Print RSS Feeds FastBreak Tix

Last updated: June 10, 2008

We’re two games into the Finals and Boston has won both tilts heading to Los Angeles. Last week we had Bill Peterson (Celtics) and Joe Wolf (Lakers) give us three keys and concerns if they were in charge of the Finals squads.

Now that we’ve experienced a couple games and trends have developed, we’ve revisited some coaching strategies for Boston and Los Angeles. Bill Peterson returns to his role as an adopted leader of the Celtics while assistant coach Jim Boylan joins in to strategize for the Lakers.

Jim Boylan - Lakers

We’ll lead off with coach Boylan’s take on the state of the Lakers. He began by talking about Kobe Bryant, who was one of coach Wolf’s focal points for Los Angeles.

“Kobe is going to score his points, but the Celtics can make it very difficult for him. I think the key is for some of the other guys to pick up some scoring slack. Lamar Odom will have to get going if the Lakers are going to have a chance. Boston is the best defensive team in the league and their number one priority is going to be taking Kobe out of the game – making him play in a crowd of two, three or four defenders.”

“The counter to that is finding your teammates and having them be productive. I think, so far, that hasn’t really been the case. The Lakers support type players need to be more aggressive. They have to try to take advantage of Boston’s focus of stopping Kobe. If they’re taking away Kobe, that means someone else must be open. So they need to be more aggressive.”

In addition to having other members of the Lakers step up to play off of Kobe Bryant, coach Boylan thought that increasing the pace of the game could benefit Los Angeles.

“I would try to play a little quicker if I were the Lakers, so the Boston defense doesn’t have as much of a chance to set up. Sometimes that’s hard to do because you need to get some stops. But the scores have been fairly low and the Lakers have been getting some stops, they just need to get out and run a little more.”

“Los Angeles could change ends and try to get into their offense a little quicker so the Boston defense can’t just settle in. When Boston can settle in, it’s easier for them to focus in on Kobe. If it’s a quicker paced game, then it becomes a little bit more difficult for the defense to get into place. If they can pick up the tempo, that would help.”

With coach Boylan’s keys on what the Lakers can do to tilt the balance toward L.A., here’s one thing that still concerns him from the Los Angeles perspective.

“Boston, the last couple games, has had very good play out of the guys that are not their first, second or third options. For the Lakers, that’s a problem. When Powe is having the kind of game he had and the other guys are consistently contributing, that takes a lot of pressure off of Allen, Pierce and Garnett. When that happens, sometimes the focus can shift a little bit and then suddenly there’s Ray Allen open to knock down a three.”

“Somehow, some way the Lakers have to maintain their focus on stopping those three guys but at the same time they can’t let Leon Powe and those guys have the kind of games they’ve been having. If those players continue to do that, I don’t know if Los Angeles has a chance.”

Bill Peterson - Celtics

Fresh off of two consecutive wins in Boston where the Celtics seemingly took coach Peterson’s words to heart, coach was ready with more keys to the Finals for Boston. Coach Peterson’s first thought was on the play of Boston’s bench, which was an area of concern for him heading into the Finals.

“The Celtics bench needs to continue to dominate the Lakers bench. In the first game they had 17 points and 12 rebounds to the Lakers 15 points and five rebounds. In the second game they dominated again with Leon Powe leading the way with 21 points. Boston needs to continue to get great play out of their bench while holding the Lakers reserves down.”

Another area of concern (and one of Joe Wolf’s keys for the Lakers) was defending Kobe Bryant. Here are coach Peterson’s latest thoughts on the league’s reigning MVP.

“Boston needs to continue to not allow Kobe to get to the free throw line. He’s not getting many free throws because the Celtics aren’t allowing him to attack the basket. He’s not getting in the lane and Boston is forcing Kobe to shoot fadeaway jump shots. That needs to continue to happen.”

The third key for the next couple games is to continue taking care of the glass. In the initial preview coach Peterson suggested that the Lakers front line could have some difficulties with the Celtics. That proved to be true and here is the follow up to that point.

“The Celtics need to keep dominating the backboards. The rebounds have been huge because Boston has a better presence inside with Kevin Garnett, Leon Powe and Kendrick Perkins compared to Los Angeles with Lamar Odom, Pau Gasol and Ronny Turiaf.”

“The big guys for Boston are beating up and taking advantage of the Lakers guys inside. They have to keep that advantage not just with rebounding, but with getting points and getting the ball and attacking the rim.”

To close out our coaching analysis, coach Peterson gave us a couple concerns he might have with facing a tough Lakers team. Interestingly enough, his concern was one of coach Boylan’s suggestions on how the Lakers could turn this series around.

