Lakers Finally Beat Celtics (Thanks Refs)

The Lakers are going to give a game away at some point if they do not stop this nonsensical play at the end of playoffs. While not as inexplicable as Kobe Bryant's shot early in the clock at the end of Game 4 against the Spurs, what was Lamar Odom thinking trying to dunk in the last 10 seconds of the game?

Why? Why? Why? I keep re-watching the sequence over and over again. The Celtics had given up, just let the clock run out. If this end of game craziness does not stop, someone will cost the Lakers a game.

I will stay away from the officiating in this game other than to say the Lakers benefitted from home court advantage.

Some observations from the game:

• Lakers make it a series at 1-2. Is anyone surprised? I was a little nervous when the Lakers were off balance in the 3rd quarter. It did feel lucky to come out with the win with Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom playing awful. Luckily Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett were equally as awful.
  
• Phil Jackson - What a Game 3 adjustment by Phil Jackson. The decision to put Kobe Bryant on Rajon Rondo for defensive was simply genius. Not only did it create a bad cross matchup for the Celtics on the defensive end, but Kobe was free to roam and double team on defense due to Rajon's lack of confidence shooting the ball. The result, Rajon was off the floor at the end of the game and there was interior penetration.
  
• Traveling Calls -- More than I have seen in a long time in ANY NBA game. I guess Vladimir Radmanovic's 5-step trip around the world in Game 2 raised some eyebrows. Everyone knows you could call about 10 traveling violations in a game. I think we had 5 in this one.
  
• Luke Walton - the guy can definitely pass and hit the occassional three. However, nobody misses more easy buckets than Luke. That was again the case tonight, a couple of easy layup misses. Even worse, Often times (in the 2nd quarter tonight) he decides that with 6 seconds left on the clock that he needs to take the shot. Rarely does he convert.
  
• Kendrick Perkins -- I was surprised was he not T'd up with a technical foul in the 2nd quarter after he screamed in Kobe Bryant's face? Great he had a dunk, but in almost any other game that would be a technical foul for taunting.
  
• PJ Brown -- The guy you love, if he's on your team. The guy you hate if he is not. He is always mixing it up, and tonight was no exception when he mixed it up with Jordan Farmar. Amazing how some guys always end up in the mix.
  
• Sasha Vujacic -- Great performance and converting on the shots. Man has this guy turned it around from last year. With each playoff performance, I am more impressed.
  
• Defense on Kobe the last 2 minutes. I thought trapping was a great strategy by the Celtics to get the ball out of Kobe's hand. Then Sasha hit the three and then Doc Rivers went back to 1x1 with Ray Allen. Fortunately, neither were effective.
  
• Pau Gasol & Lamar Odom; the Lakers need you both. If these do not play better in the rest of the games, the Lakers cannot win.
  
• Rajon Rondo -- hopefully you did not take too much offense to the "get him a wheelchair" chants from the crowd when you were injured. I bet you understand though.

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NBA Finals: Not What Lakers Fans Bargained For

It is hard to describe how I feel after game 2 of the NBA Finals. With the Los Angeles Lakers losing Game 2 in a spectacular fashion with a failed comeback to the Boston Celtics, and by experiencing a huge disparity in refereeing yet almost winning both games it is difficult.

But, I can try...

I am disappointed. I am annoyed. I am mad. I am tired. I am worried. I am wondering what should have been. I am hopeful.

There, at least that is a start.

And now, for a couple of observations that I have from Game 2 of the NBA Finals. (Before I read what Henry Abbott will put together on TrueHoop in the morning.)

Did anyone notice that for Game 2, a new line across the center of the court was installed to clearly denote the back court from the front court?

Seems like the NBA asked the Garden to make a change after that monstrosity of a Larry O'Brien trophy was responsible for two bad calls that went against the Lakers in Game 1. First it was the phantom backcourt violation by Pau Gasol, then it was the non-call when Kevin Garnett went over the line to flip the ball back into play. In Game 2, a line appeared across the center of the court and not surprising -- no backcourt miscues.

Boston Garden changes the floor for the Pat O'Brien trophy with a newly added center line after Game 1 controversy. See red circle for the line that was added for clarity.

