Lakers vs Celtics - Game One Impressions

Well this game went almost as expected... from Boston coming out backed by their home crowd to the Lakers settling down in the 2nd quarter and punishing Boston by getting them into foul trouble (with aggressive offense, btw). Boston's been coming out hot in the 3rd quarters this year and just as I mentioned that to the person I was watching the game with, Pierce gets mugged by an out of control Radmanovic and converts the 4 point play. Bigups to Pierce for a great game but I thought the Lakers could still eek it out in the fourth quarter. This might sound like sour grapes to some people, but that fourth quarter was incredibly difficult to sit through.

True, the Lakers had a hard time making shots, most of their misses coming with the game already out of reach in the last 2 minutes, but the refs were so inconsistent with their foul calls that the Celtics could run whatever they wanted and they'd end up at the FT line. A couple plays come into mind:

• shotclock nearing zero and Allen drives right, then switches left at the FT line and gets a bailout foul on Sasha.
  
• PJ Brown battling Walton for a rebound on the Celtics' end. Both are clutching each other and then PJ pushes off with his left arm to get seperation
• Pierce getting scratched by Odom on a rebound - Pierce pushes off with his left arm, Odom hits his chest on the way down. We go 90' for more Celtic FTs
  
• foul just past midcourt as Fisher tries to trap Rondo. Very minor contact considering how much mugging was going on in the first half and Celts nowhere near getting into their offensive set

I'm not going to dwell on this topic much longer. The calls were certainly nowhere near consistent throughout the game. I've thought that the Celtics have been allowed by the NBA to play more D with their hands throughout this year's playoffs and today was no different. First half was consistent: LA was taking it to the hoop and those hard fouls were actually called. Second half, I felt that the Celts' contact eased up a little but bailout calls and inconsequential fouls were called in their favor to continue the parade to the line. End result? 35-28 FT edge for the Celts (29 LA fouls to Boston's 22), but it took a LOT less contact for the Celtics to get the calls in their favor. Keep in mind, Laker's didn't even intentionally foul at the end, though Sasha picked up 1 in the last 20 seconds.

And please stop with the storylines and drama. Sheep.