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Phil Jackson 47-0 in playoff series when his team wins Game 1

Ron Borges of the Boston Herald reports:

If you live in southern California and believe in numerology or history, the Los Angeles Lakers executed a one-game sweep of the Boston Celtics [team stats] Thursday night in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.

If you live in New England and believe in numerology or history, the Celtics clinched their 18th NBA title last night by losing in resounding fashion to the Lakers.

Phil Jackson 47-0 in playoffs when his team wins Game 1

That’s the beauty of statistics. You can make them say anything and they really mean nothing. Or so both sides have to hope this morning.

Between now and Sunday, when Game 2 finally arrives, much will be said about Lakers’ coach Phil Jackson’s eerie record of being 47-0 in playoff series in which his team wins Game 1.

Last night, Tony Allen grew tired of hearing about that in a hurry and countered those numbers with one of his own, a number that arguably has more bearing on these NBA Finals.

“If you want to bring that up, our starting five has never lost a (playoff) series,” Allen pointed out.

Lakers driven by memories of 2008 NBA Finals loss to Celtics

David Lassen, special to the Press-Enterprise, reports:

As the Lakers open the NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics tonight at Staples Center, they are driven by the memory of their six-game loss to the Celtics in the 2008 Finals, yet careful to note these teams — winners of the past two NBA championships — are not the same ones that squared off two years ago.

Lakers driven by memories of 2008 Finals loss to Celtics

“That thought of defeat is the first thing that comes to your mind,” said Pau Gasol, looking back to 2008, “so that triggers a point that is sore, and should get us going.”

Kobe Bryant casts the memories of 2008 less in terms of the pain of defeat and more as the lesson that helped propel the Lakers to their success against Orlando last year.

“It’s things that we’ve carried with us from the series,” Bryant says, “in terms of how to play as a unit at both ends of the floor, the kind of tenacity you need to play with.

“Those are the kind of things that we learned from there that we still carry with us.”

Kobe has extra motivation to beat Celtics

Mitch Lawrence of the New York Daily News reports:

Kobe Bryant should be motivated more than any Laker in the series that tips off Thursday in L.A., since he missed 15 of 22 shots in that Game 6. From then until the Lakers defeated Orlando last June, Bryant heard that he could not carry a team to a title without Shaquille O’Neal.

“The Celtics challenged us two years ago,” Bryant said. “Now it’s a test to see how much we’ve grown.”

But this is a much different Laker team. To counter the Celtics’ frontcourt size, they’ll need center Andrew Bynum, who has been slowed by a knee injury and did not play in the playoffs in ’08.

Dragic vs. Vujacic: Slovenian grudge-match

Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic reports (via blog):

It did not take some Slovenian smack talk to tell Goran Dragic that he and Sasha Vujacic inexplicably have something going.

Before this conference finals series started, Dragic said there was something “personal” between the countrymen who did not know each other until the first Suns-Lakers game last season in Dragic’s rookie year.

But the tension was clear in Game 5’s fourth quarter, when Vujacic marched toward Dragic on a dead ball and Dragic shoved him away for a double technical foul. It was Dragic’s first NBA technical foul.

“He pushed me but he was talking trash to me,” Dragic said. “It’s a long story. At that moment, I was calm but I saw that he was walking toward me and he was talking to me and I just reacted like that.

“I don’t know why he walked toward me. I watched the replay. I didn’t push him or nothing. He’s the kind of player that gets into your skin, like two years ago it happened with Raja (Bell) the same. He’s just so annoying on defense. Maybe that’s the main reason. In the regular season, he did the same thing but I was more calm. But that’s playoffs.”

Matt Barnes now rooting for Celtics to win championship

Dan Duggan of the Boston Herald reports:

This may come as a surprise to Celtics fans, but Matt Barnes wants your team to win the championship.

The Magic forward, who seemed to thrive on getting under the skin of the Celtics during the Eastern Conference finals, is expecting his rivals to continue their run in the NBA Finals.

“After they beat us, you definitely wish everybody good luck and you want them to win the championship because at least you got beat by the team who won it,” Barnes said after the C’s closed out the Magic with a 96-84 Game 6 win at the Garden last night. “They definitely got everything it takes and we wish them good luck.”

The physical nature of the series got plenty of attention, but after last night’s game there was a clear display of mutual respect between the teams.

“You know it’s a war while you’re out there, but I got friends on that team,” Barnes said. “But while we’re playing, we’re playing for our lives.”

