Lakers Beat Celtics Again

BOSTON (By Jimmy Golen, AP) - Ray Allen was still on the floor, knocked on his back, when the Los Angeles Lakers began hugging and chest-bumping under the 2008 NBA Championship banner that was earned at their expense.

"I wish we would have come here last year with this kind of attitude,'' said Pau Gasol, who scored 24 points with 14 rebounds Thursday night to lead the Lakers to a 110-109 overtime victory over Boston.

"Nobody backed down,'' he added. "We were as physical as anybody.''

In a rematch of an NBA finals in which the Celtics outmuscled the Lakers to the title, Lamar Odom made a pair of free throws with 16 seconds left in overtime and Los Angeles held on with physical defense against Paul Pierce and Allen that prevented either All-Star from getting off a clean shot.

The loss snapped the Celtics' 12-game winning streak and dropped them to 0-2 against the best in the West. Boston trails the Lakers by percentage points for the best overall record in the NBA, and would lose a tiebreaker for home court advantage in the finals - if they both make it back.

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Pau Gasol: The Key to Lakers' Dominance

There is no doubt that having Kobe Bryant in their lineup makes the LA Lakers a great team. However, Bryant alone can't make this team win a championship. One great player can't beat five opposing players, even with lesser talents playing on the same court for 48 minutes.

Even the great Michael Jordan couldn’t have won a championship without another great player—Scottie Pippen.

Let's look at the great NBA duos (or trios for the Spurs and Celtics and a quintet for the Pistons) in the past two decades.

Jordan had Pippen in Chicago. They made the Bulls the most dominant team in the '90s and had six championship rings together.

David Robinson had Tim Duncan earlier, and Duncan had Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker later in San Antonio. They made the Spurs one of the best teams of the 2000s by winning four championships between them.

Shaq had Kobe in the previous edition of the LA Lakers, and they made the Lakers the most dominant team early in this decade by winning three consecutive titles.

Chauncey Billups had four other very good Pistons players in Detroit, and they won a championship together.

Dwyane Wade had Shaq for one championship ring, beating a good Dallas Mavericks team featuring just one MVP player, Dirk Nowitzki.

Last year, Paul Pierce had Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett. The "Big Three" won the championship last season beating a Lakers team with one great player and another All-Star material who played very well in sweeping through the Western Conference playoffs but seemed to get "lost in Spanish translation" in the NBA Finals.

And Kobe? He had Caron Butler in 2004 and they failed to make it to the playoffs.

He had Lamar Odom, Smush Parker, Kwame Brown, and young Andrew Bynum. They made the playoffs but lost in the first round for two years.

Last year, he had Pau Gasol for half of the season. Immediately, the Lakers made it to the NBA Finals. Unfortunately, they lost to Boston's "Big Three."

Now that Gasol is playing a full season with the Lakers, the team is expected to achieve what it failed to accomplish last season—win that elusive NBA title!

But they can't do that while Gasol is playing as just a sidekick or an afterthought to Kobe. He has to dominate the same way, or at least close to the way, Kobe is dominating in his position.

Gasol is a very good player, especially now that he's playing mostly at forward position in a very balanced Lakers team. But he doesn't always play aggressively.

This season, Gasol averages 17.8 points on 55.4 percent shooting, 9.4 rebounds, and 12.1 field goal attempts per game. For comparative purposes, Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs averages 20.4 points on 51.6 percent shooting, 10.1 rebounds, and 15.5 field goal attempts.

Duncan is attempting more shots despite having two other stars in Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. In San Antonio, you wouldn't know which of their three stars is the first, second, or third option on offense. All of them are good, reliable, and aggressive.

Of course, the Lakers have more wins than the Spurs. But can they win important games against championship caliber teams while Gasol is playing just a "second option" to Bryant? Their records show they can't!

To be a championship caliber team, the Lakers need more offensive contribution from Gasol. He shouldn't always defer to Kobe, especially in close games. Their recent victory against Golden State showed how Gasol can be dominating if he stays aggressive, especially when closing out games.

He needs to be as aggressive as Duncan and take more than 15 attempts per game. The Lakers haven't lost a game this season with Gasol taking more than 15 shot attempts.