Yes there was a free throw shooting disparity, was it really 38-10? NBA Referees have "Garden Fever", only seeing fouls the Lakers commit.

I keep looking at this stat and it is the one that stands out the most to me. 38-10 (19-2 at halftime!), that is a huge disparity. 38-30, 38-25, even 38-20 might have been considered within reason. We are talking about 28 more opportunities to score -- that is more than the Celtics largest lead. Definitely some home cooking going on there. While I do not believe the NBA conspiracy theories about referees being in on these things, it is hard to imagine that anyone thinks this game was called consistently. Just another case of Boston "Garden Fever". Guess we can add it to the list with Bloody Socks and Spygate.

Want to know what is even more spectacular? The Lakers, criticized for their jump shooting ways in Game 1 (where there was only a 7 free throw difference), went to the basket time after time in the first half. Only to see no-call after no-call when similar hacks and holds led to free throws for Boston on the other side of the court. Most have not looked at the shot charts from inside the elbow and paint. Is that really 20 shots inside by the Lakers to 17 by the Celtic. I guess the Lakers were not settling for "just" jumpers.

To put this in a little perspective, Utah cried foul after the first game of the Round 2 series against the Lakers. What was the free-throw disparity? 46-30, only a difference of 16 attempts. If a differential of 16 is considered a disparity, what the heck is 28?

Interesting. As long as the Lakers enjoy the same benefit at Staples Center, that is fine by me. But, it could also go either way as in Game 2 of that same series, the Lakers had a 43-16 free throw differential. Let's hope it does not get any worse.

Hats off to Leon Powe.

The guy came to play and had a great game. The coast-to-coast made me sick as he went to the bucket without on Laker stopping the ball. Awful defense. Did ABC have a time machine or did they coincidently just happen to air his story on the night of his career?

Kobe Bryant's performance.

I heard it on ESPN radio tonight, and I am sure the Kobe haters will be out tomorrow on TrueHoop and other blogs crucifying Kobe Bryan publicly yet again for this performance. If you follow my rationale below, you will clearly see that this is not the case for Game 2. I will be the first to agree that Kobe was off in Game 1.

Let's break down that box score a little bit from tonight. 11-23 from the field, 1-3 on three pointers, and 7-7 from the line for 30 points, with 8 assists and 4 rebounds. A very good performance overall.

However, let's dig into this a little bit and focus on the foul disparity. Let's just say on 4 of those missed shots (I would suggest it was closer to 6-7) that Kobe is fouled and it is called. And again, conservatively let's say that he only makes 6 of the remaining 8 free throws. What does that look like?

11-19 from the field, 1-3 on three pointers, 13-15 from the line for 36 points. Pair that up with the 8 assists and 4 rebounds, and that is the MVP caliber performance we are all looking for. That is the kind of game Kobe played tonight.

The Lakers have a lot to be happy about.

Ok, so we did not steal one of the two games like we had hoped. However, this "great" Boston Celtics defense never held you under 85 points, you scored over 100 points once and both games were in contention in the last two minutes. The Celtics were not able to come up with a convincing win on their home floor in either game. You had a chance to steal both games. There is a lot to look forward to in Los Angeles on Tuesday night.

The Celtics defense is not that great, we are constantly getting open looks. Do you think Boston will really shot 64.3% from the 3-point line the rest of the series. It is just going to be more fun that what you original anticipated.

Don't see it my way? Sound off with a comment below.

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Sasha Vujacic's 3-Pointer for Tacos as Lakers beat Spurs to win the Western Conference Finals

The game was seemingly over. With just five seconds left in game 5 of the 2008 Western Conference Finals the Spurs played off the Lakers as they brought the ball up the court, holding onto a 97-92 lead. The San Antonio Spus had resigned to their fate, that there would be no repeat, that the Los Angeles Lakers were once again a superpower in the Western Conference to be reckoned with.


Then Sasha Vujacic aka "The Machine" jacks up a 3-point shot right at the buzzer. That shot goes right through the hoop, nothing but the bottom of the net. Lakers win 100-92, and Michael Finley shoots a long stare at Sasha for the unnecessary play.

What in the world happened?

Immediately, commentators Doug Collins and Marv Albert of TNT had a remark about the shot -- calling out Finley's dirty look at Sasha Vujacic -- agreeing that the game was decided and the shot was unnecessary. Perhaps it was just youth.

