And by rebound, I mean... rebound. Forget the Suns game. The C's were never into that game and thus were never in the game. They will be in this one. They'll be up for it and down for anything. Let us just hope they can rebound well enough to pull it off. Paul Flannery puts it best:
celtics - How the Celtics can beat LA - WEEI | Paul Flannery
This point can’t be stressed enough. The Celtics lost the NBA championship because they were a poor rebounding team and in Game 7 the Lakers grabbed 23 offensive rebounds. Maybe Kendrick Perkins would have made a difference, but this was a season-long issue for the Celtics and it caught up with them at the worst possible moment.
Zach Lowe (as usual) adds stats to the equation.
The Point Forward " Posts Celtics vs. Lakers: Five things to watch "
Without Bynum, the Lakers were a so-so offensive rebounding team and a poor defensive rebounding team. With Bynum, they are one of the league’s finest rebounding clubs on both ends. The test for Boston will be protecting the defensive glass, something it failed to do with the title on the line last season. And though this hasn’t gotten much attention yet, Boston has slowly slid down the rankings in defensive rebounding rate after a hot start.
Two things that could be going for us this weekend are the return of Perkins and the revenge factor. It is really impossible to overstate how much these teams want to beat each other, even in a regular season game.