Defense does it for the Celtics
BOSTON – Coach Doc Rivers vowed he wouldn’t change the way the Celtics did anything on defense in the NBA Finals.
Why should he? Boston’s defense was too good for Los Angeles in the regular season, and it still is so far now.
The Celtics shook off a poor defensive effort in the first half to contain Kobe Bryant and his sidekicks in the second half, pulling away for a 98-88 victory Thursday night in Game 1.
“In the second half, we did our jobs,” Rivers said. “We got back on defense for the most part, we contested shots. I mean, that’s how we have to play.”
Bryant and the Lakers had been rolling offensively in the postseason, averaging 105.9 points while winning 12 of 15 games. Rivers had been asked what kinds of defensive adjustments the Celtics needed to make.
“We don’t change as much as people think we do,” Rivers said before the game. “That’s fine that everyone thinks we do. But we’ve been pretty much a solid defensive team all year. We’re not going to recreate the wheel tonight. We’re going to play Celtic defense the way we’ve played all year.”
That defense limited opponents to an NBA-low 41.9 percent, but it took the Celtics a while to warm up on that end after a long layoff since the Eastern Conference finals.
Los Angeles shot 50 percent while building a 51-46 halftime lead, but the Celtics limited the Lakers to 13 of 39 (33 percent) the rest of the way and held them to 41.6 percent (32 of 77) for the game.
“We didn’t play any in the first half,” Rivers said. “We didn’t get back in the first half. We gambled in the first half. We gave them uncontested shots in the first half.”
Bryant needed to take 26 shots for his 24 points. Pau Gasol and Derek Fisher each scored 15 points, but they combined for only five in the second half after going for 25 in the first 24 minutes.
Los Angeles, which has been the top-shooting team in the postseason, had its lowest-scoring game of the playoffs.
“We just didn’t do a good job of moving the ball in the second half,” Lakers forward Lamar Odom said. “In this game, they played the right way just for a little bit longer than us.”
The Celtics won the two regular-season meetings by a combined 32 points, limiting Bryant to 32.6 percent shooting. But both meetings came in late 2007, long before the Lakers acquired Gasol from Memphis, so the Lakers felt those games were meaningless.
Turns out, they were a perfect preview for Game 1.
The Celtics led 77-73 heading to the final period, and Los Angeles was still down only four after Sasha Vujacic’s jumper with 6:53 remaining. But the Lakers managed only one more field goal the rest of the way, going 5 of 20 in the final 12 minutes.
Bryant seemed to think it was more a bad night, but he’s now had three of them against the Celtics this season. His 9-of-26 effort gets added to the 6-of-25 clunker and 9-of-21 outing he had in previous losses this season against Boston.
Bryant believes he’ll shake off the loss and expects to be better in Game 2 on Sunday night, saying the Lakers would move the ball better and get him better shots.