Ron Artest feels Lakers are being disrespected

Elliot Teaford of the Los Angeles Daily News reports:

Ron Artest reacted with disdain when told Phoenix guard Steve Nash predicted the Suns would win tonight to force the Lakers to Game 7. Artest launched into a lengthy rant about the lack of respect he and the Lakers have received during the playoffs. He did not raise his voice, but his disgust was apparent.

“Oh man, that’s like no respect,” he said. “No respect. No respect for us. No respect. That’s how it’s been for a long time in these playoffs. We’ll talk about it. I’m sure we’ll talk about it. Coaches have no respect for the Lakers at all.

“They don’t respect us at all. They don’t respect me at all. They want me to play out of character and start jacking up all kinds of crazy shots and not look to pass the ball to Pau (Gasol). (Suns) coach Alvin Gentry doesn’t respect me.

“A lot of the (opposing) players have no respect. I think there will come a point in time when they respect me. I’ll wait. I’m not rushing. We respect them (the Suns), though. I respect them. I guess we have to play hard and earn it.”

Lakers bench must step up vs Suns

Janis Carr of the Orange County Register reports (via blog):

“The bench was fantastic.”

When was the last time anyone said that about the Lakers’ reserves? It’s been a while.

Certainly no one was talking up the Lakers’ bench after the accounted for 20 points (15 from Lamar Odom) in Tuesday’s 115-106 defeat in Game 4 that evened the Western Conference finals at two games a piece.

When asked if he thought his bench “got smoked”, Phil Jackson seemed to think it wasn’t all that bad.

“Well, it wasn’t a Cohiba, I’ll tell you that,” the Lakers coach said, referring to a Cuban-brand cigar.

Not a shocker: Celtics green is all across Boston

In the least shocking blog entry I’ve posted in a long time, Boston is currently flooded with Celtics green. Walk any busy section of the city and every 10 or 20 seconds, someone passing by has Celtics gear on, or at least some green.

The Celtics tonight have a chance to do what no one expected and sweep the Orlando Magic. Coming into the series, most of the NBA world was still surprised how Boston managed to handle the Cleveland Cavaliers.

I still think LeBron James’ elbow was a huge factor, even if many others refuse to factor it in. He was using his off-hand far more than usual, especially as the series progressed, and I doubt it was for the fun of it. Still, credit Boston for the series win.

And now, the Celtics are playing on a truly championship level, more or less on par with their title-winning 2008 team. And the Magic are getting wrecked.

Will the real Orlando team show up tonight for Game 4? I think we’ll see more fight than they’ve displayed in the first three games, but that isn’t saying much.

While it’s possible the Magic win tonight, there’s simply no reason to expect it.

Inability to push Cavs to title costs Brown

Marla Ridenour of the Akron Beacon Journal reports:

Mike Brown’s firing Monday after compiling a record of 272-138 and leading the Cavs to the league’s best regular-season record each of the past two seasons left many wondering what simmered underneath the surface between James and Brown.

It left me wondering how Brown would answer that ”Isn’t it tough to coach a superstar?” question today.

Before the playoffs, the only public rift this season appeared to come after Brown did not use Zydrunas Ilgauskas on Nov. 28 when the center could have set the team’s franchise record with 724 games played. James spoke out in the aftermath. It had to sting the ever-loyal James that Ilgauskas invited friends and family to Quicken Loans Arena for the occasion that Brown apparently forgot to celebrate.

But Brown helped James elevate his game. Buying into Brown’s defense-first mantra, James was selected to the NBA’s all-defensive first team the past two seasons. Brown convinced James that a chase-down block was just as awe-inspiring as a monster slam.

But many — including President Barack Obama — questioned how much James respected Brown. The coach was tuned out by the media because of his lack of meaty sound bites. Was that the case for the players, too?

Magic are all shook up

Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel reports:

Coach Stan Van Gundy said players “were down” on Sunday when they started reviewing Game 3 videotape, conceding they are “a little shaken.

“It didn’t start great in the film session. Guys were down, but as it went along, they were fine,” he said. “Our guys haven’t been in this situation in a long time … to be beaten like that. We took a lot of losses in the playoffs last year. But other than Game 1 in L.A. (against the Lakers in the NBA Finals), we hadn’t been beaten like this.

“They don’t have a lot of experience with this. Our guys are a little shaken.”

The Magic unraveled in the first quarter when shots didn’t drop. Turnovers mounted and players decided to go one-on-one instead of patiently making the extra pass. The mass frustration spilled over to the defensive end.