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LA Lakers vs. Boston Celtics Los Angeles' boss was referring to the huge imbalance in free-throw attempts between his club and the Boston Celtics in Game 2 of the NBA finals.He could have been talking about the Lakers.An overwhelming favorite to win the series, the Western Conference champions haven't shown up yet. Except for an eight-minute spurt in the fourth quarter on Sunday night, they've been outplayed by the Celtics and now must win four of the next five games to capture their 15th title in this matchup of the league's two signature franchises.On Monday, the Lakers came back home. They had better hope its still sweet.
As I already said in my last preview for these series I am not agree with total line fot this series. In my opinion for fair total line for this teams should be in the 198-205 points range because Lakers is favorite to win series and they can't hold Celtics under 95 points. They allowed 23 and more points in 12 of 16 played quarter and lost all 4 games because they were not doing well in offense, however they were without Gasol in first 2 games. In Boston Lakers were not looking good on offensive end and they should improve there if they want to survive in these series. Read some line from J.Hollinger analysis to understand what points of the game Kobe and his team should improve: ""In Game 1, the Lakers were especially egregious in this department. Of their 77 shot attempts, more than half (39) were two-point jumpers longer than 13 feet, an unacceptable ratio that pretty much doomed them to the 88-point effort they mustered. L.A. only turned the ball over eight times, so the stage was set for a strong performance. But they took too many low-percentage shots. It wasn't just Kobe Bryant either, although he led the way with an amazing 15 midrange hoists. He said he missed some bunnies after the game, but in truth he took far too many of the worst kind of shots, contributing greatly to his 9-for-26 shooting night. Only eight of his 26 tries came from 12 feet and in. But the other Lakers still managed 24 tries from midrange on their 51 attempts, a similarly poor ratio. Six came off the hands of Derek Fisher, including perhaps the worst one of the night -- an off-the-dribble, early-in-the-clock jack from the left corner that was easily rejected by Paul Pierce. But everybody got involved -- three from Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol, four from Sasha Vujacic, one each from Luke Walton and Jordan Farmar, and four from Ronny Turiaf (!). In Game 2 the Lakers' shot selection was a bit better, helping account for their 102-point evening. It's instructive to see, especially, how much it improved in their 41-point fourth quarter. L.A. only tried three long 2-pointers in the quarter, and one of them was the desperation jumper by Vujacic in the final seconds that Pierce, again, rejected. Fourteen of L.A.'s 17 shots were 3s or close-in tries, with Bryant in particular finally seeming able to penetrate the defense. Contrast that with the rest of the game when L.A. again was sucked in by the lure of the long 2. Through the first three quarters, 23 of their 66 shot attempts were 2-pointers from 13 feet or more; while this was an improvement on Game 1, it's a less than ideal ratio. For a contrast, check out the Celtics' shot chart from the first two games, and notice how many more quality attempts there were. As a team, Boston took 30 of their 68 tries in Game 2 from midrange, which is a lot. However, 16 of them came from a player who takes this shot as much as anyone in the game -- Kevin Garnett -- and is vastly more successful on them than most players. The rest of the crew only took 14 of their 49 tries as long 2s. Similarly, Boston had only 28 of its 76 shot attempts in Game 1 come from long 2s -- instead they took 19 3-pointers and 29 close-in shots. That's a superior ratio, and it gets better -- Boston got 17 of those long 2-pointers from two players (Kevin Garnett and Sam Cassell) who have taken that shot as often and as successfully as nearly anyone in history. "" PredictionIf Lakers want to win Game 3 they should be very agressive on offense end. They should penetrate to the basket, they should score easy points, they should shoot 3-pointers and they should score at least 25.5 points per quarter if they want to win this game comfortably because Boston still needs to find a way to score 100 points away from home in playoff series. Las Vegas linesmakers knows their job well and -9.5 handicap line on Lakers is a sign of their confidence in today's huge Lakers win. Maybe they are right (however I was a little bit shocked with such ignore of h-2-h and first two games scenarios) but I see only one way for Lakers to win in double-digits and it is to play Lakers-tempo offense and score 105-110 points and limiting Celtics under 98-100 points. For now I will listen bookmakers voice and will predict Lakers win by double-digits and will hope for higher handicap in Games 4 & 5 to back Boston. Predicted score: Lakers 108 - 95 Celtics Pick: over 195 @ 1.95 PinnacleSports
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