In their six losses this season, Gasol took less shots (10.8 on average) than his tally this season while Bryant is taking the slack by shooting five more shots (25.5 per game) than his average (20.1) this season.

This is not indicative of "Bryant shooting too much to the detriment of his team." In fact, he scored more than his average (32.2 in losses vs. 27.0 average this season) in the Lakers' six losses while Gasol scored less in losses (15.7 average) than in wins (18.3).

Can you blame Bryant for scoring 39 points on 14-22 field goal shooting while Gasol only had 10 points on 3-8 shooting in their last loss against a New Orleans team that featured a shorter frontcourt?

Clearly, it's Pau Gasol that needs to be more consistent to provide the Lakers the "one-two punch combination" that Shaquille O'Neil was so proud of during his three-peat with Bryant. It was Shaq looking at Kobe as the "two" in his boxing analogy and claiming the Lakers to be "his team" that ended their run.

The Lakers are already dominant with Kobe Bryant, probably the best player of this generation. But it takes more than one great player to make a championship team.

If you still don't believe that, ask LeBron James and Dirk Nowitzki, who both went to the NBA Finals but lost to better teams featuring more than one great player.

Miami's one-two punch of Wade and O'Neal vs. Nowitzki's Mavericks in 2006 NBA Finals...

And San Antonio's big three of Duncan-Parker-Ginobili vs. James' Cavaliers in 2007...

It both instances, one is less than two or three...

Lakers Are Really The Best Now

Of the top three teams in the current NBA standings, the Cleveland Cavaliers seem to have the most impressive record. They have yet to suffer the same losses that Boston and the Lakers have had.

The Celtics have two losses against teams that are below .500--Golden State Warriors (10-25) and Indiana Pacers (12-21). The Lakers also lost to two losing teams--Sacramento Kings (8-26) and the same Pacers team that beat Boston.

And Cleveland? All their five losses were against winning teams (Boston, New Orleans, Detroit, Atlanta, and Miami). Moreover, the Cavaliers are still unbeaten at home, winning 17 straight while Boston and the Lakers have one home loss each. Impressive, huh!

Nahhh! If you look closer, you'd notice that their records are more a result of their "friendlier" schedules than their being a stronger team. Of the Cavaliers' 27 wins, only seven are against winning teams. Of the seven, only two were road wins.

Compare this to the Celtics' seven home and three road wins and the Lakers' most-impressive 12 wins (five on the road) against teams above .500. Please see my previous article for more on this assertion.

The Lakers might have won more games had Phil Jackson allowed Kobe Bryant to play the kind of minutes that Lebron James is playing. Remember their 1-point loss in Indiana? It was a won game that was lost when Kobe was resting on the bench. Even Jackson admitted it was a coaching mistake, he vowed he'd play Kobe more in the fourth quarters of their succeeding games.

The Cavaliers play for the best regular-season record by keeping James on the floor for a few more minutes than necessary. That's why they have the best point differential record and a few more blowout games.

A few more minutes for a few more points from your best player wouldn't hurt, would it? No wonder Lebron is the NBA's leading scorer.

Incidentally, the Celtics are also playing like the playoffs have already started by playing their “big three” extended minutes.

Phil Jackson is more concerned about preparing his team as a potent group for the playoffs than boosting his best player's statistics. He's probably the only coach in the league who gets a bit frustrated when his best player scored 40 points in just 31 minutes saying that Bryant “tried to do too much” in the fourth quarter in their “win” against the Utah Jazz the other night.

Wow! Can you imagine Mike Brown or Doc Rivers saying things like that about their best players? Only the highest paid NBA coach can do that!

James averages 36.7 minutes per game this season compared to 36.3 for Pierce and 35.4 for Kobe. Not much, you'd say. But the disparity in their playing times is more prominent in their crucial games.

Lebron had 9 games where he played 40 minutes or more including a 46-minute game in a loss in Atlanta and 43 minutes each in back-to-back games against Miami. He even played for 43 minutes in Oklahoma!

Yes, that's right! Forty-three big minutes against 4-and-30 Thunder! What was it with the Thunder that made Mike Brown so nervous that he wouldn't take Lebron out of the game even when his team was leading by 14 points in the last 2 minutes?

