Will say a few words about the game here. Boston covered 8 in a row against the Lakers. That streak ended this year so standard methodology is the Lakers cover at least 1 of the next 2 games. The Lakers do not play for 2 days after this game. Boston has an immediate game at NY against the Knicks at a site they lost to them by 12 at last time. Then they have 1 day off and face a rested Spurs team. Today will be their 5th game on 1 days rest and they are an older team. This game is structured very poorly for them
In their last game at Philadelphia we saw the old problem of turnovers come back as they had 20 turnovers. There is no question they are a great team but they are also a team that thrives on half court and is much less effective against up tempo play. The Lakers are like a sportscar that can go from stationary to 100 in moments. One of the few good things Jackson did this year is stress physical conditioning to Pavol and tell him to focus more on posting up which is the last thing Boston wants him to be doing. Ariza should be effective against Pierce. Ariza is almost the only bright note of Laker defense and was pretty much picked with Pierce in mind. This game will come down to will to win. No one now has that more than Kobe and Garnett. Nothing is written in stone here.
