Well, Jeff, overall the Lakers certainly look deeper right now than we are.

We lost to a greater team, hopefully we get deke and maybe starbury. Those players will bring us to the promise land.

Depth is partly perception. A few games can change people’s opinion about “depth.” Last year when Powe was torching us, I thought you guys were deeper.

Our bench was better in this game, but your starting lineup seemed to be stronger. As a pure basketball fan, the two televised games made for some great basketball.

Happy Holidays to all.

that was last years team, and I dont think we neccasarily win this game with Posey…I think alot of things went the lakers way, alot of hustle from everyone on the lakers who had to sit around and think about what we did to them last year… they clearly just wanted this one more on the lakers bench..our starters were for the most part fine…and I think all the 50/50 calls went the lakers way imo

I really think the refs were a major reason for the outcome of this game. That said….time to start the new streak! Go Celts.

I didn’t watch the game but only 8 ft attempts tells you that the refs were letting them play and maybe were letting the lakers play a little more than we were. we won 19 in a row so I’m not hanging my head. The Lakers HAD to win this game while we didn’t.

Why, when Pierce is unstoppable in the 3rd, does he never see the ball in the 4th? Ray just started chucking and Rondo has not been looking for Paul all season. Pay attention next game and you will see times when Rondo sees Pierce WIDE open and doesn’t pass him the ball. I know he wants to make the all star squad, but it shouldn’t be at Pierce’s expense.

 Also, if we had used our playoff rotation like they did, we would have won the game.

We need a trade or FA pickup ASAP for our bench, and by our I mean Celtics.

1. the refs were horrible – two plays stick out; the outlet to Perk who is ahead of everyone; Ariza comes from behind, fouls him hard, runs past him out of bounds, jumps back in, and throws the ball downcourt to start the Laker offense; Gasol scores a 3-point play and the Lakers are up five; that was one play that pretty much decided the game; correct me if I’m wrong, but if a guy jumps out of bounds and back in, he can’t be the first one to touch the ball thereafter; it all happened right in front of the ref; two blown calls on one play, with the Lakers up two and 2:30 to go; the other play that was a complete abomination was the Rondo spin move on the baseline, he gets hacked by Kobe as he is putting down a dunk, and Rondo is called for the foul: another potential 4 point turnaround; those calls, plus the lack of FTs is ridiculous

2. no need to overreact – the score was tied 81 all with several minutes to go; besides those blown ref calls, Ray Allen missed a wide open 3 in the corner, which he usually nails; on the next possession, Gasol makes the elbow jumper and LA is playing ahead; if we’re playing ahead at that point, I like our chances; this was a game that could have gone either way up until the back to back Gasol shots

3. I rarely criticize KG, but why was he doubling or tripling Kobe and leaving Gasol wide open; Gasol is not great, but he is good; you can’t leave him open 10-15 feet from the basket like that; if Kobe beats you on a heave over two defenders, you live with that; but you don’t give up easy baskets going to the bucket

4. EH did not get it done as PG; he is adequate against 28 other teams; but against Cleveland and LA, he is not the right guy to be playing PG; other teams salivate on offense and defense when they see him in the game; he didn’t look great against Vujacic, and it would have been worse with Farmar; I don’t know why either Pierce or Ray wasn’t running the show with the 2nd unit; you have two HOF players, and they are reduced to creating a diversion for EH, TA and BBD, while they weave and spin to the basket; that’s just poor recognition

5. agree that Pierce was not involved enough, particularly earlier in the 4th Q; when the game is tight and you need points or FTs, the ball should be in his hands, and then Ray and KG

Having said all that, we didn’t play nearly our best game on offense or defense, and we still were in position to win the game. I don’t think the Lakers can play any better, and I don’t think we can play much worse (in a big game). KG was curiously subdued. I still think we’d win a series. But our bench definitely needs work. And the calls were horrendous. It made the game a kind of gimme for the Lakers. Yes, they had phony hustle in the last 2 minutes, after they had the lead. Celtics should have found a way to win. Like I said, stupid game.

it’s not personal.

