NBA "Where Amazing Happens" Finals: LA Lakers vs Boston Celtics

[Biggie]

.

I see the bookies have Lakers fav at 4-1 series.

Geez that would be sweet.

If anything it will in 6 I reckon, 4-2.

Honestly though 4-3 LA's way is what my gut tells me.

Boston are going to be very tough.

 

[Dagless]

I'm allowed to talk trash, I'd posted on the NFL boards long before "some" of those ____nuts who think they are it an a bit had.

But really I don't care if bandwaggoners come on these boards, they can do what they want it's the nature of boards.

I hate the "I'm better than you because I post here all the time" tossers more than I care about the dudes who arrive at play offs time.

In fact those guys provide good laughs.

I got a bit overzealous admittedly... Stupid occurence that didn't really matter in the end... For that I apologised...

G-luck to both teams, should be an entertaining series...

 

[TigerFan]

I think we have a great chance of winning this and I obviously hope we do, but I can't help thinking that if Kobe plays anything like he did against the Spurs we are stuffed.

Basketball is a really unique sport in that the team with the best and most dominant player (ie the Lakers in this case) often has the edge over a team that has more good to very good players across the board (ie Celtics). There are obviously exceptions to this - see last year's Finals as an example, but if the team with the real gun has an above average supporting cast, they rarely lose.

I'm worried that Kobe will simply not let the Lakers lose.

The only time Paul Pierce had a supporting cast that was worth a damn, he literally dragged them to within 2 games of the NBA Finals.

Furthermore, if push comes to shove, I honestly believe Kobe will try to win it on his own. Anybody who watched the Lakers' last two playoff attempts would know what happens when Kobe tries to win games on his own

I hope I'm wrong, but frankly it seems like it's Kobe's year this year and he scares the sh!t out of me!!!

It only seems like it's Kobe's year because the media is framing it that way. As feelgood as the Celtics' story is, the superstar demands trade then wins MVP and championship ring is a lot more bankable.

The sheer amount of press dedicated to Kobe and his story is the reason why the Lakers will enter the 2008 NBA Finals as favourites.

Whether they deserve such favouritism... Well, I've got a home-court advantage, a league-best defense and a #34 jersey that says otherwise.

 

[jerry springer]

Is anyone else bewildered and annoyed about the delay between the Conference finals and the NBA finals?

what is is 5 days break?.surely you would think 3 days would be absolutly plenty.its a massive contrast between mayhem of the regular season with back to back games and cross country flights and the such.

it seems to me all the momentum of a fantastic play-off series has been lost and we are just treading time atm

 

[TheLakeshow]

The only time Paul Pierce had a supporting cast that was worth a damn, he literally dragged them to within 2 games of the NBA Finals.

Furthermore, if push comes to shove, I honestly believe Kobe will try to win it on his own. Anybody who watched the Lakers' last two playoff attempts would know what happens when Kobe tries to win games on his own



It only seems like it's Kobe's year because the media is framing it that way. As feelgood as the Celtics' story is, the superstar demands trade then wins MVP and championship ring is a lot more bankable.

The sheer amount of press dedicated to Kobe and his story is the reason why the Lakers will enter the 2008 NBA Finals as favourites.

Whether they deserve such favouritism... Well, I've got a home-court advantage, a league-best defense and a #34 jersey that says otherwise.

pretty much agree with alot of that. Although when kobe has tried to win games on his own in the playoffs, he actually has won the game - in the past two seasons he clearly changed his game come playoff time and became more of a facilitator, and did the job when needed - we just weren't anywhere near good enough to beat the suns.
He fairly much single handedly won us two of the games V the spurs.

dam i wish we had bynum and ariza fully fit and in the rotation..... would bring us so much closer to boston

 

[AndSmithMustScore]

And Vujacic > Ray Allen

That's just a dumb call.

You are just dumb.

Like really dumb.

Almost to the point of being ____ing stupid.

 

[TheLakeshow]

Is anyone else bewildered and annoyed about the delay between the Conference finals and the NBA finals?

what is is 5 days break?.surely you would think 3 days would be absolutly plenty.its a massive contrast between mayhem of the regular season with back to back games and cross country flights and the such.

it seems to me all the momentum of a fantastic play-off series has been lost and we are just treading time atm

if the conference finals went to 7 games the laker's series would have finished Tuesday and the Boston series would have finished today... i think - beucase they finished early we get this shite break

 

[Dagless]

if the conference finals went to 7 games the laker's series would have finished Tuesday and the Boston series would have finished today... i think - beucase they finished early we get this shite break

Will be interesting to see if either team is favoured by it... ala the Rockies losing a tonne of momentum against the Sox last year... (Not that the Sox would have lost)

 

[mdc]

That's just a dumb call.

You are just dumb.

Like really dumb.

