I have to give my regards to the Celtics. They are solid and deserve to win after that. It still pisses me off when my friends call me and say Kobe Bryant sucks, cause its far from true seeing as how hes the best.
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The NBA thread
- Thread starter Platinum Knight
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first off, amazing historic comeback win by the celts. Truly a game to be remembered. Being a boston fan is a great place to be now. (and VIL i've been a huge celts fan for years and years now =) ). Im so pumped right now, what an amazing win, proving that defense wins championships.
to aeroblactyl - maybe in the past pierce has complained, but this year, and especially these playoffs pierce has showed a huge step up in his maturity. These celtics just want to play basketball, to them fouls are just delaying that play, so they just want to get it over with and continue with the ball game. With that mentality the celtics (with the exception of perkins & doc) do not complain to refs. You can have your opinion about how LA complains to the refs, but i will not let you rip on paul pierce for complaining, he doesnt complain to officials about a calls, he just plays ball.
to aeroblactyl - maybe in the past pierce has complained, but this year, and especially these playoffs pierce has showed a huge step up in his maturity. These celtics just want to play basketball, to them fouls are just delaying that play, so they just want to get it over with and continue with the ball game. With that mentality the celtics (with the exception of perkins & doc) do not complain to refs. You can have your opinion about how LA complains to the refs, but i will not let you rip on paul pierce for complaining, he doesnt complain to officials about a calls, he just plays ball.
I mean, of course he's doing well now, but let's not forget that they got pushed to TWO game 7s against very inferior teams.
As for bandwagoners, I agree that boston's pretty insufferable. But Laker fans, while being their own bad breed, still loved Kobe even during these mediocre past years. Despite Lakers making playoffs every year, they were definitely disappointing expectations; regardless it's a near sell-out every game.
Even now, the crowd gets more excited by a Kobe scoring bunch than him helping out the other guys.
Also, has anyone noticed how Boston has shut down the bread-and-butter tactic known as pick-and-roll better than any team in the past 20 years or more?
Lakers really fall apart third quarter. They start out strong, get complacent, and expect Kobe to be a guaranteed late game finisher. Odom and Gasol played poorly today, and the Celtics took advantage of their third quarter lapse. The series is effectively over for the Lakers. Even if they win the next game, they have two games coming up in Boston. After today's game, Kobe looked like he pretty much quit (I'm sure he's also aware of the odds). Still, it's a relatively new team (Gasol, Farmar) etc. I'm surprised they got as far as they did, though Kobe is an incredible player.
How the fuck does fucking Doc Rivers outcoach you anyway?
Time for Phil to go.
Time for Phil to go.
No one seemed to notice that Pau Gasol can't play defense. When you're the superstar of a team getting max money yet go 0-8 in your first 8 playoff games, there's something that's up. The only reason they got past the Spurs is because their main Kobe Defender happened to be 37.
Yeah, Lakers are going all the way next year. Trevor Ariza being back at full health as well as Bynum, and Farmar will only get better.
He was pretty shitty in the first half though. He missed like 3 wide open 3's IIRC. They just can't use him that long because he's not so much a passer as a shooter. It seems like these injuries are a blessing in disguise for the Celtics. Example, Pierce goes out game 1 and comes back in for motivation. Last game Rondo gets hurt so this game he can't play as much so they're forced to put in House. And this game Perkins went out so Doc didn't have to be a dumbass and be faced with a decision of play small or play with Perkins, but had the decision made for him.
That's only because you choose to ignore that Pierce still bitches. He bitches quite often. Every home team fan will ignore that their star player bitches. For me to sit here and say that someone else bitches is one thing, but if I'm saying "they all bitch, but definitely not t-mac" would be a stupid shit thing of me to say. EVERYONE IN THE NBA BITCHES. Don't try to defend your homer players.
I think the 04 Pistons were probably better at that, as they were definitely the dark horses then and was a team of full outcasts, as reminded by us by commentators time after time (Billups through 5 teams, Rasheed as troublemaker, Ben Wallace not even drafted, Rip being MJ's shadow in Washington then traded for Stackhouse). That fact gave them just more intensity and I'd say that 04 team definitely shuts down this 08 Celtics team. (Which isn't even out the question since it's the same era)
Just my 8 cents.
03 Spurs 4-0s this team easily.
05 Spurs 4-0s this team easily.
07 Spurs...maybe 6 games.
07 Cavs beat this team in 7 (and I had little respect for that Cavs team, but they're bigger/stronger/more physical/ have better D and Lebron would cancel out Kobe)
I've seen soft teams lose to tough teams often enough (Wizards fan) to know what works in basketball.