“If the Lakers start to force the Celtics into turnovers and take quick shots that would lead Los Angeles into their transition game. I think Boston has done a really good job of keeping the Lakers out of transition and we have to keep them in the half court and not let them get up and down the floor. If Kobe gets out in the open floor he’ll have open lanes to get to the basket and Boston will have to foul him and he’ll get to the free throw line. The Celtics have to keep him in the half court and not allow them to make it an up tempo game. That concerns me because they’re back at home.”

“The other thing that concerns me is if their bench wakes up and starts making some jumpers and three pointers, that could really hurt.”

After all the analysis, here’s a recap of the initial keys and concerns for the Finals along with some notes on how things have worked themselves out through two games. First up are Joe Wolf’s keys/concerns on the Lakers followed by Bill Peterson’s thoughts on the Celtics – enjoy and check back at the end of the week for more Finals analysis.

Key #1: Kobe Bryant

It’s hard to fault Kobe Bryant for averaging 27.0 points and seven assists in the first two games, but his shooting percentage is down to 43.5. If you’re going to be extra critical, one could point out that his 27.0 points are 4.9 below what he was averaging entering the Finals.

Key #2: Offensive rebounding

Los Angeles has grabbed nine offensive boards per game compared to 10 for Boston. That’s not a huge discrepancy, but when you look at overall rebounding numbers, the Celtics are +14 with most of it coming off of defensive boards. Coach Wolf was probably expecting more out of the Lakers front line.

Key #3: Lakers bench scoring

Both Wolf and Peterson agreed that this would be an advantage for Los Angeles. Through two games the Lakers reserves have scored 38 points against 52 for the Celtics. Leon Powe was huge in game two, with his 21 points nearly outscoring all of Los Angeles’ reserves (23).

Concern #1: Kevin Garnett

Wolf worried not only about Garnett’s numbers, but his leadership, energy and enthusiasm and his concern has been justified. KG has averaged 20.5 points, 13.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 1.0 steals and 0.5 blocks. He’s done a little bit of everything for the Celtics.

Concern #2: Ray Allen

Allen had been in a little bit of a slump, but is shooting 45.8 percent from the field while knocking down 41.7 percent (5-12) of his three-pointers on his way to 18.0 points per game. Allen is certainly doing his part for Boston.

Concern #3: Paul Pierce

Once again, Wolf’s concern was justified as Pierce has averaged 25.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists. Making matters worse for the Lakers is that Pierce has done all of this while shooting the lights out: 61.5 percent from the field and 87.5 percent from three.

Bill Peterson’s thoughts on the Celtics have been on so far. Boston seems to be sticking with Peterson’s game plan and they’re even addressed the areas that Peterson was concerned with going into the Finals. Here’s a recap of his initial thoughts.

Key #1: Interior post defense

Peterson wasn’t sure that the combination of Gasol and Odom would be able to stop Garnett inside. Garnett’s numbers (listed above) show that the Lakers have had some trouble containing him. An average of 13.5 rebounds for KG through two games isn’t bad at all.

Key #2: Make Kobe Bryant work on D

Kobe’s still putting up good numbers, but his scoring average and shooting percentage are both down in the first two games opposed to the rest of the postseason. With a 27.0 points per game average, you can’t say Boston has stopped Kobe, but they’ve definitely made him work for his points – for the most part.

Key #3: Send Rajon Rondo to the hoop

Peterson thought Rondo could penetrate to the rim and get easy baskets for his teammates or score himself. In game two Rondo produced 16 assists against just two turnovers. For the series, the young point guard is averaging 11.5 assists. It’s safe to say he’s been able to create for his teammates against the Lakers D.

Concern #1: Transition defense

While the Lakers put up 41 points in the fourth quarter of game two, they’re averaging just 95.0 points in this series on 45.6 percent shooting. The Celtics have obviously stepped up to the challenge, provided they stick with the D that allowed just one quarter at or above 30 points (30 in the second quarter of game one) prior to the fourth quarter of game two.

Concern #2: Lakers bench scoring

Both Peterson and Wolf thought this would swing toward the Lakers favor but the numbers above show that the Celtics reserves have risen to the occasion and outplayed their counterparts from Hollywood.

Concern #3: Kobe Bryant

Like we’ve mentioned above, Kobe is getting his, but not allowing him to get ridiculous amounts of points has made the other parts of the Lakers team much more important. Boston has come away with the wins because Bryant hasn’t been able to win the game by himself… yet.

Make sure you check out Part I of "Breaking down the Finals"