Remember?

Today’s game perfectly highlighted the need for a real 6th man. If anyone thought that Tony the Turnover could replace James Posey, this game should serve as a slap in the face. What this team needs is to rid themselves of Glen Davis, Scal, and TA and find a small forward that can actually play defense, along with a center that is not undersized. Unfortunately, in terms of free agents, only Dikembe Mutombo and Ira Newble come to mind as possible reserves. Any thoughts?

The game was tied until Gasol beat our starters 3 straight times. They were better today. The refs weren’t the game changers. Neither was the bench. We saw a little of “bad Tony” after not seeing in a while but the bench was OK. Big Baby did his job. We don’t know yet that OBryant can’t do it because they haven’t committed him yet. He is worth a look in game situations same as Leon was a year ago.
Listen people, we are what our record says we are (Tuna quote) and we are 27-3. Easy on the agida. The Lakers played excellent D. Joe Smith or Stephon Marbury wasn’t going to change this outcome.

This was just a replay of game 5 of the finals – poor officiating, Celtics played like crap but were still able to keep it close against a soft and inferior Lakers team playing at home and needing the game a lot more than the C’s.

I mean, streamers flying from the rafters? Really? That was a bit much. The Celtics are still the better team, losing on the road on what was not their finest hour by any means doesn’t change that fact.

Another thing is Kobe didn’t have much trouble scoring, which could be because he was just hot – or could be because Posey was your best defender on him, and you do miss him.

Pierce did a great job on Kobe last year, guarding him mainly down the stretch.
I don’t think he guarded him at all today. Doc was treating this game just like any other…exactly how he said he would. Come playoffs we’ll see less bench and more strategizing.

I know we lost the game, but still the Lakers just don’t scare me. The Cs simply played too sloppy to win on the road against a good team. It certainly does show the importance of home court, but so long as the Cs end with a better record and get 4 of 7 at home I’m not worried about LA. I’m really not convinced the Lakers will even make it to the Finals.

I’m 10x more concerned about the Cavs. It seems almost guaranteed that they’ll meet in the East finals and the combination of Lebron and the Cleveland bigs will give the Celtics as much as they can handle.

Great game tonight even though I spent most of the game screaming at the refs. Oh well.

Celtics played a good game, but the Lakers were on today! Felt and looked like a playoff game, but we still have more then half of the season to go until we make it to the finals!

The Celts have no control over the refs. They were bad but were not the difference. The bench wasn’t great, but Phil changed his rotations. Considering they played against the starters more than normal, the bench was OK. In my opinion, the real problem here is that the Celtics are nearly the worst team in the league in turnovers. The first team is VERY guilty here. If the starters simlply cut the turnovers down by 5 possessions, we have a 4-5 point lead in the last four minutes. We win the game, then.

I agree the refs were terrible, but we weren’t much better outside of KG.

The officials weren’t just bad, they were atrocious. The offensive foul on Rondo and the phantom foul on TA on the jump ball were just the icing on the cake. David Stern ought to resign in shame.

Having said that, the starters had the game in their grasp and played like absolute crap for the last four minutes. So they deserved to lose.

Another bad game from House. The offense stagnates when he’s in there. It’s time for Gabe Pruitt to become the first pg off the bench.

1) The refs were inconsistent in the Lakers favor today. 2 Ft’s in the first half, 8 for the game. Several head scratchers, mentioned by many posts above. There’s a reason home court advantage exists in basketball, and it’s not because the home team gets to bat last. The C’s need home court.

2) Ray did not play well tonight. He chucked up some wish shots and missed some shots he normally makes. Also had some bad turnovers. He also seemed out of it mentally. I saw him get more heated at a ref today then I have in his C’s career. Plus that double foul on Fisher was just weird. The whole xmas thing probably messed with his Rainman routine.

3) The decision to leave Ray in over Pierce at the beginning of the fourth was a mistake. Pierce was starting to go on an epic run.

