After Game 1 on Thursday, the general consensus was, "Ok, we've got a series on our hands."
After the blowout that was Game 2 on Sunday, that sentiment has changed to, "Can we please have a series?"
In what I predicted to be the most TV-friendly Finals in years, the first two games of the NBA Finals have proved to be anything but. Despite the too little, too late run that L.A. made to cut the lead to two with less than a minute left, neither game has been the as advertised slugfest we had hoped for.
Unless you are a Celtics fan, Game 2 couldn't have played out much worse. Vladimir Radmanovic picked up two fouls in the first two minutes. Kobe picked up two first quarter fouls, but can be labeled as questionable at best. Lamar Odom received two first quarter fouls.
You can see the pattern developing here. All of the early foul trouble forced the Lakers to alter their rotation, leading them to uncharacteristically play five reserves at the same time to start the second quarter. Those five reserves allowed the Celtics to go on a 9-0 run, a run from which the Lakers never fully recovered. Like I said, unless you are a Celtics fan, this doesn't make for great basketball.
I'm not just being a Laker fan and complaining about how one-sided the whistles were in the first half (believe me, I did enough of that last night), I'm being a basketball fan and complaining because the officials were a bigger factor in setting the tone than any of the players.
I've never blamed the referees for a loss or credited them with a win in the past, and I'm not going to start now. Boston won that game because they played great defense for the first three quarters and their crowd kept getting behind them at all the right times.
That being said, they got a lot of help from the officials. One of the toughest things in sports is to come from behind and win a big basketball game on the road. With the free throw discrepancy as big as it was (16-2 at in favor of the Celtics at halftime) and several players in foul trouble, the Lakers were faced with an uphill climb right from the beginning.
Getting help from the officials is not the biggest concern that the Lakers should have heading back home. In fact, it shouldn't even be on their radar. You can't control what calls the officials will and won't give you throughout a series, but there are plenty of things that the Lakers can control that they must improve on if they want to have any chance to make this a series.
Two of the most important changes the Lakers need to make, in no particular order:
Attack the basket — Maybe the Celtics' defense has been so good that they've forced Kobe to be a jump shooter. But I've never seen a defense that was good enough to stop Kobe from getting his shot off, and I don't imagine that is the case now. It looks more like a case of Kobe settling for what the defense gives him instead of imposing his will and making things happen. Look for him to be much more aggressive early in Game 3 and really set the tone for how he is going to play for all three games at the Staples Center.
Change the way they defend the pick-and-roll — I understand that there is no reason to guard against Rajon Rondo's jumpshot. He can't shoot and he passes up just about every shot he has. However, by giving him as much room as the Lakers have given him when he comes off screens, Rondo has picked them apart by finding open teammates (23 assists, 4 turnovers through the first two games). Forcing Rondo to take jumpers is a good strategy. Allowing him to pick you apart isn't. It's time to start forcing Rondo into doing something different on the screen and roll.
The Lakers aren't dead yet. Twice in the last four NBA Finals the team with the three consecutive home games has swept all three games and gone on to win the series. This Lakers team is certainly good enough to put up a fight, as evidenced by the fourth quarter rally they had in Game 2.
Unfortunately for the Lakers, the rest of this series may play out like Game 2: too little, too late.
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