Almost to the point of being ____ing stupid.

The fact that you took that clear tongue-in-cheek comment seriously is really worrying. Then again, I don't blame Celts fans for being high-strung at the minute.

 

[angry steve]

The only time Paul Pierce had a supporting cast that was worth a damn, he literally dragged them to within 2 games of the NBA Finals.

Furthermore, if push comes to shove, I honestly believe Kobe will try to win it on his own. Anybody who watched the Lakers' last two playoff attempts would know what happens when Kobe tries to win games on his own



It only seems like it's Kobe's year because the media is framing it that way. As feelgood as the Celtics' story is, the superstar demands trade then wins MVP and championship ring is a lot more bankable.

The sheer amount of press dedicated to Kobe and his story is the reason why the Lakers will enter the 2008 NBA Finals as favourites.

Whether they deserve such favouritism... Well, I've got a home-court advantage, a league-best defense and a #34 jersey that says otherwise.

Yeah, good post

I watched Game 6 of the 1998 Finals last night (Jordan's last game for the Bulls) and it has probably put me a fairly pessimistic frame of mind!

Jordan is absolutely ridiculous in the last qtr in that game - the Jazz were up most of the 4th qtr and were a very good team (Malone, Stockton etc) but there was literally nothing they could do to stop Jordan from winning the game. Everyone knew what was going to happen. Barely anyone from the Bulls apart from MJ touches the ball in the last 4mins.

Having said that though:
*Although he's bloody good and plays a similar game, Kobe is most definately not Michael Jordan (although some people in the press might have you believe otherwise)
*I'd like to think this year's Celtics are much better than the 1998 Jazz team - and most definately are better defensively.

I suppose, it's just a prime example of how a totally dominant offensive player can own a quarter of basketball and make the other 9 players on the court close to irrelevant.

I think this series is going to be heavily decided on how Kobe's outside shot is dropping - I think the C's will be hell bent on not letting him get into the paint, in turn, sacrificing some outside space for Kobe....

GO CELTICS

 

[billy_31]

if the conference finals went to 7 games the laker's series would have finished Tuesday and the Boston series would have finished today... i think - beucase they finished early we get this shite break

Well pointed out lakeshow. Your expertise has been missed all season!

 

[justthedukes]

Well pointed out lakeshow. Your expertise has been missed all season!

Haha

 

[TheLakeshow]

Will be interesting to see if either team is favoured by it... ala the Rockies losing a tonne of momentum against the Sox last year... (Not that the Sox would have lost)

i rekkon it hurt la in the detriot finals 03-04. but dont they make it a 2-3-2 to reduce the travel going from east to west? it sucks though. should be the same the whole way through.

 

[CURVE]

And Vujacic > Ray Allen

I hope that smilie face means your joking, because that's a pretty ludicrious comment, although if Boston discount him, as a few people here have, then he could bite them on the butt big time, he has the ability to spark the Lakers offence if taken lightly. As a number of the Lakers bench players have.

 

[jhgoat]

Again, it sounds like your trying to convince yourself.

Yeah, you post on realgm.com except you can't look at your own teams line-up and understand why they might have the upperhand. Yeah, your a real knowledgeable basketball fan, champ

You didn't answer my question, champ, you said you were looking through forums all year, except you didn't post, so why bother making an account now, and keep stating you 'support' L.A?

Look around mate, everyone's taking the piss outta you. If you need someone to spell out how the game's played then you clearly don't know shit, and you're not going to add anything insightfull, other than "Go Kobe !1!11 Omg woot rolz". So, Just piss off, champ.

this is actually pretty funny, becuase i know who 'thelakeshow' is - and he's a fairly knowledgeable lakers fan, he's probably too much of a lakers fan.

Just because people havent posted on this site before, doesnt mean they dont follow the teams they claim to.

 

[ollie73]

this is actually pretty funny, becuase i know who 'thelakeshow' is - and he's a fairly knowledgeable lakers fan, he's probably too much of a lakers fan.

Just because people havent posted on this site before, doesnt mean they dont follow the teams they claim to.

Please don't rebut lewisalloverit, he knows everything about everyone who is new to the board.

 

[Embers]

Lakers to win game one IMO. It will take a while for Boston to work over Kobe. Boston havnt lost at home for a while but they havnt faced a team anywhere near the class of L.A. Lakers in 5 I reckon.

 

[peternorth]

twiddling thumbs while we wait.....

 

[ollie73]

Lakers to win game one IMO. It will take a while for Boston to work over Kobe. Boston havnt lost at home for a while but they havnt faced a team anywhere near the class of L.A. Lakers in 5 I reckon.

1) We lost at home to Detroit in game 2.

2) The "class" of LA is still to be proven, and we did actually play against them earlier this season, twice, for two W's. (Yes pre-Gasol)

In fact, we basically DOMINATED the Western Conference teams. Has everyone forgotten that??