4) The Lakers are NOT much better this year. A healthy Ariza will be a much bigger factor than Bynum if he can stop Pierce.

5) Doc needed to get a technical in this game. It seemed like the whole team (minus Pierce maybe) was too much in the xmas spirit.

6) Is anyone absolutely sick of how much ABC and the NBA are trying to force Kobe and LeBron on us? (much like Kobe forces himself on young women). “Oh, what’s it like being the mvp Kobe? What’s it like building homes for poor little children?” or “Hey isn’t LeBron so awesome with his big sneaker contract and his ability to win even though his teammates are all SOOO terrible?” You have a TEAM, in the Celtics, that stands for everything good in sports: togetherness, hard work, sacrificing individual goals for the team, perseverance. They win a championship, 19 games in a row, and yet we’re playing there on Christmas day, we watch LaLa Land coverage, and get LeBron is god commercials.

7) The Celtics win a seven game series against this LA team (with or without home court). They played crappy, had no help from the refs, and still were in a position to win.

We just got outplayed tonight. It took their best effort and one of our worst, and we were still within reach.

One thing, I don’t think its fair to throw our bench under the bus given it was a tie game with less than 3 minutes left.

Take it like men and stop whining about the refs. Waaaah. See you in June, if you guys make it past Lebron.

Celtics didn’t look play anywhere as hungry as the lakers in fact they didn’t look as if they particularly care if they won. Its amazing they didn’t get blown out they were sloppy on both ends of the floor most of the time. Rondo gets tentative with foul trouble so its understandable he wasn’t as aggressive. The team needs to work on their consistency on the road. My problem with the bench today is that they completely ignored Ray on multiple possessions maybe they forgot he was there since they’re used to being the all bench unit. Overall a learning experience I’m sure the tape of this game will show them enough instances of the areas they need to work on.

I’m surprised only Brickowski has mentioned the issue that seems quite obvious. House isn’t getting it done as a point guard, and Doc should be playing Pruitt instead. What’s the holdup? How many second quarter leads do the Celtics have to squander?

And since Doc won’t play O’Bryant, then get Motombo in here pronto.

Did anyone notice during the beginning of the third quarter when Ray and Rondo were arguing with each other over the turn over that Ray did and then when they were on the defensive end of the court, rondo was guarding Fisher and you see Rondo screaming at Ray about the TO… and it looked like a heated argument. Even Pierce had to go and grab Ray and move him to his defensive position that he was supposed to be on. It literally looked like Rondo and Ray were ready to beat each other up, if Pierce didn’t intervene.

Another thing was when Pierce had to grab Ray again during the offensive foul call that he “made” against Fisher because he was arguing with the ref, and that’s not Ray Allen like. Ray seemed really pissed off from the beginning of the game to the end, and it escalated throughout the game. Every camera shot I saw of Ray, he looked like he wanted to punch someone in the face..

As a matter of fact, the whole team seemed like something was bothering them. They didn’t act or look like a team, but more like individuals.. Yes the first 5 min of the bball game, they looked like everything was ok. But towards the middle of the 1st quarter things started to unravel.

And the Celtics didnt look like the Celtics. It looked like this was a diff team. Not by the way they were playing, but their faces, and their posture, and attitude. Im watching the game again, and they just look so mad at each other. They didnt have team chemistry at all.

When the bench came on, it was the same thing. No one worked like a team, and played selfishly. Maybe im looking into more than what it was, but everyone seemed so disconnected with each other.

Im guessing something must have happened during the flight on the way to LA, or the locker room or something. Because from what Im seeing now, or the way the game went, the whole Celtics team seemed as tho everyone had beef with each other. There were no celebrations or high fives when we tied the games or lead. There were no smiling or laughing or talking on bench like u see during the games. Everyone was just sitting and watching the game…

Something was off. And that Ray and Rondo argument and Pierce separating it b4 it got worse, (which i’m sure it wouldn’t have) give me more ammo to go on that something was up with the whole team…

Did anyone else see what Im talking about?

