Post-game opinions on Lakers-Celtics 2010 NBA Finals game 1

1) Gasol is much better than Garnett

2) The Lakers are faster and can get to the basket off the dribble

3) The Lakers size affects the Celtics too. Huge rebounding advantage for Lakers

5) The Ray Allen match-up on Bryant puts Allen in foul trouble. This really hurts the Celtics offense, because they don't have another shooter who can stretch the floor

6) Rasheed Wallace is really focused on this Finals. He was the best Boston player tonight.

7) Kevin Garnett looked very old. His game has deteriorated with each series. He is quickly running out of steam.

8) Bynum makes a difference, even when not 100%

9) The Celtics need to get the ball to Paul Pierce. He needs more shots

10) Kobe Bryant is fantastic. Gasol is the second best player in this series.

Most surprising is how Gasol and Bynum did. Very surprised tbh.

Only reason why I favored the Lakers over the Celtics is because I thought Gasol is on another tier than Garnett at this point. Garnett just isn't good anymore.

So we gonna act like the Celtics didn't play keepaway from Pierce for most of the game? He outscored the next person on his team by 8, but only saw the third most fga attempts tonight. Pierce nailed every 2 point attempt agianst Artest, but we kept going away? Why? Why did we wait til the lakers had a 20 point lead in 4th quarter to start going to Pierce?

i believe. I had a feeling it was going to be a scrappy game and kobe would shoot us out of the finals. he playd well, made great decisions, shared the rock and we are 1-0.

cmon lakers lets get those green goblins

Gasol does something that only Tim Duncan do. Hold the ball high off Offensive boards and lay it up in succession. None of the Amares and Dwights do that. They hold and gather. Its all fundamentals too

Bynum can hit those hook shots with soft touch, I believe Rasheed is the perfect guy to be on him. KG is not stopping Gasol but he can at least try to match him and make him play defense.

Artests 3 point shot was looking very smooth.Great hands and post defense, did not realize how slow he has gotten. he used to be able to guard PGs great back in his Chicago and Indiana days.

I think its time to give Kobe different looks. PP makes the most sense in the second half when the game is getting close.

Offensive boards killed us. I expect LA to win the battle,but would feel alot better with us being -5 than -15.

Very happy with this game. Gasol played terrific; Kobe didn't force any shots; Bynum, Brown, and Farmar had surprisingly strong games; and of course, Phil Jackson coached teams are ridiculously good after winning the first game. Artest made his presence felt. His accurate shooting was icing on the cake. Can't wait for Sunday.

Pau played great. Many people got on his case last series, but he showed up.

KG and Rondo did not show up to play championship ball tonight. Joey Crawford and Co. had a hard-on for keeping Ray out of the game and they succeeded until LA pretty much had the deal sealed. PP and Big Baby are the only two players I saw giving it up full-time out there tonight. But honestly, you know you played a shitty game when Rasheed Wallace made your only three-pointer and Nate Robinson has your team's highest +/- rating.

Open shots turning into turnovers? Give me a break. Pau Gasol outrebounding all of the Celtics' bigs combined? Come on.

We didn't deserve to win this one. Hats off to LA for playing the better game.

The Lakers were aggressive, and the Celtics didn't match up. The Celtics didn't play well, but I think Lakers outplayed the Celtics had more to do with it than the Celtics not finding a rhythm. The Celtics missed a lot of open looks and easy shots, and they looked intimated by the Lakers. If the Lakers keep this up then the Lakers should be able to win the series, but I expect the Celtics to come back more focus.

[U][B]CELTICS[/B][/U]

Cs FT shooting and Rebounding sucks big time tonight :banghead:

Doc wasn't able to capitalize the early foul trouble of Kobe, Fisher and Artest

Too many careless passes

Celtics don't have a post up threat against the two 7 footers of Lakers

Going to Ray Allen against Fisher on offense is so predictable

[B][U]LAKERS[/U][/B]

Lakers defense and offense are superb

Pau is very focus on both ends of the floor

Lakers extra passing works like a charm

Lakers bench comes to play while Cs bench disappeared

Lakers gang rebounding really gave the Cs hard time getting defensive rebounds

The Artest factor on Pierce :banghead:


[B][U]REFS[/U][/B]

Refs are trigger happy blowing the whistle :banghead:

[QUOTE=Duranthebest]So we gonna act like the Celtics didn't play keepaway from Pierce for most of the game? He outscored the next person on his team by 8, but only saw the third most fga attempts tonight. Pierce nailed every 2 point attempt agianst Artest, but we kept going away? Why? Why did we wait til the lakers had a 20 point lead in 4th quarter to start going to Pierce?[/QUOTE]

yea i totally agree , i was saying that when they were playing Miami, i think it has somthing to do with Rondo he seems to ignore pierce alot

The ball started going to Paul Pierce more when Nate Robinson was running the point.

Take that for what you will.

LOL its no secret Pierce and Rondo do not get along. You can see them jawing over assignments. THey are so much a like they dont realize it.

They have a Hate lil brother big brother relationship. I will say Artest takes away that Post ISO 80 percent of the time and Rondo was not going to bait that. However Paul was moving. I expect his shots to increase because he has that quickness factor on Ron with his strength mixed in

I actually lol'd when people said Garnett was still a better player than Gasol.

- Gasol isn't soft anymore & is a much better player than Garnett
- Kobe unlike in '08 knows how to beat this defense
- The Lakers actually have someone to defend Pierce this time
- The shooting and rebounding for Boston was much better in 2008
- Bynum adds some toughness to the Lakers