With Game 5 on deck, both teams need a game plan
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Depending on how the first four go, Game 5 of a best-of-seven playoff series can either be horribly anticlimactic or incredibly stressful.
Thankfully, we’ve been blessed with two evenly-matched teams in this year’s NBA Finals, therefore this series is even at two games apiece heading into tonight’s pivotal swing game at the TD Garden. Once it’s over, either the Celtics or Lakers will board their charter to Los Angeles needing just one more win to wrap up the title.
Considering how close the series has been, it might take just one minor tweak of the game plan to swing the momentum in either direction. The Celtics need to use their heads. The Lakers need to use their balls. Literally.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe majority of fans were too excited by the Celtics’ thrilling, come-from-behind win in Game 4 to realize just how lucky they were to get away with their own stupidity. Rasheed Wallace and Nate Robinson each committed technical fouls in the fourth quarter that could’ve been costly had the Lakers hit their free throws. Instead, they failed to make Boston pay the price for its arrogant, selfish behavior and ultimately wilted down the stretch in a 96-89 loss.
I’m not sure who to blame for Boston’s disgusting lack of discipline. Wallace has been a self-serving jerk for years, and he firmly believes he’s never committed a foul in his entire career, as evident by his childish reaction Thursday when he blew his stack after the referee had the gall to penalize him for nearly ripping Kobe Bryant’s arm out of the socket.
As for Robinson, this is the same nitwit who shot at his own basket in New York, so we shouldn’t be surprised that he nearly put Thursday’s win in jeopardy by trying to unleash his Napoleon complex on Lamar Odom following a semi-hard foul.
There might be no method of effective reform for players with such long histories of ignorance, but if there is, Doc Rivers clearly isn’t the man to enforce it. Every time Doc has been asked to comment on Kendrick Perkins’ inability to keep his composure, he’s excused his player’s behavior by suggesting, “We need Perk to be Perk.”
Either Rivers truly has no problem with Perkins racking up six technical fouls in the playoffs, or he’s afraid to publicly admit his player needs to smarten up. Either way, it’s a clear sign of enabling, which is a bad precedent when coaching spoiled rich kids masquerading as professional athletes. Rivers has also admitted he has a “no technical fouls in the fourth quarter” policy, as if it’s perfectly acceptable to act like a moron during the first three quarters. Someone should remind him he can rule with an iron fist without throwing his players under the bus.
To me, it’s a combination of both. Rivers is a bigger pushover than Mr. Belding, but he’s also coaching an unruly, unlikeable group of players, unless you think it’s funny when Robinson celebrates every shot as if he just hit a buzzer-beater in Game 7 of the Finals or you enjoy watching Glen Davis slobber all over himself like an obese German Shepherd.
Although none of these issues came back to haunt Boston in Game 5, the severity of the consequences becomes scarier as the series presses on. Both Wallace and Perkins are one technical foul away from an automatic one-game suspension. God forbid Boston loses Game 5 Sunday and both players get T’d up in the process. You can kiss Game 6 – and the title – goodbye.
While I’m willing to bet no one outside of Quincy or Dorchester finds the Celtics’ antics humorous, I also believe in the principle that suggests if you don’t like how someone is behaving, you should do something about it. Red Auerbach used to light victory cigars during games, yet no one could dethrone Boston’s dynasty in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s.
That’s where Los Angeles’ balls come into play. Aside from praying Andrew Bynum is healthy – because the Celtics cannot win if he’s on the court – the Lakers need to set the tone early in Game 5. A case of scrotal swelling would do the trick. The first time Garnett barks like a dog or throws up gang signs, someone needs to knock him down, similar to how Pedro Martinez buzzed a fastball under Hideki Matsui’s chin in Game 5 of the 2004 ALCS, prompting Matsui to crawl into a shell the rest of the series.
Brush-back pitches are perfectly acceptable in baseball. Elbows to the chest aren’t quite as revered in the NBA. With that said, perhaps the Lakers need to lose a small battle early in the form of a technical foul in order to win the war. The real kicker here is if the wrong player fights back (Wallace or Perkins, to be exact) it could change how the rest of the series unfolds. In 1997, the Knicks coughed up a 3-1 series lead against Miami in the Eastern Conference Finals due in large to suspensions handed out to Patrick Ewing, Allan Houston, John Starks and Larry Johnson for their role in a bench-clearing brawl, so this would not be unprecedented.
The bottom line is the Lakers need to show some testicular fortitude tonight. Without Bynum in the second half of Game 4, they got pushed around under the basket by Boston’s junior varsity team, stirring up memories of how the Celtics dominated a similar, shorthanded Laker team in the ’08 Finals.
Los Angeles needs to prove it can win without Bynum, even if it’s not true. The Celtics need to keep their heads on their shoulders, not stuck where the sun don’t shine. Whoever takes this advice first might just win the series.
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