 

[varcoe]

i just don't see LA winning this series at all, KG will come up massive i believe and along with Pierce and Allen who have waited there whole careers for this chance i don't see them blowing it, don't think the Lakers will win on the road and boston are the best road team going around and i favour them sneaking one on the road, whatever way i look at it it's all boston for me and am amazed the Lakers r favoured in the betting, Celtics r morals as far as i am concerned!

 

[CURVE]

2) The "class" of LA is still to be proven, and we did actually play against them earlier this season, twice, for two W's. (Yes pre-Gasol)

Who did we just beat 4-1 in the WC Finals??? The Reigning NBA champs no less. We have proven a great deal more to the sceptics than Boston have this playoff series.
We humiliated the 8th seed as all good top seeds should. Boston were almost humiliated by the 8th seed.
We accounted for the fourth seeds without any problems. Boston again struggled.
The conference finals were comfortable for both, but considering the quality of the Spurs and the 4-1 white-wash, Lakers again looked the better team.

In fact, we basically DOMINATED the Western Conference teams. Has everyone forgotten that??

That was during the regular season, and Boston haven't looked as comfortable or as dominating during the finals.

 

[justthedukes]

In fact, we basically DOMINATED the Western Conference teams. Has everyone forgotten that??

That was the regular season, whole different ball game now.

As much as I hope L.A take it out, im doubtful. Should be a great series though, well at least we can say it's going to be better than last years.

 

[ollie73]

FFS, I know that DOMINATING the Western Conference was in the regular season.

We haven't played any of them since.

Yeah it is a whole different ball-game now, which is why LA's and Boston's form up to now is IRRELEVANT!!

It's the #1 from the West v the #1 from the East, all this hoo ha about not sweeping teams early in the play-offs mean jack, in fact, it probably helped the Celtics to get more play-off experience!!

Both teams EARNED the right to be in the Finals and both teams are great.

Usually the best defensive team wins these things, and that edge goes to Boston.

At most I think this is a 50/50 match-up, there shouldn't be a heavy favourite IMO.

 

[TigerFan]

i just don't see LA winning this series at all, KG will come up massive i believe and along with Pierce and Allen who have waited there whole careers for this chance i don't see them blowing it

This is probably the Celtics' biggest advantage going into the NBA Finals. As much as Kobe wants to go out and prove a point, the entire Lakers' organisation thinks they have a dynasty on their hands. If the Lakers don't win this year, they'll sit back over summer and be content that they've got the inside running on the next five NBA championships.

The Celtics, on the other hand, have one year to get this done. From the moment training camp opened, there was a sense of urgency about this Celtics team, and I can't see that wavering now. They coasted through the first two rounds, probably believing they merely had to turn up to reach the ECF. But, from the moment Detroit won game two in Boston, the sense of urgency returned, and the Celtics never looked like losing the series after that.

I'm not saying the Celtics want it more, because they don't. These are pro athletes on the biggest basketball stage in the world, every man on that court tomorrow night will want to win the championship. But when it comes down to it, you've got one Kobe who wants to win a championship to boost his own ego, up against three men who have waited their entire careers for this one shot at glory.

There'll always be next year for the Lakers. For the Celtics, there is no tomorrow.

That's why the Celtics deserve to be favourites.

don't think the Lakers will win on the road and boston are the best road team going around and i favour them sneaking one on the road, whatever way i look at it it's all boston for me and am amazed the Lakers r favoured in the betting, Celtics r morals as far as i am concerned!

haha, best road team? come on, we couldn't even win at Philips Arena.

That said, this Celtics team is far different to the one that took the court in the first two rounds of the playoffs.

The urgency is back, and the Celtics still have the security blanket of home court advantage. While the Lakers have the form to steal a game in Boston, there was nothing in Detroit series that suggested the Celtics couldn't steal two road games back. From the moment their security blanket was ripped away against Detroit, this team went 2-1 on the road. They banded together, and they got the job done.

Cos that's what they are at the end of the day, a team. This Lakers squad hasn't faced adversity together. It has all the polish of a fantasy roster, but at the end of the day, it still has a ring of 'Kobe + Supporting Cast' to it.

LeBron + Supporting Cast got beaten in last year's Finals, just like Iverson + Supporting Cast, Kidd + Supporting Cast and Dirk + Supporting Cast before it.

It'd sure be a nice fairytale for Kobe to win the lot, but a pig with lipstick is still a pig.

Celtics in 6.

 

[ollie73]

^^^^^^^^

Now that was an insightful and great run-down of how it is. Great work.

I agree particularly about the fact that as soon as we lost on at home we had the urgency back.

I still think we have more than this year to win the championship, at the very least next year, probably the year after as well.