Game 2 was pretty much anti-climatic until the last 7 minutes in the 4th quarter where the Lakers were down 24 so Mr "24" started a rally to put them to within to two points. However, the Celtics go-to man Pierce sealed the victory with a drive with 22.8 seconds left on which he got fouled by Bryant. The story of the game, despite the amazing attempt to come back was the play of Leon Powe who scored 21 points in 14 minutes making 6 out of 7 shots including a vast array of hard dunks including one Turiaf posterization (yes, that's a word).
Check the dunk over Turiaf at 0:47
The role players for the Celtics are doing what they have to do and that is really why they are up 2-0 as of now. Ray Allen is officially out of his slump that he his had in prior series as he had 19 points and Rondo is maturing between our eyes as a point guard with each game as he had 16 assists.
However (it had to come)...
I'm going to let Phil Jackson say what I have to say after a reporter asked him, "What are you most struck by, your rally at the end or your difficulty scoring points on them the first three quarters?"
Phil Jackson
"(Laughing) I'm more struck at the fact that Leon Powe gets more foul shots than our whole team does in 14 minutes of play. That's ridiculous. You can't play from a deficit like that that we had in that half, 19 to 2 in the first half in situations like that. I've never seen a game like that in all these years I've coached in The Finals. Unbelievable. ...
I think my players got fouled. I have no question about the fact that my players got fouled but didn't get to the line. Specifically I can enumerate a few things, but I'm not going to get into that.
I don't want to get into dispute with those situations."
I know I'm not the only person thinking this, I was talking about these kind of situations where refs are making questionable calls BEFORE the game with my homie over at Talk is Costley. I'm just saying...the foul ratio was 38 to 10 in favor of the Celtics at home in an NBA season where it would be a storybook ending for Garnett, Pierce, and Allen to win a championship together. Look at the facts, the TV ratings haven't been this high since 2004.
Maybe there is something happening beyond the floor...remember the Suns-Spurs series last year...remember a guy called Donaghy with a certain NBA ref scandal. It has only been a year since that and do you think there was really just one ref out of the whole league involved when Donaghy himself said he was not the only one? Notice that Bryant's first three fouls were questionable...I'm not going to say they were not fouls, but if the game is going to be called like that there should have been more fouls going the Lakers way. He was called for an offensive foul for a soft elbow swipe that players do all the time and for running into two moving picks, questionable that's all I'm going to say.
Ok...I had to get that off my chest and just put it out there. I'm not going to take anything away from the Boston Celtics because they dominated the calls and the game. They had more intensity and you could just see it in their eyes that they wanted to win. However, with the Lakers, aside from Kobe, the players are just being passive...(Cough, PAU GASOL, cough). It's all about defense, and the Celtics know how to play it as Bryant was guarded extremely well stuck to just shooting perimeter shots, until he decided to turn it on in the fourth and start driving. On top of that, the Lakers bench that we have seen throughout the season play very well is non-existent and was almost outscored by Powe in only 14 minutes.
The Lakers are going home so the series should take a shift, but I'm going to be keeping a close eye on some of these calls...
Boston is up 2-0
The next game is scheduled for Tuesday at 9 pm.
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