I think C’s fans disrespect of Gasol can be summarised as follows

1) He doesn’t seem to show enough emotion at key times and goes missing.

2) Duncan was a monster on the glass in the WCF, Can the lakers frontline stop both KG and Perk?

3) Celtics fans have seen other ‘Touch’ big men go missing when the ref’s start to put the whistles away deep in the playoffs ( Most famoulsly Nowitski, but Sheed also ).

4) KG’s high intensity D will disrupt him, making it harder for him to get the ball at the start of the Triangle.

Overall, he’s a good player but it’ll be a lot scarier next year when he’s got Bynum to take care of the dirty work.

IMHO the match-up will come down to ‘The Truth’ and KB24. I think that Posey is a better matchup for Kobe than anything the lakers have for PP, assumming they don’t want to put Kobe on him. If these two do go head 2 head then i think it’s a win for the celtics. Pierce has shown he can match it well enough with LeBron ( Sorry Kobe fans but LeBron is the best ) and if he can limit Kobe’s advantage then I think the C’s have more options. If the C’s come through then PP willl be Finals MVP, vice versa for Kobe.

BTW, This ‘Soft-Euro’ stereotype needs to change, I lived in Russia last year and I can assure you that it is much harder than the NBA. The NBA has rules designed for high-scoring games, hence no zone, hand-checking etc. The reality is that REAL Euro big men would foul out within 5 minutes in the NBA. Gasol is probably a better player in the NBA than in many Euro leagues as he would get hammered inside.

Now I’m a cynical type of guy but i think this is just obvious; There was some underhand deal involving $ to the Grizzlies owner for Gasol. He’s losing money, can’t sell the franchise, the balls never go his way at the lottery – can’t blame the guy. Not trying to be bitter about it as I’m sure this is common around the league, it’s just that this is so blatant this time. C’s did do well out of the KG trade but we gave up a future all-star and a kid called ryan gomes who is gonna be a solid player for many years to come. Reminds me of how the lakers magically found cap room for Shaq thanks to some generous GM a few years ago…..

Finally, it’s just great for the league as a whole. It’s actually being regularly making the news in Australia for the first time since MJ.

Go Green17

Do you know how many times Boston has lost a Game 7 at home in their whole history?

Zero.

We need to take either Game 1 or 2 in Boston. At least. Then win 2 at home, and finish them off in Game 6.

They might as well be clones.

Boston has plenty of people to run at Kobe as well. Not to mention that Posey is a better defender than either of the two that you mentioned. I also think Boston has better defensive rotations. I agree that the Lakers do not get enough credit for the defensive effort that they have submitted (see 88), but that doesn’t mean that I think PP will have trouble getting to the hoop/line.

Neither team, no matter who is placed in front of their respective scorer, is going to stop them. The only way to stop those two is to simply hope they are defering or not in the building.

KG-fan

I don’t think the 2-3-2 format reduces the home team advantages, just changes it. I think the away team is under greater pressure to win the 3 games at home because they get them all at the same time and cannot stumble during this period – it really heightens the pressure. For teams that have any road issues – they likely won’t win championships because it is almost guaranteed they will have to win 50% of their road games. At the same time, having both 6 & 7 at home really, really favors the home team. Under the current format, the away team almost has to split the 1st two games or they are pretty much toast. The away team gains its greatest advantage if they do split those first 2 games – now the middle 3 games put tremendous pressure on the team with the better record – the coaching better come up with something new here.

Seriously, I’ve read both threads (and I’ve been reading teams blogs everytime we play them) and I can only come to this conclusion… This is the classiest basketball blog there is (that Bulls guy is also pretty good).

Sorry Jeff, you really write quite well and know about basketball, but most people there are just stuck in the argument of “you suck because you suck”.

We can understand that you guys have been through Sheed and Lebron, and you adpated to those matchups to some extent. We realize that going 7 games most series brought the best out of you. But Celtics fans must recognize that their team also as flaws, the same way we recognize ours…

You say the Spurs are not as good as the Pistons. I say you match up well against them. If I recall, the Spurs went through Phoenix and NO before meeting the Lakers with a Manu half-a-step slower than previous years. Do you actually think the Cavs are better than any of those teams? And how well did the Celtics matchup against Phoenix and NO this year?

It all comes down to that. And yes, the Celtics were a great matchup against the Lakers when we didn’t have Gasol. But you got to at least concede that we’re not the same team we were in the beginning of the year and that we have a coaching staff which will adapt to a series better than yours.

I would now like to present some facts to all the Celtics readers out there…

I – we’ve been outrebounded for a long time now. We still win games…
II – We’ve played against a great offensive team (and #5 was almost shutdown for the series), and we still won in the most difficult arena in the league (twice this year)
III – We’ve played against a great defensive team, and we still won while they failed shutting down Kobe…
IV – Forget Kobe. Go read a post in some Nuggets blog about a party with Lakers players in LA. Ubuntu? I say real brotherhood.
V – We know Fisher is old, but I think he did just find against 3 of the five best at PG in the league. Yep, Rondo is fast, but I think AI and Parker “might” be as well.
VI – The Garden is not the same… We won’t be needing oxygen masks.
VII – Is Ray Allen that much better than T-Mac? You should see Radmanovic play against him. He’s tall and he can contest shots with ease (if he wants to). Ray is not a slasher…
VIII – Ariza played minutes last series and got time to rest for this series. Expect to see some of Ariza on Pierce. There goes your mismatch on the offensive end.
IX – The Lakers can win in any court. But our home record has been pretty good since Gasol came in.

Celtics fans (not named Jeff or not those who actually discuss basketball like it should be discussed), please, tell me again why are you going to sweep this series?

PS: Sorry for this sort of post… I now actually wish we could win game 7 in double-OT with KG choking and Kobe going for the title-clinching fastbreak dunk. Boston people would be crying for years to come… because their window passed on the greatest choke of all time.