I don’t know if players read espn.com but hopefully this will go up on the board in the locker room.

is going to be fun watching the Faker pull does Balloons out one by one ;D

As long as David Thorpe doesn’t pick us I’m happy.

they should be the favorites after memphis gave them gasol. what role if any did jerry west play in that? just remember the giants over the pats in the super bowl.

Didn’t at least five of these knuckleheads pick the Pistons to beat the Cs? The fact is that the Celtics had more trouble with the Griz this year than the Lakers. Gasol, who was acquired after the teams played both their regular season games, is obviously the X factor, but I see the Cs winning this series in 6. The Celtics totally stifled Kobe (15 for 46) and the triangle offense 38% shooting), and I don’t know if Gasol is going to make THAT much of a difference.

He helps them spread the floor more and he adds 15-20 pts a game (though probably not against our defense over 5-6 games) so he makes some difference. That being said I think Stein and Abbott are possibly on some kind of controlled substance, we’re only going to manage to win 1 game!! Laughable

while kobe is a mismatch, put allen and pierce on him and possibly we might seen tony allen? but anyways, many of you forget that we have the defensive player of the year on gasol and that when we last played them bynum was playing quite well, not gasol all-star well, but pretty damn good.

the xfactor in this series is Tom Thibadeau. Did these analyst watch what the celts did to lebron for most of the series? bunch of dummies. Celts in 6 there is doubt

i watched lakers play the spurs and they won cuz the spurs don’t have enough talent anymore and in their last game pretty much got robbed on the last call.

Celts defense will paralyze the lakers offense. Pierce has always gone off against the lakers. Reason that shaq nicknamed the truth

yep, this is exactly the thing to put into KG and Paul’s head. Thanks, ESPN.

What is the deal with T. Allen? Is he okay?

Triboy,

Did these analyst watch what the celts did to lebron for most of the series? bunch of dummies.

We shadowed LeBron with another defender, behind the one-on-one matchup, and trapped him when he drove the lane. We made him a jump shooter. If we run the same defense against Kobe, he’s going to have a field day. LeBron cannot shoot, and the Celtics exploited that weakness. Kobe can shoot, and virtually has no physical weaknesses.

Do I think the Celtics can win this thing? Absolutely, and I’m behind them as much as the next guy. But please, do not look at what we did to LeBron and assume it can be done to Kobe… because I’m gonna level with you, it’s not gonna happen.

Kobe is going to get his. It’s LA’s supporting cast and Phil Jackson I’m concerned about.

I don’t get it. It must be ESPN’s man love for Kobe. They pushed him all year for MVP and now pick Lakers in 5! Stein is a joke anyway. He’s a Dallas homer who thinks the only reason we got KG was because McHale and Danny are fast friends. Bucher is a Malibu maven who feels the same way as Stein. of course they’re going to take LA. Geesshh!! We beat them (easily) 2-0 during the regular season. They didn’t have Gasol but they had Bynum. This is the same Laker team that was an 8th seed last year, had Kobe take it to another level, got a steal trade in Gasol and after putting away an old and hurt Spurs team has everyone thinking their are otherworldly dominant. I can’t buy that they’re that good.

I’m not worrying about beating the Lakers this year, which will probably require 6 games, but next year when a healthy Bynum returns. The key to continuing at the top will be developing Powe and Davis into genuine full-year contributors and getting rid of Sam and PJ.

Looks like a couple more “experts” have chimed in. Legler has the Celtics in 7 and Rose has the Lakers in 7. I’d be a bit nervous if it went to 7.

Kobe is better than Lebron, plain and simple,and will get his points..it’s the supporting cast that we need to focus on, coaching will be critical, Jackson may be better than Doc but, I don’t think he is better than T and Doc..btw if Thibadeau does stop the Lakers we can kiss him goodbye..Triboy16 made several good points but, the one that jumped out on me was about PP..he loves L.A…at the end of this series I think we all wished that we were #34 agent!!

It doesn’t work that way, libermaniac. The C’s might be favored in the first game, but that has nothing to do with the other (possible) 6. The reason they don’t post the odds for successive games is because the odds change based on what happens in each game and the odds are (or should be) adjusted to reflect this ‘new’ data. The C’s are pretty decisive underdogs for the series. There are, of course, different odds from different books but the consensus seems to be around: Boston 160, LA -190. That’s a pretty healthy margin.

Celts in 6. I have Game 6 tickets and it is fate.

That is why we play the games. Celtics in 6 or 7 so we can finish this baby at home.

I want them to win in 5 games……make lakers fans even more miserable by seeing the fakers lose in person. Want to hear kobe complain he didn’t get any help, wants to be traded to Boston so he can be on a championship team.the series hasn’t even started and i’m sick of hearing about the lakers already.