Keep in mind boston didn't play the majority of their schedule vs the west. Like western conference teams do. When they did play western teams they used those games as measuring sticks.
Lakers have yet to cover a game and yet draw the majority of the action from the books - It's a holiday in Vegas. 9 points is 3 points too many but lakrs fans will keep chasing.
Lakers have yet to cover a game and yet draw the majority of the action from the books - It's a holiday in Vegas. 9 points is 3 points too many but lakrs fans will keep chasing.
West is overrated. Sure there is alot of talent, but none of those teams IMO could beat the celtics. I think only the Spurs could beat the Pistons. Granted the rest of the east is pretty weak and would have trouble with 8 seed of west, but at the top, east lead by Celtics/Pistons are above those in the west.
I think this series is over in 5. Teams that gave Celtics trouble have being defensive teams, and they've had no problems stopping other teams. Nobody on the West could play as good as defense as have the Hawks/Cavs/Pistons (maybe Spurs/Rockets). West is just an offensive juggernut. The only way you could beat Celtics is on the defensive end, and IMO Lakers with their soft D is not getting that done.
I think this series is over in 5. Teams that gave Celtics trouble have being defensive teams, and they've had no problems stopping other teams. Nobody on the West could play as good as defense as have the Hawks/Cavs/Pistons (maybe Spurs/Rockets). West is just an offensive juggernut. The only way you could beat Celtics is on the defensive end, and IMO Lakers with their soft D is not getting that done.
Trend is obviously for Game 3 home team down 0-2 to DRILL the opponent in this years playoffs. This has been happening every game and with Phil lobbying the refs some in the press conf, you gotta think LAL will get every call. However, Celts are gonna be about +400 on the moneyline and that just seems like way too big of a number for a team that is 4-0 vs LAL this year with none of the games really being that close (sans insane last few mins tonight)...I gotta like the Celts +9.5 or the ML value wise, it just seems pretty clear the bookies got the price wrong on this series, although they had to make LAL a huge fav since everyone was gonna be on them.
The most apparent thing when the two teams play is how much harder LAL has to work for baskets then the Celts do. Every time the Lakers score its some nice low post move by Gasol or a tough J by Kobe, nothing easy really. Meanwhile PP is going wherever he wants, KG's midrange jumper has been off but he's still getting easy looks, Ray is scoring 15-17 again in the flow of the game and Rondo is beating whoever off the dribble with ease. Not to mention the Celts are the better defending/rebounding teams.
I think LAL probably wins game 3, maybe even by 30 like the game 3 trend suggests, however, Celts at -160ish to win the East seems like a bargain. If you were to assume the two are equal then the price on that would be closer to -300ish. I don't even know if I'd assume they are equal because I think Boston may just be better....
Also, have to agree with KCameron...Celts struggle with teams that will grind like they will and have a great player to get them big buckets while the Celts sometimes struggle with that against their D. This happened with LeBron.....
If LAL does indeed win this series, I can't see how it isn't because of Kobe pulling a MJ in '93, Wade in '06, Dream in '94, Shaq in '00 on these finals and just obliterating everyone which is obviously possible....
The most apparent thing when the two teams play is how much harder LAL has to work for baskets then the Celts do. Every time the Lakers score its some nice low post move by Gasol or a tough J by Kobe, nothing easy really. Meanwhile PP is going wherever he wants, KG's midrange jumper has been off but he's still getting easy looks, Ray is scoring 15-17 again in the flow of the game and Rondo is beating whoever off the dribble with ease. Not to mention the Celts are the better defending/rebounding teams.
I think LAL probably wins game 3, maybe even by 30 like the game 3 trend suggests, however, Celts at -160ish to win the East seems like a bargain. If you were to assume the two are equal then the price on that would be closer to -300ish. I don't even know if I'd assume they are equal because I think Boston may just be better....
Also, have to agree with KCameron...Celts struggle with teams that will grind like they will and have a great player to get them big buckets while the Celts sometimes struggle with that against their D. This happened with LeBron.....
If LAL does indeed win this series, I can't see how it isn't because of Kobe pulling a MJ in '93, Wade in '06, Dream in '94, Shaq in '00 on these finals and just obliterating everyone which is obviously possible....