1) I’m sick of the idea that Posey is the answer to everything that goes wrong. When the team wins big things are a-ok withough Posey but when things are bad, the sky is falling and the only anecdote is James Posey. Look, I’ll be first to admit that Pose was a great part of this team last season, but Posey does not win this game for the Celtics and is not the answer people seem to think he is. If we lost this game with Posey people would complain that he can’t create his own shot, is an overrated defensive player and doesn’t have the ball handling skills we need on the second unit. Danny was correct in not giving in to the contract demands Posey wanted. It would tie this teams hands in the salary cap for far too long. Posey playing in this game would not have been the answer. It just seems like that is the default answer to anything that goes wrong, “well if we had just resigned Posey this wouldn’t be happening”, give me a break.

2) The ref’s were attrocious in this game. Call it whining, call it complaining, I don’t care, it absolutely effected this game and besides robbing the Celtics of a good 8 points (which would have made a large difference) shaped, in an unfortunate way, the way the Celtics played this game.

3) Tied into point 1. Everybody, and they are correct, says we need length off the bench. Well guess what, that ain’t Posey. Better to now have money available to sign Dekembe or PJ. (I opt for Mutumbo myself, exactly what we need on the second unit, inside presence, D, shot blocks and boards, I do think he would be a better asset to this team than PJ) Don’t say we need Posey and then say we need length and a big. Can’t have it all.

Just an extra reminder that Posey was absolutely lost on Kobe in the finals last year, it took PP stepping up and playing D on him to make a difference. And you know what? Tonight Kobe did what only he can do, against great D hit insane shots. That is why he is still, despite what people may say about Lebron, or whomever, the best offensive player in the league. On how many possessions tonight did the C’s play great D and Kobe hit a shot no one has any right to make, and make it look easy? Numerous. Sometimes there is a player who can do that and you just have to say, well, we did what we could he got it done.

Odom hits 2 big threes unguarded I may add. Pau hits uncontested 12 footer and a basically uncontested dunk in the last minute. We go through spells of terrible rebounding on the defensive glass leading to more threes. The NBA once again can’t seem to get the officiating right on a big stage and ABC appears to have the can’t comment about calls edict.

And… it’s anyones game with 2 minutes to go.

A couple of minor tweaks to the roster and everything will be fine.

Wow, the Celtics just downright scare me. As a Lakers fan, I know we wanted this more and the Celtics played like shit today but it was still a close game towards the end. Celtics probably could easily pull off impressive win streaks if they really wanted to. Rondo has been absolutely tearing it up as of late and of course you got the Big 3 in KG, Pierce, and Ray Ray. Even though the Lakers win yesterday somewhat alleviates the mentality for them, the Celtics are still clearly the better team right now. In fact, I would put the Celtics and Cavs as the best teams in the NBA with the Lakers behind them.

Now, with all that said, you guys just need to suck it up and quit complaining about the refs. Refs are going to be horrible just about every game and yes, teams like the Lakers will get the favorable calls. But so will teams like the Cs. Honestly, these are the reasons why home-court advantage is so big in the playoffs. It’s not like you guys have never been on the better end of horrible officiating. Last year’s finals game 1 and 2 come to my mind as a Lakers fan. I understand that as fans, we’re going to be upset about the bias in the refs no matter how much of a good job they do. But we all just need to accept the fact that officiating is never going to be good and that if the team is good enough (which Cs certainly are), it will overcome them (which Cs almost did).

And no, I do not think Bynum is the answer to everything, if anything. Before his injury last year, he was on a roll but ever since then, he looks tentative, scared, and just flat out tired. Maybe he’s out partying every night since he got that fat contract extension (bad decision) but he’s simply not the same. That’s the main reason why the Lakers were and will continue to get beat inside by the Celtics: not being able to play physical basketball. Unfortunately, the Celtics are the best in the league at doing just that. And current Bynum is a perfect example of that. WIth his physique, he should be dominating but he can’t even take it the rim against the Celtics.

