"The Lakers are the better team . . ."

[Thruthelookingglass]

A thought on the Atlanta series that is always overlooked. Prior to that series, the Celtics had been in pre-season mode for en entire MONTH. The starters often played small minutes, or even skipped games, while the role players blew out the other team. Most of those other teams were in tank mode, throwing in the towel. It was a fools gold situation with no correct answer. Then when the Atlanta series started, the Celtics weren't honestly ready.

And now the C's are firing on all cylinders. Blasting Detroit. Watch out LA, the Green Machine will be waiting.

I pray you are right.  My expectation is that our team will need even more focus than they mustered against Cleveland or Detroit.  No more spacing out for five or ten minutes. Consistent defense, disciplined offense.  Hammer the Lakers, put them back on their heels and NEVER let them think they have a chance.  EVER.

[nickagneta]

Just so that Lakers fans understand just how good of a defense they will be playing. This was from John Hollinger's article regarding the Laker's offense vs the Celtics defense.

Boston led the league in regular-season defensive efficiency by a large margin at 96.2. Relative to the league, only two teams in the past 35 years were better defensively, the 2003-04 Spurs and the 1992-93 Knicks (see chart).

Though we can't compare the Celtics to any team before the 1973-74 season because the league didn't track turnovers until then, we can consider this team a worthy successor to the Russell-era mantle of defensive dominance. Feisty D allowed the team with the league's 10th-best offense to roar to a league-best 66 wins.

All-Time Defensive Efficiency Leaders, Relative to League*

Team               Year         Def. Eff.       League Avg.   Differential
San Antonio   2003-04      92.31           100.84           -8.53
New York       1992-93       96.77          105.07           -8.20
Boston           2007-08       96.16           104.14          -7.98
New York      1993-94       95.85           103.72           -7.83
San Antonio  2004-05       95.80           103.09          -7.29
* - since league began tracking turnovers in 1973-74

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs2008/columns/story?columnist=hollinger_john&page=OffenseDefense-080604

He also goes on to point out that LA's offense was exceptionally great once Gasol arrived but the sample size was much smaller. What he didn't explain in that is that alot of LA's games that were played once Gasol arrived were against poor defensive teams. Only 5 out of the 28 games that Gasol played in while in a Laker uniform during the regular season were against top 10 defensive teams.

I guess that might skew the stats in a certain direction as to how good the Laker offense was after Gasol arrived. But Boston's sample size was a full season and they had the 3rd best defense in the last 35 years.

[purplegold]

I know Celtics fan have visions of grandeur....of the glory years in the 60s, 70s, and 80s...but this is the new millennium. This is the time in history the LA Lakers will rule...as we did when we brought in the new millennium with an easy 3-peat.

I grew up on Lakers - Celtics.....but this will be different from those 80s matchups. The Celts are old...not sure how they will be in a year or two. It's almost certain (barring a complete meltdown), that the Lake Show will be competing for years to come.

Youth, Length, Quickness...and Kobe. These elements will be the difference in the series!

...that is unless Belichek happened to video tape some of the Laker practices. I remember how shady the Celtics would be at the Garden (raising the temp....no hot water in showers, etc. etc.)....very very sketchy! Bostonian's true colors...always trying to get an edge!

[RebusRankin]

Easy three peat was it. I recall a tough 7 game series versus Portland in 2000 and that you needed the refs to give you two games to get by the Kings in 2002. Guess we watched different teams.

[purplegold]

oh yeah...you are right....Portland and Sacramento were west coast teams...no wonder it was tough.

I meant to say the 3 NBA FINALS (against the East greats) we won were a piece of cake:

Pacers (wow)
Sixers (ok)
Nets (now what was some competition!)

[nickagneta]

Easy three peat was it. I recall a tough 7 game series versus Portland in 2000 and that you needed the refs to give you two games to get by the Kings in 2002. Guess we watched different teams.

That Lakers-Kings series still, in my mind, may be the single most corrupt looking officiating job ever done. With the possible exception being Game 6 of the 2006 NBA Finals where the refs handed Wade about a million free throws in the second half because someone breathed on him. But of course that was only one game not an entire series like the Lakers-Kings was.

[crownsy]

thats not two stats, its both sides of one stat.

why don't you look up oppFG%, oppFGe%, points per 100, Drebounds differancial, points in the pain diff.

and then get back to me.

Actually I did:

Celtics is better is FG% allowed, slight better in 3FG% allowed, in offensive rebound, (Celtics' biggest advantage), in assist and turnover.

Lakers is better in FT attempt allowed (biggest Lakers advantage), fouls, and block shot.

However, the questions:

"the difference between the Lakers' defense and C's offense is much bigger".

So you have to use both offense and defense stat.

since you didn't provide links to any of the sites you looked up your stats at, and just mentioning that all those important stats "slightly favor the C's" and just saying what the were i looked them up when i got home.

http://www.nba.com/statistics/sortable_team_statistics/sortable2.html?cnf=1&prd=15#top

the celtics are nearly 8 rebounds better than the laker's on differential on average, thats not just a slight advantage, thats monstrous. The lakers allow teams to out rebound them by 3 and a half, the celtics out rebound thier opponents by the same margin. in fact, the lakers are the 14th best team in the playoffs at rebounding, only the raptors and Washington were worse. you better hope you shoot above 45%, because if not, you'll be getting killed on the boards all night.