The Celtics are even worse. Or better if you feel that grinding it out in the regular season is more important than preparing your team for the playoffs and risk losing some games by giving playing time to your supporting casts.

Paul Pierce had played a staggering 14 games in which he played 40 minutes or more including a four-game stretch against Toronto, Atlanta, Denver (a loss) at home and in Milwaukee. And another three-game stretch in home games vs. New Orleans and Utah and a road win in Atlanta.

Oh, I thought Boston didn't have one MVP--they've got three!

Well, the other MVP, Ray Allen, also played nine 40+ minute games including a three-game stretch in a loss to Denver (yes, the same game where Pierce played 41 minutes), a road game against the Bucks, and home game against the Knicks.

Boston even had a game where all of their “big three” played more than 40 minutes--a narrow 122-117 win in Indiana. Pierce played for 44 minutes, Garnett for 42, and Allen for 41 in avenging their 16-point road loss early in the season.

In a stark contrast, Kobe Bryant only played four 40+ minute games. One of those games, of course, was their Christmas day match up against the Celtics where he played 43 minutes.

Of course, everybody knows who won that game.

He also played 41 minutes in a close game vs. the Knicks and 40 minutes in a 7-point win against the Mavericks.

The Lakers only loss when Kobe played 40 minutes or more was their game in Orlando. Bryant scored 41 points in 43 minutes in that game but they still lost by three points!

Could they have won that game if Kobe played a few more minutes? Maybe!

But you know, Phil Jackson wouldn't want that. He'd do everything to keep Bryant from “trying to do too much...”

So what do you think is more impressive?

The Lakers achieving their best record without burning out the reigning MVP...

Or the playoff-level minutes being played by Boston's big three...

Or maybe the unstoppable force in Cleveland who stays on the floor even on blowout games to dominate video highlight plays on TV and YouTube...

You pick! I already made mine...

The Lakers Are Now The Best in NBA

With another impressive win against a quality opponent, the Utah Jazz (19-15), the Los Angeles Lakers have now secured their status as the NBA's best team.

The Lakers beat the Jazz 113-100 Friday night for their fifth straight win and 17th in 18 home games, while the other top two teams in the league also won their home games on the same day.

The Celtics won in Boston over the 6-25 Wizards, 108-83, while the Cavaliers defeated the 14-19 Chicago Bulls, 117-92 in Cleveland.

Of the top three teams in the current NBA's standings, the Lakers (26-5) have the better record against the Boston Celtics (29-5) and Cleveland Cavaliers (27-5) in terms of quality of wins.

Of the Cavaliers' 27 wins, only seven are against winning teams. Of the seven, only two were road wins (Dallas and Denver).

All five Cleveland losses are against winning teams (Boston, New Orleans, Detroit, Atlanta, and Miami).

Their perfect record at home is mainly due to the fact that they've only played five quality opponents at home. We'll see on Jan. 9 when they host the Celtics in Cleveland if they can still keep their home-record clean.

The following is the list of their wins against teams with winning records:

1. Nov. 3 @ Dallas 100-81
   
2. Nov. 13 vs. Denver 110-99
3. Nov. 15 vs. Utah 105-93
   
4. Dec. 19 @ Denver 105-88
5. Nov. 22 vs. Atlanta 110-96
6. Dec. 23 vs. Houston 99-90
7. Dec. 28 vs. Miami 93-86

The Celtics have seven home wins and three on the road (Houston, Detroit, and Atlanta) against quality opponents.

They've lost to two opponents with losing records (Indiana and Golden State) and three against teams with winning records (Denver at home, LA Lakers, and Portland).

The list of Celtics wins against quality opponents is as follows:

1. Oct. 28 vs. Cleveland 90-85
2. Nov. 4 @ Houston 103-99
3. Nov. 9 @ Detroit 88-76
4. Nov. 12 vs. Atlanta 103-102
5. Nov. 20 vs. Detroit 98-80
6. Dec. 1 vs. Orlando 107-88
7. Dec. 5 vs. Portland 93-78
8. Dec. 12 vs. New Orleans 94-82
9. Dec. 17 @ Atlanta 88-85
10. Dec. 15 vs. Utah 100-91

The Lakers, on the other hand, have already won 12 games against winning teams, five on the road (Denver, Dallas, Phoenix, and New Orleans twice). Two of their losses are against losing teams (Indiana and Sacramento).

