Saturday, May 31, 2008

Why the Celtics will Manhandle the Lakers

I'm kind of astonished at how much the media is picking the Lakers to win. ESPN's 8 experts all pick the Lakers to win. While it's possible they have advance copies of the NBA referees guide to botching the Finals, I do not see it. Here's a couple of reasons why I am expecting this to be the Celtics easiest series.

  1. Laker's big men are soft. No Andrew Bynum means that the Lakers big men consist of the following: Pau Gasol- Soft Vladomir Radmonovic- Soft and Luke Walton- Soft. How are these marshmallows going to handle Kevin Garnett. I expect Kendrick Perkins to have a big contribution this series.
  2. Derek Fischer can not keep up with Rondo. At 33 years old, he doesn't have the speed or energy to keep up with Rondo. Also, if you are wondering why the C's acquired Sam Cassell, you will find out this series. I fully expect him to win one game on his own. Point guard is a very favorable matchup.
  3. Defense- Defense wins championships and the Celtics have the best one in the league and the Lakers is non existent. Koby might average 35 points a game, but I would be surprised if his shooting is over 43%. The more physical you play Bryant, the further from the basket he shoots. This guy is great but he's not Jordan and not Lebron for that matter.
  4. Paul Pierce. You know who lines up on defense up against Pierce? Lamar Odom. Give me a break. The Lakers may be tempted to line up Kobe on Pierce but he would have to expend too much energy on defense and he is really going to need to carry the offensive load. Let's say they do put Kobe on Pierce, that is still a favorable matchup but it also leaves Odom on Allen. Allen will run Odom in circles.
  5. Home court advantage. The Finals schedule of 2-3-2 is even more of an advantage to the team with a home court advantage. With the first two games in Boston, they can jump quickly to a 2-0 lead. The Lakers would then have to sweep 3 games in LA to force 2 games in Boston. It is far more likely that the Celtics win the first 2 than the Lakers win the next three. That would mean a 3-2 Boston advantage with the final two games in Boston. Do you think the C's will lose two in a row in Boston?
  6. Big Three Hunger. With the series on the line, you are going to have three great veterans in Allen, Pierce and Garnett that will go to the ends of the earth to win.
Those are the primary reasons, I can't wait to see Garnett line up against Radmonovic on a nightly basis. Celtics will take the first two at home and then win 2 of three in LA (like they did in Detroit) to close it out. I do not see this series coming back to Boston for games 6 and 7.

Celts in 5

2 comments:

www.ayewonder.com said...

Little aggressive here my brother. This will be their toughest series. And by the way, does blogspot have a grammar and spell check component? Just wondering.

Anonymous said...

Ya know, I probably agree with almost everything you said there- except predicting my success. I mean, come on, a Celtics fan such as yourself should be used to me coming in to give Rajon some rest, then going 0-4 on awful shot looks, and being taken right out by Doc. Things won't change sadly.....things just won't change...

Oh, and another note- you're not giving Kobe enough credit truthfully. He'll score his 35-45 points a night versus us, but fortunately, no one else on the Lakers will even have a prayer against our D.