While its true you average a full block more than us on the differential, you neglected to mention that we average nearly a full steal  more than you on the same differential. So, as far as defensive turnovers from blocks and steals go (a terrible stat to base a defensive advantage on btw, best team in the playoffs at blocking shots? PHX. What a tenacious defense  ) were even.

according to hollinger (who's system i actually don't like to much, because it doesn't rate certain things into defense, like say, steals and blocks into defensive efficiency) the lakers are currently the 5th best defense per 100 points, with the Celtics in first. the celtics also project to destroy the lakers on the boards. LA is currently 14th out of 16 teams at rebounding, while the celts are 4th. in a shocking to no one stat, the nugget's and jazz, neither considered strong rebound teams, have spots 1 and 2 for the playoffs. denver annihilated the lakers on the glass, despite melo' quitting the series after game two, and utah wasen't far behind.

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/teamstats?sort=rr&seasonType=3&league=nba&action=upsell&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fnba%2fhollinger%2fteamstats%3fsort%3drr%26seasonType%3d3%26league%3dnba

Not to surprising to me, like i said, i think the lakers defense is good, but not elite. and certainly, in no way, shape, or form better than the celtics defense in the playoffs.

[purplegold]

I'll give you the only stat you'll ever need to know for this series:

Kobe, M.V.P.

[fan33]

AND, the Laker transplants have Kobe, least you Celtics fan easily forget. Thought I'd mention it preemptively for our guest Lakers fans, as I haven't seen it repeated in the last 4 posts in this thread.

The lakers are NOT the team these Celtics ran out of two gyms, 5 months ago!

And Kobe is NOT the same Kobe that Paul has handled in the past.

Kobe is a sharing team oriented player extrodnare,now, every bit as great as Air Jordan and heir appearent to be crowned the best ever! He is the top dog in the NBA, Mr. Alpha DNA, who has imprinted his DNA on his teammates and throughout the front office and down to the cheerleaders and into their fans too...

[crownsy]

I know Celtics fan have visions of grandeur....of the glory years in the 60s, 70s, and 80s...but this is the new millennium. This is the time in history the LA Lakers will rule...as we did when we brought in the new millennium with an easy 3-peat.

I grew up on Lakers - Celtics.....but this will be different from those 80s matchups. The Celts are old...not sure how they will be in a year or two. It's almost certain (barring a complete meltdown), that the Lake Show will be competing for years to come.

Youth, Length, Quickness...and Kobe. These elements will be the difference in the series!

...that is unless Belichek happened to video tape some of the Laker practices. I remember how shady the Celtics would be at the Garden (raising the temp....no hot water in showers, etc. etc.)....very very sketchy! Bostonian's true colors...always trying to get an edge!

love the complete generalization and no real backup, vintage sunshine state.

i wonder though, since you just rode us for being to old, how does the fact that kobe just turned 30 play in?

all our best players (GPA) are 30-32.

on your side, kobe is thirty, odom is 29, and fisher is 33. so even though our guys will rapidly break down in a "a year or two" in your scenario, yours won't follow a year or so later? interesting, must be something in the water out their in LA.

you do have a franchise young guy in gasol where we don't, that i'll give you no question. i wonder what happens in 3 years though when kobe is 34, odom is 33, and fisher is 37? why will that lineup be less prone to breaking down than ours? will it even still be together?

The truth is, you don't know and neither do we. anything can happen in 3-4 years, these teams will look nothing like they do now. Both teams have good GM's and both set them self up to work the cap (Danny has GPA's contracts coming off one after another, which means we will have massive cap space once two of them come off, i'm sure the laker's set themselves up in similar fashion.) and good young talent (rondo, powe, davis for us, bynaum, farmar, and im sure someone i missed for you guys) so neither team will be the bulls post jordan.

And, nice predictable patriot shot. to bad this is a basketball blog and i'd say most of our posters could either give a rats potoot about the pats  or agree with you about belicheck.

Good try though, an attempted generalization worthy of LA 

[RebusRankin]

Beautiful post Crownsy, TP for you.

[Mr October]

AND, the Laker transplants have Kobe, least you Celtics fan easily forget. Thought I'd mention it preemptively for our guest Lakers fans, as I haven't seen it repeated in the last 4 posts in this thread.

The lakers are NOT the team these Celtics ran out of two gyms, 5 months ago!

And Kobe is NOT the same Kobe that Paul has handled in the past.

Kobe is a sharing team oriented player extrodnare,now, every bit as great as Air Jordan and heir appearent to be crowned the best ever! He is the top dog in the NBA, Mr. Alpha DNA, who has imprinted his DNA on his teammates and throughout the front office and down to the cheerleaders and into their fans too...

eww.. gross.

[Mr October]

I have yet to hear from the experts or all these new laker posters who would rather spend time on Celtics pages than Lakers pages, just how the Lakers are going to stop Paul Pierce. The dude has a history of shredding the Lakers.

Pierce has found a way to score over faster, longer, stronger defenders. No more Lebron. No more Prince. Hello Vladdy and Luke!! 

[hpantazo]

AND, the Laker transplants have Kobe, least you Celtics fan easily forget. Thought I'd mention it preemptively for our guest Lakers fans, as I haven't seen it repeated in the last 4 posts in this thread.

The lakers are NOT the team these Celtics ran out of two gyms, 5 months ago!

And Kobe is NOT the same Kobe that Paul has handled in the past.

Kobe is a sharing team oriented player extrodnare,now, every bit as great as Air Jordan and heir appearent to be crowned the best ever! He is the top dog in the NBA, Mr. Alpha DNA, who has imprinted his DNA on his teammates and throughout the front office and down to the cheerleaders and into their fans too...

so you mean we should expect kobe and the entire lakers organization to be implicated in the nba version of the BALCO trial? Kobe didn't become superman or even MJ overnight, and you and the rest of the kobe worshipers better be ready for some cold, hard, reality!

[purplegold]

Pierce is from Inglewood, CA....born and breed. His blood bleeds purple and gold. He'll recognize soon enough. He can't torch the Lake Show; he has to come home sometime...haha.