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Well, um, that couldn't have gone much worse. The Lakers take Game 6, 89-67. Where do we begin?
- Obviously the status of Kendrick Perkins is our foremost concern. With 5:30 left in the first quarter, Perk landed awkwardly on his right knee after battling Andrew Bynum for a rebound and did not return. The injury was diagnosed as a knee sprain and Perk's status for Game 7 on Thursday night is still up in the air.
- The Lakers clearly came out with a more aggressive mentality, and promptly owned the first half. Some first half stats to consider...LA led 51-31; LA out-rebounded Boston 30-13; LA's bench out-scored Boston's 15-0.
- This one, unfortunately, seemed to come down to effort and aggression. The Lakers presented more of both and never took their foot off the gas pedal.
- The C's failed to make any headway in the third quarter. On the contrary, LA actually increased it's 20-point halftime lead to 25 going into the fourth. Boston's offense was better than it was in the first half, but the Celtics were unable to secure multiple stops and work their way back into this thing. It was kind of ridiculous how many dunks and layups the Celtics missed over the course of the game. Many makeable shots went awry, which only hindered the Celtics' chances of cutting into LA's lead.
- Heading into the fourth quarter, only Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Rajon Rondo had scored.
- Ray Allen found a nice shooting groove overall, (7-14 from the field, 2-5 from three-point nation), which hopefully bodes well for the Celtics heading into Thursday night. The C's will need Ray to be firing on all cylinders in Game 7.
Well, it all comes down to Game 7 on Thursday night now. It truly is a do or die situation in every sense of the phrase. We can only hope Perk is healthy enough to play and that the C's can take advantage of their day off tomorrow to rest up and gear up for what is hands down the most important game of the season.