The thing is though, they thought they'd have Bynum...this is a completely different series with him healthy (along with Ariza)
Let me ask - why don't GMs invest every resource they have into making their teams dominant defensively, seeing that that's obviously what works?
Because the main goal of team owners isn't winning, it's making money. At the end of the day, it's to make a profit. Forget that Lakers are in Finals and Spurs aren't, who would you rather pay to go see? Lakers of Spurs?
The 03 Spurs would have beaten most teams - they took down the Mavericks who were one of the most potent offenses ever in history. Do not make a stupid assed declaration like you just did though of 'blah blah blah all these teams would sweep this team now'. Anything can happen in sports. The only results that matter are the actual results, not fantasy land shit (of course, this is a bit stringent of a view, as the actual results often do not matter thanks to the NBA's horrific foul situation).
It's not like the Lakers got blown out guys, they just choked really really bad. They're still a more potent offensive team on their best day than the celtics, they just have almost no experience aside from Kobe and Fisher, who didn't even play down the stretch. Your fantasy logic makes no sense to me. These Lakers definitely wouldn't lose to the Cavs last year.
An interesting note: Ray Allen played the entire game!
Courtesy of Bill Simmons, although I was laughing my ass off when Doc Rivers was woefully trying to encourage his players with no response at all.
Doc Rivers' pregame speech, unedited: "Your singleminded goal tonight should be to win. To be to win. Your focus tonight should be, 'What do I have to do to help my team get this win? What do I have to do to help MY team get this win?' That has to be your goal. The bottom line at the end of the day is that we gotta have great focus, and our focus has to be on nothing else but winning. Do what you have to do to win."
Courtesy of Bill Simmons, although I was laughing my ass off when Doc Rivers was woefully trying to encourage his players with no response at all.
Doc Rivers' pregame speech, unedited: "Your singleminded goal tonight should be to win. To be to win. Your focus tonight should be, 'What do I have to do to help my team get this win? What do I have to do to help MY team get this win?' That has to be your goal. The bottom line at the end of the day is that we gotta have great focus, and our focus has to be on nothing else but winning. Do what you have to do to win."
mavs heat 2006 ?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!
Great comeback by the Celts I thought. Lakers don't really stand any chance of winning now, and who knows? my Celts in 5 prediction may come true.
Wtf, Phil Jackson is better than that =/
I just love how they have been saying Doc Rivers out coached Phil Jackson after the game and were saying that he might not be as great of a coach as they say. When before the game they were comparing Phil Jacksons coaching statistics compared to Red Aurbachs, and Phils were better than Red's in every category except for championships.
What a difference 4 hours makes in somebodies opinion =/
before the game he was great ^^
after the game they think he might not be lol
What a difference 4 hours makes in somebodies opinion =/
before the game he was great ^^
after the game they think he might not be lol
Being a good coach or a bad coach takes years to build up, one game doesn't make someone a bad coach or a good coach. Phil had a bad day, Doc had a good one. (Although in my opinion the decision was made for Doc since Rondo was hurt, so that definitely open the door for House and Perkins went out so they played small more so down the stretch.)
Yes, i agree with you and think its ridiculous to say that he might not be as great as we think after one game.Also yea, they should have played Eddie House earlier in the playoffs as soon as they saw they were laying off Rondo, because thats what Eddie House does ..... SHOOT lol Eddie house catches no breaks =/ I live in Phoenix and a few years ago when he was apart of the Suns, they didn't play him in the playoffs either, they say he is a liability on defense, but I do not see it =/
Want to add something I just herd that is absolutely true D:
One of the biggest pick ups in the off season in my opinion was not 1 of the big 3, but there Defensive coach / specialist Tom Thibidau. Think about it, even tho the Celtics are pretty much a different team than the O7 squad, but Thibidau has lead the Celtics from one of worst defensive teams in the league to #1
One of the biggest pick ups in the off season in my opinion was not 1 of the big 3, but there Defensive coach / specialist Tom Thibidau. Think about it, even tho the Celtics are pretty much a different team than the O7 squad, but Thibidau has lead the Celtics from one of worst defensive teams in the league to #1
and the lakers no longer ever get to complain, hell even mention game 2 ever again. Even mentioning a referee is pushing it.
kobe fouls to win the game. No foul on that rebound that pierce got fouled on by like 3 lakers. The way the lakers were defending out pick and roll, and kobe not hitting his jumper, i really do think the celts were going to finish this game out with a win if the fucking refs didnt blow it.
kobe fouls to win the game. No foul on that rebound that pierce got fouled on by like 3 lakers. The way the lakers were defending out pick and roll, and kobe not hitting his jumper, i really do think the celts were going to finish this game out with a win if the fucking refs didnt blow it.
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