Coaching, The Bench and Defense

Ok, so I checked my cell phone around 9:35ish to see what the score of the game was and it said 35-14 Lakers at the end of one. My initial thought was, "Wow, how the hell do the Celtics give up 35 and only score 14??? It was all part of Doc Rivers' plan to not only win the game, but break a record while doing it. The Celtics came back from an 18 point halftime deficit, bigger than anyone in NBA Finals history since the shot clock era. The comeback was due to three things: coaching, bench play and defense.

Coaching: Doc Rivers vs. Phil Jackson. I know that I am going to take Jackson over Rivers 9 out of 10 times. Well ladies and gentlemen, we were all "witnesses" of the one time where Phil was outcoached by Doc. Its hard to question a guy with 9 championship rings, but every great coach makes a mistake every now and then (Ex. John Calipari on April 7th, 2008). Doc Rivers saw the exact same thing the whole world did. He saw LA trapping the post, whether it be Perkins, Garnett or Powe, every single time they touched the ball. This forced them to kick it out to Rondo (his man usually left to double) and he is not someone you want taking the bulk of your shots. So, Rivers decided to yank him and "Perk" and throw in Eddie House and James Posey. LA continued to double, only this time House and Posey made them pay. This forced LA to quit doubling the post and allowed KG to have one on one battles with Pau and it worked to perfection. For Jackson, he decided to go with Sasha "point shaving" Vujacic instead of Lamar Odom who finally looked like himself last night. Odom was playing brilliantly and Vujacic wasn't only shooting poorly, but Ray Allen was toying with him on offense as well. Odom was 8 for 11 and Phil decided not to go with him late in the game. This coaching battle was clearly won by Doc Rivers and maybe people will start taking him seriously now.

Bench Play: Well, I don't want to toot my own horn, but I will...toot toot. I said the key to this series was going to be the bench and who stepped up when it mattered the most. Game 4 was a perfect example of that. For the Celtics, with Perkins and Rondo struggling, Rivers needed help from his bench and so he decided to go with the youthful Eddie House (not the egghead) and James Posey (to have another shooter on the floor). House and Posey both scored in double digits with 11 and 18 respectively and were a combined 6 of 10 from the three point line. The biggest shots were when Posey hit a fall away three pointer from the corner to cut the lead to one and then two possessions later House hit a 20 ft. jumper to give the C's there first lead of the night. The Lakers bench was god-awful. Vujacic, Farmar, Ariza, Walton and Turiaf were a combined 5 for 21 from the field and neither scored more than 6 points. Sasha was lights out in Game 3 but wasn't ready to play last night on both ends of the floor. He constantly got beat on defense and just couldn't get into a rythmn on offense. Kobe needed help last night as he was struggling as well, but he didn't get it.

Defense: The Celtics played the best defense I have ever witnessed in an NBA game in the new "offense controlled" era. They may prove again that defense wins championships. They held the Lakers to 33 points in THE ENTIRE SECOND HALF (less than they scored in first quarter). They didn't let Kobe get into the lane as he said in the press conference, "I saw two, three bodies around me the whole game." Pau missing dunks, Vujacic missing three's and Farmar going 1 for 6 did the Lakers in. Pierce told Doc he wanted to guard Kobe because he wasn't in foul trouble and that may have been the point where the Celtics took it to another level. Either way, they earned this victory on the defensive end and getting out in transition which would not have been possible without the D.

I am really at a loss for words when watching Vujacic defend Ray Allen on that last possession. He seemed to just stop in the middle of the play. I'm not sure how he could have expected help because it was clearly an isolation play and he knew nobody from his team was going to be in the paint. With the NBA refs allegations swirling around the league, the last thing anyone wants to hear is a player shaving points, but if you take a look at that play, something sure looks fishy to me. If anyone has any idea what Sasha may have been thinking on that play, please please please, let me know. No doubt the Celtics earned Game 4 and the Lakers now have to overcome something that has never been done before, coming back from 3-1 in the NBA finals. I will say, if I had one player to choose from to lead that comeback, it would be Kobe Bryant. He said it best when asked how you win three straight, "You just have to win Sunday and then move on to the next game." If anyone thinks this theory is bullshit, just go ask the Boston Red Sox.