting exhibition as he repeatedly buried tough shots with multiple Celtic defenders hanging all over him. When it was over Kobe had scored the first 19 points of the quarter for the Lakers and put to rest any notion of a “Kobe Stopper”. His scoring spree included his entire repertoire, two 3-pointers, two mid-range jump shots, an “And One” for a three point basket, a pair of free throws… and one gravity-defying alley-oop pass where he caught the errant pass and still somehow managed to guide the ball into the basket. All of this effort went for not as the Lakers defense which had been solid for the first four and a half games began to crack. Boston scored on 12 of their first 13 possessions of the 2nd half not only fighting off Kobe’s attack but increasing their 6-point halftime lead to double digits on several occasions on their way to a 28-point quarter.

The Lakers actually managed to win the 4th quarter (21-19) and there were a couple of plays where they appeared ready to pull even with the Celtics and they just couldn’t quite get there. Ron Artest is one of the most confounding players I’ve ever seen and right now he’s not on my list of favorite players. Until last night his defense on Paul Pierce has been excellent, and even though he looks more lost in the offense now than he did last October (how is that possible?) I think Laker fans have been willing to live with Pierce struggling. I’ll give credit to Doc Rivers as the Celtics have changed strategy’s and are now running Artest through picks across the top of the key. Artest is having trouble with moving his feet and staying up with Pierce while evading the screens and the result was a big game (27 points) for Pierce. And not only is Artest completely lost on the offensive end of the floor, I’m starting to cringe when they pass him the ball, but he's even a liability when he has a clear path to the basket. Last night, with under a minute to play and the Lakers trailing 87-82, Derek Fisher won a jump ball against … Kevin Garnett! The tipped ball went to Kobe who immediately made the outlet pass ahead to Artest who looked to have a couple of steps on Pierce. I can’t remember a player who moved so slowly with no one ahead of him. At that point in the game Artest has to go hard to the basket and possibly get a three-point opportunity. Instead he appeared to almost be waiting for Pierce to catch up to him and foul him which he did. Artest subsequently missed both free throws and the Lakers never got closer down the stretch.

My blown call of the game? Not so bad really. But it did come at a pivotal point and I’m sure had many Laker fans wondering the same thing I was. It was right before the jump ball with Fisher and Garnett and the Celtics had the ball with the shot clock running down. Ray Allen ended up launching a desperation three-pointer from about 26 feet out with time running down. The shot appeared to miss the rim but the rebound came off to Kendrick Perkins to no avail as the shot clock expired and the officials blew the whistles to signal the violation. However after huddling together the head official Jack Crawford indicated the shot had indeed hit the rim and gave the Celtics a fresh 24-second shot clock. I’ll give the Refs some leeway on this particular call since it happened very fast with the ball going over the rim and bouncing off the backboard on the far side. Television showed about 7 different angles of replays and the one thing I will say is that not a single one of those replays convincingly showed the ball hitting the rim. The two best replays I saw from above the basket appeared to be conclusive since the replay was slow enough to actually see the rotation of the ball as it floated over the rim. In those two shots, the ball never did stop spinning. I guess my question to the officials would have been … “Which one of you saw it hit the Rim?” … because we sure couldn’t see it from the TV replays.

Coming back to LA, Kobe is gonna need more help than he got in game #5. Pau Gasol absolutely needs to win the battle against Kevin Garnett and the Lakers need at least one more outside shooter to step up and knock down some shots. I found it interesting that Shannon Brown appeared to have lost his spot in the rotation and Coach Phil went with Sasha Vujacic who rewarded the decision by hitting a couple of big jumpers. At a few times the Lakers (other than Kobe) looked hesitant with their outside shots even though they were open and the one thing Laker fans know Sasha is not is hesitant. It would be nice to see Lamar Odom, but after 5 games I’m a bit skeptical. You have to appreciate what Andrew Bynum is doing on one leg. His numbers are not going to be there for the rest of the series since he’s essentially playing on one leg, but he’s giving the team all he has and refuses to give up when he’s in the game. I want to see a Game 7. For obvious reasons since I’m a Laker Fan, but it really would be nice to see a Game 7 or the first time since… 1998?