Tonight I had a golf banquet, so I missed practically the entire Game 3. But when I got home, the game was still on and the Lakers had only a four point lead. I suspected the reason was possibly Gasol and Odom did well tonight. However, it wasn't a night for the all-stars. It was the night for the MVP.
Although I did miss majority of the game, I got to see some sweet highlights. And most of the plays were Kobe Bryant slashing through the defense easily, then hitting close ranged shots. Kobe Bryant got the game rolling for the Lakers and allowed them to survive the struggles of their big men. Also what was great to see was the free-throw stats. In Game 2 the Lakers got to the free-throw line ten times, THE WHOLE GAME. Tonight, they got fourteen free-throws, in the FIRST QUARTER. Thatreally helped the Lakers build up their intensity. But what was really key for this game was Sasha Vujacic.
Other than Kobe Bryant, Sasha "The Machine" Vujacic was the only other Laker to score double-digit points. There were other reasons why the Lakers succeeded tonight. Yeah, Kobe forced Paul Pierce to struggle. Yeah, the Lakers' defense was excellent. Yeah, the Lakers played with a lot of heart. And yeah, the Celtics had the opportunity to win. Wait... WHAT!?!
Vujacic scored 20 points tonight. When not including Kobe Bryant's stats, the Lakers' starters scored 22 points altogether. With that kind of numbers, of course the Celtics had the chance to win. It started to look like that in the third quarter and probably scared some of you to death. This happened because the Celtics were able to pick through their mishaps in the first half by closing the gaps Kobe Bryant easily ran through and forcing Kobe Bryant to be the facilitator. Our MVP, however, was able to find someone to hit the shot and it was The Machine.
Tonight's game I won't say was a huge success. The Lakers did win and played with much more intensity than in the last two games. But there are a lot of problems still to deal with:
Gasol and Odom.: Why pick the worse time to choke up?
Garnett and Pierce.: Was it only an off-night?
Radmanovic.: Can he really defend Pierce? Or even play decent?
Lakers' bench.: Is it really only going to be Vujacic helping the team?
Well, we're going to find out Thursday.
2 comments:
I was REALLY surprised with Pierce and Garnett. They just couldn't get anything to fall for them. It was really weird, because I don't expect them to have such an off night (did either of them even score in double digits?) in such an important game. The same can be said for Odom and Gasol, but that's not as surprising to me.
And Radmanovic--and Odom, for that matter--are starting to frustrate me. Can either of them play one game without getting into such severe foul trouble right in the first quarter? -_-
SASHAAAAAAA!!!!! I just want to cuss.
More to come later.
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