Foil in the Oven: The Waiting Game

Please rock out to this song like KG does


During the week leading up to the Super Bowl, Babcock and I devoted most of our time on this blog, aside from the parts where we interviewed each other, to writing about how we couldn't write about anything because the anticipation was so great that it held us hostage to our own minds. I feel that way again. I am so amped for tommorow night that I don't even know where I can begin breaking down this series, but I'll try:

It was in the February 22nd edition of Foil in the Oven that I first stated that I was terrified of the Lakers. They were playing at the top of their game, and the Celtics were experiencing their most trying time of the season on a West Coast road trip (they would lose to Phoenix that night). The Cs would eventually get back on track, and much of that fear has dissipated.

I'm confident that the Celtics can win this series. I've said it all year, I really believe that this is the best team in the NBA. However, I believe that the Lakers are the second best team, and they present a lot of matchup problems. And, I'm not even talking about Kobe. Nobody can guard him, so there is no point in wasting my breath with analysis. But, Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom provide serious matchup issues. Both of these guys can move, both of them can shoot, and both of them will most likely try to take their defenders (Perk and KG) away from the basket. This will open up space for Kobe to drive, but you can't leave them out there because he can dish to them and they are dangerous.

It will be interesting to see how the Celtics begin this series defensively. Of Odom and Gasol, I view Gasol as the bigger threat. However, it may make more sense to put KG on Odom, because KG seems more comfortable in space, and will do better if Odom takes him away from the hoop. Regardless of who he's covering, Perk is going to have to come up huge for us. He played great against Detroit, and he needs to keep that momentum going. The biggest key will be staying out of foul trouble. We're going to need the big man on the floor, and two fouls in the first five minutes isn't going to get it done.

The Gasol-Odom thing is something that has been haunting me throughout the past few days. But, I think that there are favorable matchups here for the Celtics as well. Mainly, I don't think they have someone that matches up well with Pierce. If Radmanovich is on him, Pierce should dominate. He's the Celtics' best scorer, and he just finished going against two of his toughest matchups in LeBron James and Tayshaun Prince. I expect him to have a huge series. I suppose they could put Kobe on him, but again I see that as a favorable matchup for Pierce.

As I have said, I'm confident. But, it's a different confidence than I've had throughout the rest of the playoffs. If the Celtics play their best, they will win this series. The problem is that throughout these playoffs they have been somewhat inconsistent. They come out some nights and look like that 66-win team from the regular season, and they come out on other nights and look like that 18-win team from last season. Games 3 and 4 in Detroit are great examples of this. In game 3, they executed well on both ends of the floor and dominated Detroit at home. In game 4, they were completely out of sorts on offense. The over-passing, the bad passes, the missed layups, it all looked a pre-season practice.

The Celtics need to play consistently well to win this series. I think they will. This is the NBA Finals. The end is in sight, win or lose. Many analysts today have said that they think this series is the key to Paul Pierce and Ray Allen receiving invites to Springfield when their careers end. The three stars have been working for their entire careers to play on this stage. I think they, and this entire team, have learned a lot about what it takes to win when the stakes are this high. Furthermore, Ray Allen has played through the worst slump of his career and has emerged more effective and confident than before. Those who thought Ray was nothing more than a spot-up shooter should now realize the many ways in which he impacts the game. The fact that they were able to come back from being down ten points in the fourth quarter on the road (with the referees also blatantly against them)on Friday says a lot about how this team has grown since the playoffs began. I expect no let down in this series.

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SI is really good this week. Most impressive to me was this piece about Kobe by Chris Ballard.

Two badass quotes from the article

1) A Western Conference scout who says that it is a common agreement that right now Kobe is lightyears ahead of LeBron and saying that the difference between the two is like the difference between "a Masserati and a Volvo."

2) This story:
It's 1996, and the Lakers call in Bryant, fresh off his senior prom -- he took pop singer Brandy, you might recall -- for a predraft workout at the Inglewood High gym. In attendance are G.M. Jerry West and two members of L.A.'s media relations staff, John Black and Raymond Ridder. Bryant is to play one-on-one against Michael Cooper, the former Lakers guard and one of the premier defenders in NBA history. Cooper is 40 years old but still in great shape, wiry and long and stronger than the teenaged Bryant. The game is not even close. "It was like Cooper was mesmerized by him," says Ridder, now the Golden State Warriors' executive director of media relations. After 10 minutes West stands up. "That's it, I've seen enough," Ridder remembers West saying. "He's better than anyone we've got on the team right now. Let's go."