3 things:
1. By far the saddest sequence of events in the game was when Shelden threw the ball away and Kobe hit the 3, it totally drained the energy out of the big lead. But watch that replay again and realize that the worst part was that the other 4 celtics, after Kobe's shot went through, basically walked away from Shelden, forcing him to throw a second bad pass that Kobe almost drained, which would have been unthinkable.
I like Shelden, but he may have played himself out of the rotation tonight.
2. When you talk about Rondo, and everyone says things about his jump-shooting ability, and how some day he will get that shot, I have the following statement, which is a 2-parter.
Part a) Rondo's poor jump-shooting ability is greatly exaggerated. I agree he can struggle at times, but in the biggest moment of the season he drained a jumper to go up 5 from 3, and he has done that before this season, and in these playoffs. Rondo may not be deadly, but his jump-shooting is no longer a liability, it simply isn't a strength, which is fine.
Part b) If you have the ability to go back in your brain to last year's playoffs, he started to show signs of offensive brilliance with his off the glass english shots and amazing passing, but he took it to another level this season. I 100% believe that same type of advancement will be made this offseason in the form of a more stellar 12-18 foot jump-shooting ability. All-Star starter next year, no question.
3. I was listening to a national radio broadcast on my ride home after the game, and they have this Celtics team wrong. They were saying that there was no way that Rondo could get a triple double every night, and no way Ray Allen would set a record in 3's every night, therefore the Lakers could win 3 of the next 4 or 5 and take the title.
Sure, there is some logic to that, but the reason Ray was 8 of 11 was because Artest neutralized Pierce, which led to easier Allen baskets. The reason Rondo got a triple double was because Kobe got fouls called on him early, which made him hard to focus on doubling off on Rondo and/or flat out covering him.
The reason the C's are good is because they have talent all over the court, and the burden can rest on different players each night.
Gasol, once again, was friggen awesome tonight. But this has been my point: Gasol can be awesome, stellar and otherwise dominant, but if Kobe is out of sync (tonight, foul trouble) it is hard for the Lakers to win.
There is no solution to the C's aside from reasonably taking away the positives of 4 or 5 players, and that is hard, and that is why they are in the Finals. Sure, take away Ray Allen's 8 3's, and force Rondo into a non-triple double night and you're more likely to win, but I bet Pierce drops in 28 points and Garnett gets 11 rebounds that night too...
4 comments:
You're right about the C's ability to spread it around, but I disagree with you on a couple of things.
Not only is Rondo's jump shot bad, it's actually gotten worse. This Henry Abbott story details that:
http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/16446/still-missing-rajon-rondos-jumper
Also, while you're right that the Lakers lost that game because Kobe was out of sync, I think you have to realize that they still could have won that game if Kobe realized that fact and let the game continue to flow through Gasol and Bynum in the second half like they did in the first half. Instead, Kobe tried to force his offense and the Lakers can never beat a team like the Celtics when he does that.
I'm torn on the Rondo issue. On one hand, it sure seems like he's come up with a bunch of clutch jump shots in the playoffs, especially the Cavs series. And he's hitting an impressive 42% of his three point attempts.
On the other hand it could be that we are just so conditioned to Rondo missing jumpers that when he does actually connect it sticks in our memory.
I'm excited to go home and watch Rome is burning today. After the homer performance he put in following Game 1, declaring the series over and the Celtics washed up, I'm interested to see what he has to say today. He will most likely just complain about officiating.
Celtics gotta get out on the break if they want to win the series, and yes, I realize that's a departure from an earlier, mid-season comment I had about how the fast break was killing the Celtics.
all we have as casual observers are our bold statements followed by quick backpedals, it is what makes things fun. I like to read my list of things the C's could do to win the championship and see they did about 3, ignored 3 more, and sorta did 4 of them. It's cool to see where I was wrong and where I was right.
Justin, its going to be hard to prove or disprove Kobe's performances - if they are a function of him being hot, him being covered well, or him trying to force it. That really is subjective, so that's going to have to just live on its own...
But my point about Rondo is that much the same way he pretty much perfected his 'at the basket' skills this year, he will get his jumpshot in sync this offseason.
My other point is that I don't really care what his %'s look like, because more than 3 times this playoff he has made a huge, HUGE, jumpshot. I declare his shot last night to be the most crucial/important play of the game, and it occurred in Game 2 of an NBA Finals game. Miss 'em all you want, just keep hitting them when they matter.
I honestly care more about his free throws than his jump shot. It's a sin that it's scary to have him out there in crunch time with a lead because he's not reliable at the line.
For the record, I'm complaining about Rondo's game the same way I would complain about loose ends in The Wire. It's still my favorite show of all time.
As for Kobe, my feelings are, if Kobe tries to dominate a game, the Lakers will win if he succeeds and lose if he fails, but I think they'll always win if they consider Gasol their primary option on offense.
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