For Lakers, what needs to go right does
Anything’s (still) possible, as Kevin Garnett once said, although under different circumstances.
Unfortunately for the Celtics, they have more going against them than Phil Jackson’s 47-0 record after his teams win Game 1, as the Lakers did in convincing fashion Thursday night.
-- No Lakers team has blown a lead over a Celtics team in the Finals in 26 years.
-- No Lakers team with Andrew Bynum has ever lost in the Finals, although he didn’t have much to do with it, scoring 9-5-4-6-6 in the only one he played in, against Orlando last spring.
In real life, the problem isn’t numerology or history, it’s these Lakers, who are a lot bigger than the crew the Celtics flattened in 2008.
Bynum had 10 points Thursday, going 28 minutes on his sore right knee, even if they had been draining it daily and half of New England was sticking pins into voodoo dolls of him.
Showing how much Bynum can change the dynamic, the Lakers outrebounded the Celtics, 42-31, and outscored them in the paint, 48-30.
Happily for the Lakers, they have more clues than the press corps and aren’t chalking this one up yet.
“It’s Boston, so we’re not looking at that,” said Bynum. That’s wise, since Celtics lore is replete with great comebacks, many against the Lakers.
Not that that was what Bynum had in mind.
“No, I’m saying that because we’re ticked off that they took the opportunity from us to have another championship,” he said.
“They robbed us of that, so we just want to return the favor.”
The Lakers are now 13-4 in this postseason, which began amid questions about Kobe Bryant’s sore knee, as well as Bynum.
Like the postseason, this game was a checklist of things the Lakers needed to go right, which did, starting with Bryant’s defense on Rajon Rondo, the cat-quick Celtics point guard, who’s six inches shorter and 40 pounds lighter.
Bryant has guarded Rondo since the 2008 Finals, but the Lakers said as little as they could about the matchup.
Typical was this sparking dialogue in Phil Jackson’s press session Wednesday.
Question: Kobe used to guard him basically so he could drop off him and help guard everybody else. The nature of that has changed, right?
Jackson: Yes.
Nevertheless, it turned out just as the Lakers hoped.
Bryant, a great on-ball defender, kept Rondo out of the lane in the first half before turning him over to Derek Fisher in the second, giving him any outside shot he wanted, as Boston’s offense ground to a halt.
Rondo wound up with a respectable-sounding 13 points and eight assists, but the Celtics wound up with 89 points.
“I thought he did a terrific job,” said Boston Coach Doc Rivers of Bryant.
“I thought we fell back into trying to score on him instead of just running the offense. I thought overall offensively we didn’t move the ball much....
“But Rondo has seen that. That’s nothing new for Rondo.”
That’s good, because he’s going to see more of it.
Not that things are looking bad for the Celtics already, but Rivers was asked if Rondo, who has drawn more coverage the farther they’ve advanced, might move over more for Nate Robinson.
“Well, you must be in the Nate Robinson fan club, clearly,” said Rivers, who’s more ambivalent, clearly.
“Nate has played well, but I think Rondo is pretty good. I’ve got a feeling he’s going to keep playing a lot.”
At this point, there’s nothing anyone can do but dance with what brung you, the line from the song Texas coach Darrell Royal used to invoke.
Fortunately for the Lakers, they’ve brung more people to this hoedown.
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