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NBA Finals game five: Lakers punch back for once.
Posted by: SPQR on Jun 16, 2008 - 12:42 PM
lakers-blog
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After the historic collapse in game four, one wondered what the Lakers would bring to the table in their last home game. Would they pack it in or would they show some pride and deny the Celtics a chance to celebrate on their home court?
Kobe came out obviously wishing to stop a humiliating Celtic coronation on Lakers ground. Looking like the MVP he was on fire, drilling 4 three pointers in staking the Lakers to and early lead.
The LA Lakers continued their good play in the second quarter, piling up a lead that resembled the fourth game. Unlike the last game however, there was no thoughts of a blowout from this observer as I wondered not if, but when the resilient Celtics would begin to chisel away at the large early Laker advantage.
Sure enough things started to change. Odom missed a wide open Ronny under the basket. The Celts began a damaging run and when Pierce hit a three pointer, the lead had been whittled down to 43-39. A Gasol pass to Lamar for a layup finally ended a 15-0 Celtic run. Tony Allen blew by Radmanovich for his sixth point of the half. When Kobe sleepwalked the ball up the court in the last seconds of the half, had it taken away leading to a three pointer by Pierce at the end of the third you could almost hear Jerry Buss calling the airport and telling them to put the Laker charter jet in the hanger for the rest of the year. The Laker bright spots were Lamars nine points, Kobes early fireworks and Jordans drives to the hole for much need points from the bench. One interesting sidenote was the insertion of Chris Mimm into the lineup instead of Ronny. This was a tacit admission by Phil that Ronny has be useless to the team, which he has. Mimm didn't do any better and Ronny was once again inserted...his "energy" doing its usual nothing. I don't think at this point any objective fan expects anything else from him. His myth of "energy" has long been exposed now in these playoffs and he is no better a player than Luke.
The third quarter has been won by Boston the whole series and it didn't start any better this game. An Allen three tied the game and both Pau and Vlad missed a layups. At this point one could see the inevitable collapse coming.
Low and behold, a funny thing happened. Instead of collapsing, the Lakers for the first time perhaps in this series dug in and punched the Celtics back in the face. Kobe got a rebound for two. Fisher hit a two and drew a foul. When Vlad canned a three the Lakers had actually taken a quarter that had been previously been Celtic territory and claimed it as it's own and taken a seven point lead.
In the fourth Farmar continued his nice play, once again driving for a deuce. When Lamar canned a three the Los Angeles Lakers had a twelve point lead and the Celtics on their heels. As they built a 14 pt lead in the fourth, you didn't take anything for granted, but it was nice to watch them actually compete and not melt from the Celtic pressure.
The Celtics made one more push and when Posey hit a three the lead was cut to four. Garnett hit a basket to tie at it up at the 4:28 mark. The Lakers held on for dear life and fought back for a small lead down the stretch and when Kobe knocked the ball from Pierce and Lamar fed him streaking down the court the Lakers had forced the series to a sixth game. It was interesting that Jordan played these last crucial minutes instead of Sasha, who except for his twenty point game earlier in the series has been having problems, like all his teamates.
Some impressions: It's amazing to watch Boston limit Kobes effectiveness game after game. They have done a tremendous job on him, making him almost nonexistent for long stretches. They use great team defense, but Paul Pierce deserves kudos also for taking on the hardest job in the NBA-guarding Kobe for long periods of time-and doing a great job of it. He's doing a vintage Bruce Bowen impersonation, only better.
The absence of Perkins opened things up for Lamar and Pau. Both players had their best all round games of the series both scoring and rebounding. Both men had moments when they actually fought Boston down low; a rarity in this series for Lakers.
The insertions of Mimm over Ronny and Jordan over Sasha is showing is indicative of how much the Bench Mob is failing and how desperate we are to get any kind of bench help. Only Jordan out of the four was effective in this game.
The game was a really nice win, if only to not let Boston celebrate number 17 on our home court. Making them go to game six is also a victory in itself after the game four collapse. Also nice to watch the Lakers compete physically to a successful degree for once with the Celts.
However, the fact that at home, without Perkins and with the best games all series from Lamar and Pau we were still forced to hang on after opening a big lead does not give one much confidence with the series headed back to Boston, where we will play worse and they will play better.
I get the feeling that come Tuesday, we will be forced to watch a very ugly end to a very fun 2008 season.
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