All in all, as much as I hate the Celtics, I have mad respect for them and their fans. Some of the most hardcore fans I know are from Boston. It truly saddens me to see you guys get antagonized over the media for being “bandwagon” fans because frankly, LA is guilty of that more than anyone. Anyways, I hope we are granted with a rematch of last year’s finals and hopefully the Lakers can put up more of a fight than they did last year.

Doc is throwing the 2nd five to the wolves EVERY 2nd qtr to get rest for the starters.That will not happen in the playoffs and 2 more guys will be added to the top 8 in rotation…this is a 82 game practice for the real games…we need 2 players and Danny will get them

did not see the game—xmas and all that, so my comments are limited and connected to what others have posted.1. the reffing in the nba is so subjective and inconsistent. you never know what you’re gonna get. the coaches and players have to be super aware of the refs whims that night that it must take away some of their focus from their game. i hold stern totally accountable for this. 2.the bench. i agree with brick- let’s get some more floor time for gabe. and we all know we need center type length. 3. as great as pp is playing this year, and he really digs in on defense, his shooting percentage is way down. is it because he’s hurting, or the offense isn’t going thru him enough? i agree when he’s hitting like yesterday,keep giving him the ball. 4. i don’t think danny is asleep and i hope he has some magic up his sleeve.

This was a winnable game on the road against one of the two other great teams in the league.

The big thing here is that Doc needs to understand that the second team needs one decision maker out there. The other talent needed on the second team is there. He doesn’t have someone guiding the team. When Eddie House and Tony Allen are on the floor, sometimes they are successful and sometimes they are clueless, but they are not good at making pressure decisions. He will need Ray or Paul to be on the floor and the offense needs to be guided by them.

Ray was out there with the second unit, and it was Tony Allen that was consistently controling what was going on. Leon barely got the ball, and Ray barely got any touches either. If we had made Ray the decision maker instead of Tony, we would have won the game. The second team should be getting Leon the ball down low, and that didn’t happen.

…the stop-Kobe defense in the last four minutes. Why did they go away from Ray or Tony playing him straight up? Yeah, he had 27 points, but on like 23 shots or something. Once the Celtics started throwing three guys at him, he found Gasol wide open. Of course. I’d rather have Kobe taking contested jumpers than Gasol wide open for eight-footers.

Hated that defensive change, which along with some terrible terrible officiating and the Cs failure to let Pierce abuse Walton in the fourth quarter cost them the game.

How fans always complain about the same things, FT and refs. One: FTs was given to the team that attacks the inside more. The Lakers consistently drove inside while the Celtics mainly settled for jumpshots. You can’t expect both teams to have identical FTA. Two: refs: You honestly expect a perfect ref game? There is always bad calls on both sides (Odom’s loose ball, Rondo’s offensive foul) but players learn to adjust, the Celtics didn’t lose the game until under the 4 minute mark and they completely choked(Besides KG). And if you know anything about recent NBA history, you’d know Steve Javie hates Kobe and the Lakers.

You guys make so many excuses. Remember when the Lakers shot 28 less free throw attempts than Boston in the Finals? I bet you guys weren’t complaining about officiating then, even though it was blatantly obvious how much the refs helped you guys win game 2. The officiating was disgustingly one sided, and the Lakers still only one.

And now you guys complain that you only got 8 ft’s in LA. Wow.. just wow.

What’s the excuse for the recent loss against Golden State? Bad refs, again? Fatigue?? God knows it can’t be because the Celtics just plain LOST. There has to be some outside force at work, because the Celtics are unbeatable otherwise. Right?

No, you guys didn’t lose because the Lakers played a good game. You lost because of the refs. So typical.

I could point out lots of questionable calls against the Lakers on Christmas day. I wouldn’t do that, because I’m not a whiner. Each team receives bad calls, they have to play through it. While the Celtics were crying to the refs, the Lakers continued to play hard.