At the same time, instantaneously across the Internet, message boards at ESPN, AOL, and other sports hubs found Spurs fans calling the Lakers classless, that they were rubbing in to the Spurs, waving that closeout game in their face unnecessarily. How much of a worse sport could you be?

Some assumed the shot was much more nefarious given the recent refree scandal that Tim Donaghy was centered in. That with the spread in the 7 point range -- the three point shot was taken to beat the spread and Sasha was in out. Pretty far fetched.

However, the reality is that none of the three cases above -- youth, poor sportsmanship, or the gambling odds / spread -- had anything to do with it. What did, then you ask?

Sasha did it for the fans. By hitting that shot, it gave free coupons from Jack-In-The-Box for 2 Tacos to everyone in attendance. A 99-cent value.

Not following me?

For years around the NBA, certain corporate sponsors offer goodies when the local sports team wins in a certain fashion. In fact, I can remember Krispy Kreme doughnuts, Taco Bell Chalupas, and over the past couple of years -- Jack-In-The-Box has given away a coupon for two tacos, normally $.99 when the Los Angeles Lakers win under certain conditions.

What are the conditions you ask? Well, this year they are a little different than previous years and I think this is what is causing some of the confusion. In addition, there are several variations of the rule. So, first the variations, and then the current rule for Staples Center for the 2007-08 NBA season at Staples Center.

In the past it had been that anytime the Los Angeles Lakers win a game at Staples Center and hold their opponent to less than 100 points, every fan in attendance receives a coupon for two free tacos at Jack-In-The-Box.

There has been a slightly different variation where if the Lakers win and score 100 points or more, then every fan in attendance receives a coupon for two free tacos at Jack-In-The-Box.

The rule that Jack-In-The-Box has in place for this year and the playoffs (which I experienced during my attendance at the Lakers vs. Warriors game last month) is that anytime the Lakers win at Staples Center, score 100 points or more, AND hold their opponents to less than 100 points, every fan in attendance receives a coupon for two free tacos at Jack-In-The-Box.

So there you have it -- Sasha Vujacic only took the 3-point shot at the buzzer for the fans, to hand about $20k worth of free tacos to celebrate the Western Conference Championship by the Lakers. For anyone who has heard that "We want tacos" chant that often happens the last two minutes of a game at Staples Center, Sasha had no choice other than to take that shot. Way to go Sasha, all the Lakers fans love it!

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NBA Playoffs, Lakers tied up by the Jazz?

NBA conspiracy theorists have more fodder for their speculation after the past few days of NBA playoff action! We just experience a wild weekend in which every NBA series with the exception of Sunday’s Pistons vs. Magic game has been won by the home team. And these were not just simple wins, rather in many cases these were hugely lopsided games in which the home teams blew out their competition, many times with leads larger than 20 throughout the game.

I am sure David Stern and his NBA office is thrilled with all the additional ticket, television, and advertising revenue. But, we really need to ask some difficult questions.

Are the Boston Celtics really that bad on the road? Their regular season record does not reflect it.

Are San Antonio and New Orleans such home court hotbeds that their teams are so bad on the read leading to 40 point swings? Neither team had that much trouble in their first round.

Did the Lakers stop going to the hoop and getting fouled in Game 4 to lead to such a huge free throw disparity? The Los Angeles Lakers averaged 50% more free throws than the Utah Jazz throughout the 2007-08 NBA season, you would expect that to continue or be reasonably close to that margin in the playoffs, but the Jazz doubling the number of free throws in Game 4 is questionable.

Given these unusual lopsided outcomes, it is really easy to see where these NBA conspiracy theories get started. The refereeing at a minimum in this conference semi-final round has been wildly inconsistent, favoring the home teams leading to some quite lopsided and honestly boring contests.

The hardest part for me to accept (and where I am least objective, I might add) is the fact that the Lakers series is knotted up against the Utah Jazz at 2-2. I think my frustrations with the officiating of the last two games in Salt Lake City are obscured by the fact that the Lakers had opportunities to win both games down the stretch. In Game 4, had it not been for the late game heroics of Derek Fisher and Lamar Odom, we would have been talking about a 15-point game.

