While the Lakers-Celtics matchup in the NBA Finals seems to be something doctored by basketball fate, it’s not a coincidence that the last two champions are both playing for their second title in three seasons. In 2008, Boston got it done with magnificent defense and as Kobe has been emphasizing this whole round, we took that blueprint and applied it into our own championship formula.
The Mamba may not be shooting particularly well in the series (28-71, 39%), but his defensive intensity has been incredible. In addition to tracking Rondo, Pierce and Ray Allen, he’s also been a critical help man, authoring two momentum building blocks in the series, with the most recent coming against Kendrick Perkins in the third quarter last night. You could even say that he’s shooting poorly because he’s killing his legs by playing so hard defensively.
The Lakers showed their affinity for making all the right adjustments, completely burying Ray Allen’s offense as he was held to two measly points on 0 of 13 from the field. If you want to talk about the highs and lows of the postseason, Allen jack-knifed into a pit from the comforts of Game 2′s Cloud 9. The Lakers’ defense, namely Derek Fisher’s, was superb, as he fought hard through most of the pin-down picks and did not allow too much separation.
Regardless, even Fish knows that Allen is more than capable of returning to form in a hurry saying, “We won’t see 0 for 13 on Thursday night, that’s for sure.”
Kevin Garnett may have been a force with 25 points (11-16 FG), but he had just six rebounds and his teammates were only able to muster 59 combined points. You also had to expect KG would come up big at home after two straight lackluster performances at Staples Center. The Celtics will not however, beat us with just one player getting it done offensively, which even they know so look for them to bring much more balance offensively in Game 4.
Even Rajon Rondo was contained relatively well to 11 points and eight assists. The Lakers’ transition defense was sharp, especially in the second half, as they hustled back on multiple possessions to shut down his fast break looks. As we observed, when the C’s are forced to play half court basketball, we give ourselves the best chance at getting stops and winning.
To no one’s surprise, the team that won the rebounding battle won the game and as we all know, defensive stops do not occur without securing the defensive board. The Lakers cleaned the glass 43-35 (11-8 offensive) and that margin had a huge hand in dictating whether or not we were going to survive that fervent charge by Boston in the fourth quarter – with Derek Fisher’s clutch shooting being the obvious impetus that pushed us to victory.
As the adage goes, “defense wins championships” and this series is no different. The Lakers survived poor third quarter shooting by stopping the Celtics when it counted, preventing them from taking the lead, with one of those unsung defensive plays being Ron Artest’s huge forced turnover on Big Baby as the game was winding down.
If you thought Game 3 was a defensive struggle, baskets are not going to come any easier for either side for the rest of the Finals. Thankfully, the refs did let both teams play a lot more than the first two games in L.A.
The Lakers truly showed how much they’ve grown as a team last night since 2008. Even though they were thrashed to confetti, literally, in the last three playoff games they played at the Garden, every player in purple displayed tremendous poise and a steady hand, withstanding every Celtic run to win on their floor.
At the very least, the Lakers have recaptured home court advantage and now stand two wins away from hoisting “the gold ball” as Kobe Bryant calls it.
What was that Paul Pierce said about not coming back to L.A.? If the Lakers play with the heart of a champion as they did in Game 3, he may have very well been right.
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