Boy, was that one of the ugliest games or what! But no matter how ugly it was, I was shaking in fear the whole time! Before I say anything else, I want to thank my professor for letting me cut class to watch tonight's game, haha. I had to turn in my Final, and he said I could just mail it to him instead and stay home to watch the game – how cool is that? Thanks, Mr. Somers (but I bet you'll never ever read this).
First of all, didn't everyone say that
Paul Pierce was going to be awesome in LA? I mean, the kid's from Inglewood of all places. But the second he stepped on the floor, he started to suck hard: 2-14 from the field, 0-4 from three-point land. He wasn't the only sucky
Celtic,
Kevin Garnett also was pretty horrible. I think at a point late in the first half, both guys combined for something like 1-13 shooting; that may not have been the number, but it was just as horrible. KG ended up with 13 points and 12 rebounds, but he was 6-21 shooting, and almost all of his rebounds came in the first half. The only guy who did anything for the Celtics, and for the Big Three, was
Ray Allen, with 25 points off 8-13 from the field, 5-7 in three-pointers.
But, of course, with KG and Pierce doing so badly, we had to match their struggle by having
Odom and
Gasol not make their first field goals until the fourth quarter. I sound like it was planned, but come on, have we learned nothing from our previous games? We learned that
Kobe can't take on the Celtics on his own, and that if Lamar and Pau won't help Kobe attack, the bench would have to step up. And thankfully, the bench did. Well not all of them, just
Sasha in particular. He ended with 20 points off 7-10 shooting and 3-5 from behind the three. In the first quarter, his presence was felt quickly when both Odom and
Vlade got in foul trouble, he came in and it felt like he shot 10 consecutive free throws. The guy was fierce tonight. So fierce in fact, he even had this Israeli fan during the post-game interviews, and I'm not talking about
Stephen A. Sasha was our savior tonight; of our 87 points, he and Kobe combined for 56 of those points. They were the only two in double-figures. The only other Laker close to double-figures was Pau with 9 points, though he did have 12 rebounds. But he was the worst at the free-throw line tonight, Pau was, going 3-8. He has been off on his free-throws as of late, but it seemed like the whole team sucked there tonight. The refs turned the calls around for the most part tonight and the
Lakers had more chances at the line, though clearly not as much as the Celtics did in Game 2, but we still could not do anything once we got there. Kobe alone missed 7 of his 18 shots at the line and the team as a whole was 21-34! It was an ugly game tonight, but we ended it beautifully, with a 'W', and that's all that matters right now.
Highlights? There was only one really highlight-worthy play tonight, and that started and ended with Sasha. I am amazed by how many people
still cannot pronounce the guy's name! It's gotten to the point where I hear it pronounced "bouillabaisse" and announcers getting excited when they get it right. Charles was the worst at his name, so let's be happy that he's not covering the Finals and butchering it, though we all miss you,
Chuck! But before I show you that play, I want to show you two funny things that happened in tonight's game. When games get ugly, you have to entertain yourself with the small things. One of these things were really obvious, and other other was probably something most of you missed. First of all, did you guys know that
Jordan Farmar is half-black and half-Israeli? The guy totally looks like a paisan to me, and even more so because of how he wanted to shank
P.J. Brown tonight – Jordan was probably upset with that 9-second paint non-call from Game 1, boy I was! Turns out it was only the inner Zohan inside of him that wanted to feet-uppercut P.J. But the veteran realized how much older he was and how many vitamins he would have to take to get back the strength he would exert to fight Farmar, so he walked away laughing. The second clip is of our buddy
Trevor Ariza. The Lakers by far have the best chemistry of any team, no question, but who thought Trevor would fit in so quickly? And he's been out for three months! Watch how comfortable he is, not only with his teammates, but with the referees as well: pay attention to the right side of the video, hahaha. It had me howling for minutes, that did. Now I get how Joey keeps his head so shiny! This Laker team rocks.
