Shawn Kemp's Offspring

DEJA VU, ALL OVER AGAIN

written by Eboy

My, my, my (no Johnny Gill). How utterly convenient that the most wild NBA season, maybe in it's entire history, comes down to it's most storied rivalry, with some "divine intervention" thrown in to make sure it happened. One of the most boring playoff seasons ever followed one of the greatest regular seasons of all time. How odd. And all we are left with is this crappy t-shirt and a matchup that is sure to disappoint. Why, you ask? A simple reason, really. For the week leading up to Game One, we will have been told probably 1759 times that besides this being the most storied rivalry in team sports and that these two teams will be remembered as legendary, there would be little way this series will meet the expectations. NO WAY! Unless each game headed to various overtimes and history books were rewritten in each game, this is going to be a pedestrian series. A 6 or 7 game series that will go back and forth between two teams that in the scope of all things great in NBA teamfolklore, barely make a blip on the greatness meter.

Yes, Lakers fans are like Yankees fans. Glib, pampered, ridiculously oversensitive and way too expecting of greatness. Celtics fans are like....well that's easy...like Red Sox fans. Big mouthed, overconfident and always crass. Usually why most fans outside of Boston and LA can't get behind either of them, is because the bloodlines run way too deep. This isn't like the 80's when you could "choose your weapon", like the old shoe commercial said, and attach yourself to Magic or Larry's gravytrain. This is more than that. These teams are force fed to basketball fans today. "The Big Three", "Kobe's Lakers". Enough. Let's see if these two teams, the best two teams by record in each of their conferences, can do what we hope for. Provide a thrilling, high quality basketball series. If they can, they may just yet be able to salvage what has so far been a let down of epic proportions in these playoffs.

Let's get into it. After hearing the ramblings of sportswriters/broadcasters like Tim Legler, Steven A. Smith, Bill Simmons, Mark Jackson, etc. for the last week, all I can surmise is that the Celtics have no chance to win this series.....if listening to the words of these "experts". Surprisingly, not one of these guys has ever been part of the process of winning an NBA championship, so I think my opinion is equal to theirs. Alright, maybe not, but I can dream right? After some serious introspection (well, rereading my season preview from back in November) I had the Celtics playing the Spurs in the Finals and just missed out on a 100% percent prediction for the parties involved. Now, with the Lakers "juggernaut" coming to town, the much talked about Boston Massacre is just a day away, and I'm trying to keep my wits about me testing all I know about basketball history and it's strategies and matchups. The 80's are back baby! I'm breaking out the acid wash, people!!!!!!

Guards

Hmmm........The game's most dominant player, headlining, against a crop of guards on the Celtics that have either all seen better days or none at all. Should be a walk in the park for Mr. Bryant. Seriously. Ray Allen, while a future Hall Of Famer, isn't likely to have his own wing there, like Kobe may have. Ray's going to have his hands full on the possessions he winds up getting caught on switches with Kobe. Kobe should be off the charts great in this series. Figure about 35 pts per game, 5 assists, 5 rebounds. The best single player on the court. Ray needs to shine for at least 14 pt per game to at least throw something out there (a jump shot) that the Lakers have to respect from the Celts backcourt. Rajon Rondo vs. Derek Fisher is intriguing. The young guard on the come up, who ran the NBA's best team all season, against the old, grizzled guard, with the championship pedigree and big time history. This will be a critical matchup, with whoever stands out the most, giving his team a huge boost towards a ring fitting. The bench guards for both teams are interesting too. The Lakers would seem to have the advantage with young guys Jordan Farmar and Sasha Vucovic playing critical minutes and looked to to provide timely three point shooting. Both have done that this season, so if they can continue on, they should win their matchup with Sam Cassell and Eddie House. The thing is...if Cassell and House can have a hot shooting game here and there, they can be streaky enough to steal a game, let alone this matchup. The LA boys should be good though.

Edge- Lakers

Small Forwards

Vladimir Radmanovic against Paul Pierce and James Posey. Let me think..........yeah, Celtics HUGE in this matchup. I know, I know, Kobe will help here, Odom may take some time on Pierce, but Pierce should be the startout man against Radmanovic and there is no contest in this matchup. Posey is a wild card in this series. A champion too, he is the type of pesky defender that will be in the Kobe carousel, taking minutes battling the beast, pestering and frustrating to a point. Don't sell short his effort and intangibles. He will make a mark on this series. Radmanovic needs to just play his game, shoot the open three and get to the basket when he can. His D is going to be on full display though, so he needs to be up to the Pierce challenge until Kobe makes the switch and chases him to the bench in the first 5 minutes of each game.

Edge- Celtics


Power Forwards/Center

This is the matchup that I think will decide the series. I'm going to list 5 names for the Celtics and 4 for the Lakers. You decide.

Celtics

Kevin Garnett
Kendrick Perkins
PJ Brown
Leon Powe
Glen Davis

Lakers

Paul Gasol
Lamar Odom
Luke Walton
Ronnie Turiaf

Still thinking? Don't. Let me help you. The Lakers only hope in this matchup is that Phil Jackson finds a way to integrate Lamar into the gameplan in an unexpected way that will throw the Celts for a loop. It can be done. But the real problem for the Lakers lies in the Gasol matchup. He got by in the Nuggets series against a disjointed group of bigs that missed out on exploiting him. He was ordinary against the Jazz, but played well enough to support Kobe in the series win. And against the Spurs, he played well enough against Tim Duncan, but it was the lack of help The Robot got from his teammates that nullified his dominate numbers in the series. Pau will be in for a rude awakening. A force of nature that only his teammate, Mr. Bryant, can match in intensity. Kevin Garnett will, in my opinion, take this series by the throat by doing whatever is needed to get his team to the promised land. The rest of the Celts bigs will wear down Pau, and while they may struggle to contain Odom at times, foul trouble will DESTROY the Lakers chances in this series, since their are no other bigs to counteract the Celts. It will be critical for Gasol and Odom to stay out of foul trouble which means they can't be overly aggressive, which neither ever is defensively, so the Celts should own the paint, as they did in their regular season matchups. They were a +12 in the rebound column in their two games. Granted, Gasol wasn't there for those, but there was a certain young center that played those games and didn't do much to change the fortunes in those games. Now with Kendrick Perkins and PJ Brown delivering decent minutes, the Celts have the decided advantage. Turiaf provides a nice spark off the bench for the Lakers and his rebounding and his little outside game is a nice compliment to Odom and Kobe's off the dribble work once Gasol goes to the bench. Luke Walton....welcome to the bench.... again. 5 to 4? I like the Celts odds.

Edge-Celtics

Coaching

Phil the legend against Doc the underachiever. Pretty decided in the favor of the Lakers. Phil will have his guys and his gameplan tight. Always does. Doc will use the "them against us" motto to full effect and his boisterous sideline presence will counter Phil's "ass in the chair still down by 25" look. If it's a critical change that needs to be addressed, Phil's staff is better prepared for that.

Edge-Lakers

Intangibles

Interesting. Kobe's manic drive for the perfect season and some form of redemption against the hunger of the Big Three. The game's greatest coach of the last 20 years trying to win the elusive 10th title to put him in rarefied air. Home court sitting in the Celtics favor. Two wins for the Celts in the regular season, both pretty handily. KG vs. Kobe for the whole ball of wax? KG's fire should finally pay off and a championship pedigree will return to Boston basketball after 20 years. The good thing for the Lakers, their future is brighter than the Celtics so their chances at being back here should be much greater.

Edge-Even

My pick: Celtics in 6.