I also loved the way Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers team failed to mention anything about the officiating in Game 4. They (and Kobe specifically) simply manned up and stated – no excuses, we just did not get it done.

My two biggest arguments are the ejection of Ronny Turiaf for a phantom flagrant 2, and the free throw disparity in Game 4 for the Jazz. I know what you are thinking, so I will address the Utah free-throw shooting first...

I am sure several of the Jazz fans and the plethora of Lakers haters out there will say – but Ken, why are you complaining about the free-throw disparity in game 4, when the Lakers had clear advantages in games 1 and 2. And that is exactly what everyone should expect – the disparity of the free throws in games 1 and 2 should be a consistent theme throughout the series.

Why, do you ask? It has been that way ALL YEAR LONG. The Lakers are a team that goes to the free throw line an awful lot. The Jazz are not. As I mention earlier in the article, we should expect that the Los Angeles Lakers will shot 50% more free throws than the Utah Jazz. That is the way it was all year long as the type of game Utah plays does not send them to the line. The Utah Jazz shooting greater than 50% more free throws than the Lakers should be an aberration.

And the ejection of Ronny Turiaf for a flagrant 2 foul is absolutely atrocious. Did he foul Ronnie Price? Yes. Was it a hard playoff foul? Yes. Was it after the whistle? Yes. Was it possibly a flagrant 1? Yes. But that is as far as I will go. Ronny Turiaf absolutely had no intention of hurting the kid, caught his arms and body, but did not sling him to the ground. The building was loud and the fact Ronnie Price went the basket that late after the whistle bear some of the responsibility for the fall when Price banged his head on the ground. But ejecting Ronny from the game was an absolutely ridiculous outcome.

(Being on a plane this morning, I have not had the chance to check what others are saying about the ejection – but I am interested to see what others thought.)

Amazingly, the Lakers still had the chance to get it done, even with Kobe noticeably injured with a tweaked back. I was hoping that we would have seen a three-point shot from either Derek Fisher or Sasha Vujacic at the end of regulation rather than going for the two point tie. In a building like Jazz have, you are almost better ending the game there with a win or a loss over taking your chances in overtime.

Were the Lakers perfect in the game? By no means do I wish to indicate that – there are a ton of areas where they need to improve regardless of the outcome of the game. Here are a few that come to my mind.

Pau Gasol – Stop complaining after every shot you take and miss. Yes, I know you are getting fouled every single time by Carlos Boozer. But, when you complain every single time, the refs become immune. Play through it, or get yourself knocked to the ground so the referees have to make a call.

Jordan Farmar – Come on kid, step it up. You were awesome this entire season; the team really needs you not to become a turnover machine. Plus, we need you on defense to slow Deron Williams down rather than watching him blow past you every play.

Kobe Bryant – For a couple of minutes in that 4th Quarter, you almost looked like the Kobe in the playoffs two years ago by hoisting up shots that have no chance of going in. Thank you for trusting your teammates to get the Lakers back in it.

Derek Fisher – Can you please stay out of foul trouble in the first quarter? On Sunday, you did half of it yourself with an “intentional” foul in the first minute. That just sets you up for a ticky-tack foul that can send you to the bench.

I am sure things will turn around Tuesday night in Los Angeles. Hopefully I will also have a little less to complain and rant about. Plus, if the Lakers play the Celtics in the finals – it will feed the conspiracy theories more.

Lastly, it is interesting to consider that the Lakers were just a couple of ball bounces away from sweeping the Utah Jazz. But now, fresh off of two victories Jerry Sloan’s team has reestablished momentum which I am sure they will not relinquish easily.

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2008 Lakers Playoff Tickets -- Missed them, Bummer!

As it has been customary since I ended up on the Lakers Season Ticket Holder waitlist a couple seasons ago -- I get early access to Lakers regular season tickets and playoff tickets before the rest of the world. (Read more about on these Laker Tickets) With the upcoming NBA playoff season upon us, I was really looking forward to grabbing the first two home games for each series with my early access.