Three are against teams with winning records (Detroit at home, Miami, and Orlando). The following is the list of their wins against teams with winning records:

1. Oct. 28 vs. Portland 96-76
2. Nov. 1 @ Denver 104-97
   
3. Nov. 9 vs. Houston 111-82
4. Nov. 11 @ Dallas 106-99
5. Nov. 12 @ New Orleans 93-86
6. Nov. 21 vs. Denver 104-90
7. Nov. 20 @ Phoenix 105-92
8. Nov. 28 vs. Dallas 114-107
9. Dec. 10 vs. Phoenix 115-110
10. Dec. 23 @ New Orleans 100-87
11. Dec. 25 vs. Boston 92-83
12. Jan. 2, 2009, vs. Utah 113-100
    

ESPN's Hollinger Power Ranking currently ranks the Lakers at No. 4, even below the 26-7 Orlando Magic, and I can't understand why.

Maybe it's about time that John Hollinger modifies his computer program to make its forecast more accurate. It failed in its prediction about the Utah Jazz last season, right?

Anyway, as John pointed out, it's an entirely automated ranking, so certain "human" factors are missing. So Marc Stein's Power Ranking should be more accurate, as he now ranks the Lakers as the best team in the NBA.

No doubt about that!

Lakers beat Celtics on Christmas day

The Los Angeles Lakers gave us "love this Christmas day" by beating Boston, 92-83, and snap the Celtics 19-game winning streak.

I knew it! There's no way the Lakers would lose this game I even made a bet that I'd stop posting in this blog if the Celtics win the game. Thank you Phil. Thank you Kobe. Thank you Pau. Thank you Lakers for keeping this blog alive!

Phil was right in sticking to his starting lineup featuring "The Twin Towers" with Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, even though it's not their most efficient unit, and they sometimes struggled on road games against smaller and quicker teams like Miami, Sacramento, Orlando, and Indiana. They almost lost in New York with a short-handed Knicks lineup. Jackson really prepared his players well for a game like this--against the best and hottest team in the league.

Bynum had 9 points, 7 rebounds, 2 blocks, and just 2 personal fouls in 36 minutes. Luke Walton had a solid game in 28 minutes scoring 8 points, 5 assists, 2 blocks, and 4 rebounds. He was also 2-3 in the 3-point line. Now we know why Phil inserted him in the starting lineup replacing Vladimir Radmanovic, who seemed to have found his offensive game before the switch. Luke is a better defender and passer, having mastered the triangle offense in his 5 years of playing for the Lakers. He's also more consistent against championship caliber opponents.

Kobe Bryant had his usual game that made him MVP last season with 27 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists. Pau Gasol scored 7 of his 20 points in the final three minutes. He also had 5 assists and blocked 3 shots, one of which was on Ray Allen's 3-point attempt that would have put the Celtics within two points with 1:16 minutes left in the game.

Derek Fisher helped limit Rajon Rondo to 6 points on 3-of-11 shooting although he also struggled offensively, shooting 2-of-10 in the field scoring 6 points but he made 7 assists. Lamar Odom came off the bench and contributed 10 points, 7 rebounds, 2 blocks and 2 steals. He also made two of his three 3-point attempts. Sasha Vujacic also contributed 10 points.

Kevin Garnett topscored for the Celtics with 22 points with 9 rebounds. Paul Pierce had 20 points and 10 rebounds. Ray Allen scored 14 points on 5-of-14 field goal shooting.

The Lakers played excellent defense in the fourth quarter, limiting the Celtics to 16 points. Boston missed all seven of their 3-point attempts in the final period. They surely missed James Posey's clutch 3-point shooting.

Gasol, who, before this game, usually defers to Bryant in the last quarter, was more aggressive at both ends of the floor. He made all three of his shots and all three of his free throws in the fourth quarter for nine of his team's 21 points.

The Lakers' frontcourt players blocked nine of their opponents shots to Boston's three. The Lakers also had more trips to the free-throw line making 12-of-15 to 6-of-8 for the Celtics. They also made 8-of-20 3-point shots while Boston was only 5-of-22 for 22.7%. The team's swarming defense also forced 17 Celtics turnovers.

