Lakers draw first blood

Fact 1: The Los Angeles Lakers have been known as a team with a very potent offensive weapon with a system that creates more scoring opportunities

Fact 2: That system includes a good and sound defensive system that frustrates opponents, forces them to turnovers which eventually leads to instant offense.

Fact 3: The Lakers would have not made it to the finals if its only strength is its offense, its usually a mix but their defense is underrated.

Fact 4: The Los Angeles Lakers used their superb defense and impeccable offense to beat the Boston Celtics 102 - 89 in game 1 of the Best of 7 2010 NBA Finals.

Kobe Bryant played his usual unstoppable role

Now it can be said, that the Lakers are for real, that their defense is much more underrated than their offense and for any team to beat them, they would have to go mano a mano against the man using the name Kobe Bryant. It was another all around performance for the best player on the planet as he scattered 30 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 steal and 1 block to lead his team to victory. As I have mentioned in my previous blog entry, for the Lakers to be unbeatable, Pau Gasol should churn out monster numbers which he did - 23 points, 14 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 blocks and 1 steal. It looks like Kevin Garnett will be outplayed again for the second series in a row. Pau was just cruisin by in the 2008 season as he was just traded to the Lakers back then and was just fitting in. Two seasons from that performance he is close to being called unstoppable.

Rondo was hounded by KB

Paul Pierce once again led the Celtics assault but unfortunately the supporting cast was far from how they played in the Magic and Cavaliers series. The Celtic offense was on its standard mode but it was what they did best that had an off night - their defense. It was only the fourth time that the Celtics allowed a team to score more than a hundred points on them and in all those occasions they lost. Ray Allen was in foul trouble and never really got going as he scored 12 quiet points and had no rebounds nor assists, Kevin Garnett scored 16 points but shot 7 of 16 (36.35%) which is not good as far as the finals is concerned. Lastly, Rajon Rondo was shut down! Kobe Bryant took on Rondo and he had a hard time penetrating as he was even rejected by Odom and Gasol. At the same time the transition defense specially on Rondo was great as his fastbreak points were limited. In the previous series Rondo usually gets points on the break at least 6 times but now it was checked by the Lakers. Lastly, the Lakers had 16 second chance points to none for the Celts and the Lakers had more rebounds 42 -31 which just shows the kind of effort the Celts put up.

Gasol outplayed Garnett big time

Now that the feeling stage is over both teams would definitely make adjustments to gear up to the second game of the series. There is no secret to the game of the Lakers its just that they move great and execute well and fast - before you know it they have scored on you. The Celtics on the other hand need to find the fire that gave them emotional victories against the Cavs and Magic. They are usually tops when it comes to effort and that attitude motivates them to play well. It looks like game 2 will be a better fought game - so Monday (Sunday in the US) is the day.

Coach Phil explaining the play