Well, that did not quite happen. The pre-sale for those of us on the Lakers' Season Ticket Waitlist took place yesterday at noon. I thought about it in the morning and knew it would coming. But somehow, I forgot to set an Outlook reminder -- and got too busy with the work day to remember. Unfortuantely, I completely forgot about the NBA playoff tickets pre-sale until about 7:00pm at night -- 2 full hours after the pre-sale for the Lakers finished.

I was a little bummed out, as this would mark the first year in the last three that I did not have any playoff tickets. But yet, there was still hope...

Today at 10:00am the regular Lakers playoff ticket sale took place and I was all set to try and get some ticket, any ticket. Well, no dice either here. Apparently according to a couple of unpublished reports -- all tickets were already sold out for all series BEFORE the general release of the Lakers tickets. That meant those of us trying through the TicketMaster website or calling on the phone were doomed to failure. And I failed.

My last changes will be to check Stubhub (already $260 for the lowest ticket), eBay, or even TicektMasters TicketExchange. Not the greatest of options -- perhaps I can get to at least one game though.

Overall, a huge bummer given the relative ease I can generally get the Lakers tickets.

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Lakers vs. Warriors - 03/23/08 - From Staples Center (Video)

Wow, what a Los Angeles Lakers game at Staples Center this was. Not the outcome I had hoped for, but boy did we have a good time.

It started off with a great "Think you know us? Think again." intro, check out this clip:


But in the first half, even the European beer (Heineken) that we were enjoying could not dull the pain of the Lakers performance in the first half. It was frustrating to watch, especially as the Lakers descended into double-digit territory in their deficit with sloppy turnover ridden.

The Lake Show was behind the Warriors by 20 something points, not what we had come to see at all! But, after halftime the Lakers stepped it up in the second half. In fact they came all the way back to take the lead briefly before Stephen Jackson close it out with a pair of threes in the last minute.

And if someone had to put in the daggers to the Lakers comeback, it was preferable that Stephen Jackson did it rather than Al Harrington. Why? Because Stephen Jackson is on my Fantasy Basketball team and those shots he hit at the end put my Fantasy team of the hump for the week, practically sealing my regular season Fantasy Basketball victory.

The game was tense and thrilling, especially at the end – a welcome change for the first half performance. That and Nelly coming out on the floor after to chest bump Al Harrington and Stephen Jackson was an interesting sight to see from our 100's sections seat as well.


One noticeable (and not necessarily good) change was made to what has become the traditional Sunday white uniform for the Lakers. This change, was the addition of the word “Los” on the chest right above the Lakers logo making it “Los Lakers”. And with my initial impression was that uniform was blemished by the presence of Los, I still do not get the reason -- it ruins the Sunday whites.


“Los Lakers” is part of the "Fiesta Lakers" celebration, which admittedly I do not entirely get. My understanding it is part of a Latino heritage celebration. That day there had been an event at the Convention Center for the celebration of which there are 5 other sister programs like them in the NBA (Los Spus, Los Suns, etc).

Yay for charity, nay for the logo change. Lakers, can we try a patch on the uniform next time instead? Because the Los Lakers jerseys were just plain ugly not to mention bad Spanish grammar -- Los Angeles Los Lakers?

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Lakers Gallery of Short Shorts from Throwbacks vs. Celtics

When Ashley and I walked into Staples Center last night, December 30th, 2007 -- we were in for a big surprise as we prepared to watch the Los Angeles Lakers vs. the Boston Celtics. Just as we walked in the entrace, we noticed some shirts were being handed out. Which was perfect, I love free shirts!

Once we had our shirts, I looked at them a little closer. They read:

Lakers vs. Celtics - 12.30.07 - I saw the short shorts

Almost what we immediately realized is that tonight was a throwback jersey night -- and in this case it was from 1987-1988 -- that meant short shorts, or John Stockton shorts so to say. So, in addition to the game I took quite a gallery of pictures of many of the Lakers in their short shorts.

Now the Celtics wore their normal road jerseys, and the short shorts of the Los Angeles Lakers were gone after halftime. Here is your chance to see the gallery -- the rest of the evening is covered in the post here.

What did you think of the short shorts? Let me know with your comments below.

Andrew Bynum with his short shorts at Staples Center for Lakers vs. Celtics


Derek Fisher with his short shorts at Staples Center for Lakers vs. Celtics. Derek Fisher with short shorts an