Hoops

Celtics vs Lakers: Game 7

He told the Celtics don't judge me on the regular season I'll be ready come playoff time.

Aw man, any chance my post can be reinstated please Isaac? I mentioned an NBA draft prospect Larry S***ers in quite a long post and its been yanked because apparently a different S***ers is out of bounds now.

Mod: Fixed

Doc said Sheed was done? I'd be surprised if he said anything like that. Sheed has two more years to run on his contract and besides that it would be pretty uncool for the coach to publicly call for a player to retire straight after a series in which he played pretty well.

It will be interesting to see what Ainge does, Josh. I think a lot will depend upon the decisions of Ray Allen and Pierce. Hopefully Ray will come back on a 2 year deal at about $8 mill per. It would also be great if Pierce was willing to take a pay cut for the team and sign for no more than 3 years at about $12 mill per. We'll see though, players don't often volunteer to leave a bunch of guaranteed money on the table, especially when they just led their team to within a whisker of the championship.

Even in that scenario though, the Celtics remain well over the cap. KG, Rondo, Davis and Perk are signed and they should be able to bring Tony Allen back as they have his Bird Rights.

I think Nate showed he could be a very useful player to get them through the 2010-11 regular season without running Rondo or Ray Allen into the ground. Question is, would Nate be willing to take no more than $4 mill per season to be a backup? IMO, if the Celtics keep their team together for one more run, I reckon Nate would be crazy not to play here, learn all he can and then turn that into a starting spot and better pay in a couple of years.

Signing Nate would eat into about two thirds of the mid-level exception though. So essentially they would have their core 8 players back for about $70 mill, could sign one FA for $2-3 mill and the rest would be vet minimums plus their draft picks.

If they sign Nate, then Daniels is almost certainly gone and so is Shelden Williams, who played with zero confidence on the few occasions he got in the game in the playoffs.

I really hope Doc doesn't give it away after this season. He has done an outstanding job of keeping his veteran team engaged and smoothing their acceptance of a bigger role for Rondo. Losing Thibs will be big though, because I think he's the real X's and O's guy rather than Doc.

Since the Celtics have very little chance of securing another solid big man to counter the Lakers length any better next season, I think they have to see if they can snag an athletic big, rather than a SG. I think Tony Allen and Nate have improved enough that they can be trusted to keep Ray rested. So I'd like to see them go for someone with some real athleticism, but needs plenty of polish, because I think KG and Sheed could really groom them well.

Maybe someone like Larry S a nders or Solomon Alabi. I was going to say Stanley Robinson as well, but he must have done something wrong because he seems to have plummeted right off the 1st round mock draft on Draft Express!

"Machine make big shots, win NBA Championship for Lakers, Machine's bestie Kobe gives love to Machine, Machine must remember to have mind meld with Kobe during post game celebration" - Machine

Well played to the Lakers. From 13 down in the 3rd, they started defending Boston's pick and roll really well and that was the turning point.

I was willing Rivers to start singing "we've got a ticket to ride" to his team in the huddle during the third, but the Celtics barely even made an attempt to use KG from late in the 3rd.

Disappointing, because I honestly think KG's scoring and passing would have won them the game, but they didn't make that adjustment and came up short. I'd love to know if they decided against it because KG was too tired from guarding Gasol?

Celtics had one last slim chance to win it after Rondo had another incredible stretch, stealing the rebound, shooting a three and coming within a couple of centimetres of stealing the ball from Kobe (it landed on the sideline after he poked it free).

But in all honesty, the Lakers outplayed the Celtics down the stretch and deserved the win. Ironically, it was the players Kobe couldn't trust earlier in the series who came up big and saved his ass when it mattered the most.

Artest played really well in the 2nd half, teaming with Gasol to stop Pierce from creating on the pick and roll. Gasol's ability to keep grabbing offensive boards kept them in it and he had 7 pts and 6 rebs in the final quarter. Fisher, Artest, Odom and even Eurobitch made clutch plays when it counted.

Oh well, I'm going to and try to distract myself from the Celtics loss by checking out Draft Express and breaking down in minute detail exactly which awesome player the Celtics should draft with the 19th pick (LMAO).

Anyone catch Ron Artest's post game interview?? Hilarious! He thanked his psychiatrist and plugged his new single.....I hate the Lakers but Crazy Pills is fantastic!

gasol was the difference and very unlucky but kobe was still great and i think one of the best we have ever seen

The wannabe G.O.A.T. only shot at 25% and nearly lost them the game. He will get MVP, but I think Gasol deserves it. Kobe's shooting has been woeful.

I admit, Kobe's 13 boards does help his cause somewhat.

No - Michael Jordan is.

All over, Lakers win.

2 Laker FT's made leave the Celtics down by 4 with 11.7sec to go with possession.

Down by 5 with possession with under 25 sec remaining, missed three by Allen, offensive board by Rondo who then nails the three with 13sec left - 2 point game with Lakers possessing the ball.

Wow! Wallace hits a trey, Artest hits a shot-clock beating three, then Allen hits a triple!

Lakers up by 6 with 1:30 to go...Celtics have possession.

Kobe finally hitting some shots too...Lakers now up by 4 with 5:20 to play.

With 5:21 to go, the tide has definitely turned in favour of the Lakers.

wow derek fisher !

It is bloody close as the 4th period nears and end...

This is going down to the wire, 4 points in it at 3qtr....COME ON CELTS!!

Kobe is 3/17 from the field and 0/5 from long range - ouch!

Rondo looks like he will go close to a triple-double, having 10, 6 & 6 so far.

Celtics leading by 12 with 7:43 left in 3rd.

Celtics up 40-34 at half time in a low-scoring affair.

For the Celtics, Pierce has 11, with 5 others with 5 or 6 points each.

The the Lakers, Artest leads the scoring with 12, Kobe has 8 with Gasol and Fisher scoring 6 and 5 respectively.

Kobe and Gasol are both shooting poorly, with 3/14 and 3/12 respectively. Gasol however has 10 rebounds to the half time break.

In the battle of the benches, the Celtics lead 6-1. Davis has all 6 Celtics points.

Come on Celtics!

Celts with the early lead, i'm hoping they can keep it going!

ESPN Preview & Gamecast link: http://linky.com.au/3r6k7

In the tipping results for round 11, I picked Forestville men over the Rockets, it says I got it wrong because the scores on the tipping page say the Rockets men scored 180 points to Forestvilles 115. On the Hoops forum page it says in the results column the Rockets scored 80 points to F/ville's 115, therefore F/ville won.
So one of the results is wrong, and I'm assuming its the 180 points to the Rockets, therefore those who picked F/ville should get the extra point for tipping correctly.
Please advise :-) Thanks.