Who's the best defensive team in the league right now? They say it's the Boston Celtics. Well, maybe they were last year. But this season, the Lakers proved they can play defense to the team that beat them in the NBA Finals just six months ago.

Lakers-Celtics Preview - 25-Dec-08

The Lakers will win this game against the Boston Celtics this Christmas. That's my prediction. And I'm pretty confident of this that I'd be willing to bet the life of this blog to any Celtics bloggers out there if the Lakers lose this game.

Basketball analysts either refuses or can't make their own predictions due to many variables. The Celtics is the hottest team right now, coming to the game trying to get their 20th winning streak to tie them with the third-best in NBA history. Meanwhile, the Lakers, at least on paper, made the better roster upgrade with the return of 7-footer Andrew Bynum, who was injured during last year's playoffs, while the Celtics lost James Posey and veterans P.J. Brown and Sam Cassell and haven't made yet any significant additions to their lineup.

Many believed that the Lakers' recent slide--their 2-2 performance, in their 4 game road trip--is a telling sign that they are not yet ready for a showdown with the Celtics. I don't buy that! Phil Jackson's insistence of keeping both his 7-footers in the starting lineup, even though it's not their best performing unit, is obviously in preparation for this matchup (or similar ones like with the Cleveland Cavaliers). Jackson is not the winningest coach is NBA for nothing.

Judging from their games last season's Finals and both teams' recent development, I'm convinced that the Lakers now have the right pieces to win over the Celtics, not just in this game but their eventual match up in this season's Finals (assuming the Celtics would win over the Cavaliers).

Taking out Game 6 of the Finals, in which the Lakers players and coaching staff obviously gave up, the series was evenly matched up with both teams winning their home games except for Game 4. That game showed that the Lakers could dominate the Celtics using their superior offensive game and their swarming defense. Although the Celtics won the game 97-91, the Lakers was dominant in the first half of that game. They scored 35 points and limited the Celtics to 14 points in the first quarter. Lamar Odom, who seemed to be unstoppable during that quarter, made all his field goal attempts and scored 13 points with 5 rebounds. The teams dominance continued in the second quarter when they increased their lead to 24 points on a 3-point shot of Vujacic midway through the quarter. Unfortunately, they stopped playing their game after that.

The Celtics bounced back in the second half scoring 31 points in the third quarter while limiting the Lakers to 15 points. Odom disappeared during that quarter scoring only 2 points on free throws. He added only 6 points, 2 in each quarter, to his first quarter numbers to score 19 points with 10 rebounds in the game. Bryant, who was forced to miss a lot of jump shots to make up for his team's missing offensive game in the second half, scored only 17 points but had 10 assists and 4 steals. Gasol also had 17 points and 10 rebounds. Fisher and Radmanovic added 13 and 10 points for the starters, respectively.

The Celtics superiority in defense showed up in that game. But this superiority, I believe, is now negated with the addition of Andrew Bynum and the healthy Trevor Ariza in the Lakers lineup. Plus, their best Kobe stopper in James Posey now is playing for the Hornets.

Let's see how it would go. Please share your thoughts.

Lakers is the winningest team in the NBA

The Los Angeles Lakers has the best winning percentage record in the NBA. Since 1949 the Lakers have won 2,926 games in 4,753 games for league-best 61.6%. The number two team, Boston Celtics, that joined the league two years earlier, had 2,883 wins against 1,981 losses (59.3%) while the third-best, San Antonio Spurs, had 1,942 wins in 3,359 games (57.8%).

Although the Celtics has won more championships with 17 titles, against 14 championships for the Lakers, the Lakers franchise has more Conference and Division titles. The team had 16 conference and 30 division titles while Boston had only 8 and 26 respectively. The Celtics' better championship record is mainly due to their dominance in the 60's. Bill Russel, who was peerless during that period, led them to 8 straight championships from 1958 to 1966. Russel also led them to 2 championships in 3 seasons from 1966 to 1969 as a coach.

The Lakers have played in the playoffs for 55 seasons compared to 46 playoffs for the Celtics. The former had only missed the playoffs in 1958, 1975-76, 1994, and 2005, the year they traded Shaq to Miami.

Click here for the complete statistics.