Boston’s team effort trumps Kobe’s heroics
Monday, June 14, 2010
For what it’s worth, Kobe Bryant could score 100 points Tuesday night when the NBA Finals return to Los Angeles for Game 6. None of it will mean squat if the Lakers continue to defend worse than the U.S. Border Patrol.
Bryant’s one-man show Sunday in Game 5 – a team-high 33 points, including 19 in the third quarter – wound up circling the drain thanks to Los Angeles’ inability to make any key defensive stops throughout the night.
While Bryant put on a shooting clinic in the third quarter, the Celtics matched him shot-for-shot, highlighting a tremendous offensive performance in which they shot 56 percent from the field in a 92-86 win. Boston now leads this best-of-seven series three games to two with two chances to wrap up its 18th world title out west.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe Lakers are cooked unless they find a way to patch up the holes in their defense and get the rest of their lineup involved offensively. Bryant was phenomenal at times Sunday night, especially in the third, but none of his teammates showed up. Pau Gasol was the only other Laker to score in double figures, but it took him nearly the entire game to do so thanks in large part to Boston’s defense contesting most of his shots throughout the night. Even Bryant had to work for his 33 points, shooting 13-of-27 from the field while burying most of his shots in traffic.
The Celtics were simply tougher, out-hustling the Lakers on nearly every loose ball, and far more balanced with four players reaching double figures. Paul Pierce led the surge with 27 points on 12-of-21 shooting and helped ice the game in the closing seconds with a great pass to Rajon Rondo that resulted in an easy layup following a tough catch along the baseline on the inbound from Kevin Garnett.
Ray Allen – despite the fact he hasn’t been able to hit a 3-pointer since his record-setting outburst in Game 2 – chipped in with 12 points, Rondo had 18 and Garnett finished with a double-double with 18 points and 10 boards. That’s how you win championships, not with one player doing the bulk of the scoring and failing to get anyone else involved.
As great as Bryant is, he can be his own worst enemy at times. Even when he’s ice-cold from the floor, he’ll take at least 30 shots a game – some while being double- and triple-teamed. Once he gets hot like he did in the third quarter of last night’s game, you can forget about anyone else touching the ball. The game unfolds like that episode of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” where Will is high-fiving cheerleaders and taking every shot until Carlton rips the ball from his hands and heaves a hopeless prayer off the side of the backboard.
You can blame the rest of the Lakers for not showing enough initiative, but when Bryant refuses to wait for anyone to set a screen for him at the top of the key and instead chooses to drive into three defenders and hoist an off-balance shot, that’s him trying to take the game into his own hands. The Lakers were actually better off in the first half when Bryant was driving and dishing to open teammates on the perimeter. Ron Artest hit two wide-open 3-pointers courtesy of Bryant drawing defenders in the paint.
When the game turns into Bryant’s personal Happy Hour, the Lakers are in trouble, because the Celtics are too disciplined to get into a testosterone-fueled sword fight with Kobe’s ego. While Bryant hit seven consecutive shots in the third quarter last night, the Celtics matched him each time with points from Pierce, Garnett, Allen and even Kendrick Perkins. The weird thing is no seemed to notice. The usually on-point broadcast crew of Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson kept drooling over Bryant’s heroics while ignoring the fact the Celtics were rendering each and every shot meaningless by scoring on their own end.
This is starting to look like the previous three series Boston won en route to the Finals. The Heat, Cavaliers and Magic arguably had the best player on the floor, but the Celtics had the next best three – and, to some degree, the next best four when Rondo was on top of his game. Last night, Bryant played at a higher level than anyone else at the TD Garden, but got no help whatsoever from his supporting cast. Andrew Bynum looked like he’d be a major factor early on with six points in the first seven minutes, but he failed to score the rest of the game and grabbed only one rebound in 31 minutes. Even free throws were hard to come by with Artest missing two in the closing seconds that would’ve trimmed Boston’s lead to three points with 43.3 seconds remaining.
Bryant can’t do it all, nor should he try to, because one man cannot equal the output of Boston’s “Big Three.” Teamwork is what won Game 5 on Sunday and teamwork is what could get Los Angeles back into this series Tuesday night, but if the Celtics continue to shoot like this they’ll be returning home with another banner for the rafters.
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