I’ve been driving the Leon Powe bandwagon since day 1… but even I can acknowledge his limitations. For instance… there’s no way in hell that Leon Powe should go coast-to-coast, untouched, when 3 Lakers are already on the defensive end of the court.
Leon got the ball about 90 feet away from the basket. Notice where Pau Gasol is after a couple of dribbles.
So Pau is just turning around… and he is clearly looking at Leon.
In the time it took Leon to get over half court… Pau has moved 5 feet. As an added bonus, Sasha Vujacic is on the block. They should get over to clog that lane… except.
Pau moved about 2 feet and Sasha did little more than pivot… leaving Leon Powe to elevate for an easy 2 handed slam. This might be the most embarrassing, pathetic thing I’ve seen. Leon is not blazing fast. He’s a bulky power forward. Yet he took the ball 90 feet… and Gasol and Vujacic stood there and watched him go by them like he was Clyde Drexler. In a game the ended up getting cut to 2 points… you can look back on this and say this was HUGE for the Celtics.
The Celtics relaxed in the 4th and LA got ridiculously hot. The Celtics almost paid dearly for going 7 minutes without playing D. But the Lakers have paid dearly twice for disappearing on the defensive end. It’s what we’ve been saying since the Pau Gasol trade happened. Defense wins championships… he plays almost none… and neither do most of the Lakers. And I’ll tell you this for sure: You won’t see another 41 point quarter out of the Lakers in this series.
One other note… we saw “Bad Kobe” for most of the game again last night. Lots of forced shots… mainly on the perimeter… virtually no passing. It took him 23 shots to get to 30 points… while it took Paul Pierce 16 shots to get to 28. No defense plus “Bad Kobe” equals bad… bad things for Los Angeles.
Herald: Celtics hold Powe-sition | Leon’s work helps C’s hold serve | Pierce puts hurt to Lakers | Little comfort in 2-0 lead | Rondo, teammates, offer ample assistance | Foul treatment irks Lakers | Time is right for Celtics | Al Jefferson Perks up | Doc, Phil opposing benchmarks of success | Max’s famous line a little mis-quoted | Stern is a fan of this matchup | Pierce proving incomparable for C’s | DJ’s overlooked deeds a shame | Globe: Survivor: Boston | Ryan: X marks the spot for Powe | 2 down, 2 to go | Game 2 photos | This ‘Wolve joins the pack | Knee no problem for Pierce | Bryant’s night: Seething and disbelieving | Rivers fires praise Rondo’s way | Jackson questions disparity at line | Rondo’s Blog: We’re up 2-0 | TrueHoop: Laker Nation vs. Referees | Camerato: Lakers out Powe-red | Souza: Powe-red to victory | Megliola: C’s defend their house, in dramatic fashion | SI: Thomsen-don’t count Lakers out yet | Pierce the hero again | ESPN Daily Dime: Surprise Hero | Plaschke: Something foul in Boston
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except…no one would’ve been covering garnett(pau’s man) and vujacic wouldn’t be able to do shit even if he did help contest. This was actually Vlad’s fault, either way it would’ve been a 2v1 on Pau and they would’ve scored either way.
Pierce was on fire, kobe got to the rim the average amount. 28 more free throw attempts and only winning by 6 is “cute” indeed.
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Yeah U Stink… you’re right… I’m wrong. An uncontested dunk is clearly a better option than Kevin Garnett from 20 feet away.
Dummy.
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It was Pau’s fault – he needed to stop the ball… take a charge… he’s the lead man on D in that scenario.
Also “This might be the most embarrassing, pathetic thing I’ve seen,” is false. You’ve seen worse out of a certain former teammate of ours named Juan.
20 ft away? By the time Pau switched and committed garnett would’ve been near the rim after he noticed it.
U stink: So what are you saying? Are you saying that Gasol did the smart thing by letting Leon Powe go in for an uncontested dunk? Because that’s what it seems like you’re saying.
Here’s a little tip for you: KG shoots about 50% from out there. Leon makes about 100% from 0 feet away. What’s the better option.
Nobody can be this dumb. Is there a carbon monoxide leak in your house or something?
Let’s see, making a move on Powe to draw a blocking foul and allowing a possible 3 point play, or trying to go for a subtle steal meanwhile protecting the pass to garnett.
Even if Pau did move to “contest” you would have been saying the same shit about the laker defense being soft. Pau is getting better on the other end and this was definitely not his fault. So let it go, blame vlad instead(at least then you wouldn’t look stupid)and try and educate yourself on why things happened the way they did instead of seeing something in only in the moment.
“go for a subtle steal”
I’d have respect if Pau went in try to take a charge. At least he would have tried to draw a foul.
Give it up. Paul AND Vlad both watched a slow power forward dribble almost the lenght of the court and dunk between them. It’s a total embarrassment for them both. They waved at him as he went by. The only thing they accomplished was slightly cooling him off with their waving hands… which must have been refreshing as he went up for a highlight dunk.
I agree, and disagree.
Agreed. That was absolutely pathetic. I just sat there with my head in my hands at that point. It was very, very sad.
I disagree. The thing that will be looked back on in this game and people will say was HUGE for the Celtics is the free throw disparity. 38 of the suckers to 10. And don’t tell me “the Celtics attacked the hoop more” – it’s a fallacy, pure ‘n’ simple.
Honestly? Pretty disappointed that pretty much no Boston blog has even attempted to discuss that. Isn’t it worthy of discussion?
Don’t get me wrong: I think that overall, Boston outplayed LA in game 2. But the first half (I saw as) – pretty even. 3rd, all Boston. 4th, largely LA. Just that in the first half, there was that slight issue of a 19-2 FTA.
Sheesh…
We did address it. 28 fouls were called on LA. 21 were called on Boston. The foul discrepancy wasn’t great… but the free throws were… because the Celtics ATTACKED. Why is it that Leon Powe took so many FT’s? He was attacking the rim.
“…but the free throws were… because the Celtics ATTACKED.”
Not so.
Sorry reds, but you haven’t checked your information, and are just going purely with what you expect, rather than fact.
The idea that Boston was more aggressive in the paint than LA during game 2 is a fallacy. Yup, a fallacy… an untruth. If you explore the ESPN Shot Chart, you’ll note that between them, Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol took 23 shots in the paint. Between them, they had 1 free throw attempt.
Look at the same chart and enter Kevin Garnett’s name: good ol’ KG shot twice in the paint.
And got 4 free throw attempts.
Also check out CBS’s very informative breakdown within their shot chart… and it shows that the Lakers team attempted 23 layups, and 7 dunks (a total of 30). Boston: 14 layup attempts, 4 dunks attempted – 18.
Sorry about that… I’d suggest that maybe it’s merely ‘homecourt advantage’, and if so, that’s a pity.
Much rather see the guys just play.
[…] just seems to love leaving wide open lanes and allowing the Celtics free looks at the hoop. Leon Powe got one in Game 2… and Ray Allen got one at the most critical point of the game last night. Celtics up 3… […]