Lakers won’t stand pat against Celtics in Game 2
Now what?
Well, the Lakers and Celtics will review Game 1 of the NBA Finals and look for ways to fix what they didn’t like.
Yes, even the Lakers, who approach Game 2 on Sunday with some trepidation.
“ The Celtics just want one game here,” Lakers assistant coach Frank Hamblen said after practice Friday. “So this is the game they are looking to steal. It’s up to our guys to hold home court.”
Hamblen is in charge of putting the game plan together for the Lakers against the Celtics.
As the longest tenured assistant coach in the NBA, with 41 years of professional basketball experience, Hamblen, who has been a part of six NBA championship teams, said the Celtics won’t go away easily just because they lost Game 1 in the best-of-seven series.
“We know they are going to play better,” Hamblen said. “But hopefully we play better also.”
Hamblen and the Lakers watched film Friday and saw several things they can improve upon.
— Move the basketball with the pass and not the dribble.
The Lakers had 18 assists on 37 made field goals. Of the 10 Lakers who played, eight had at least one assist.
“We have to continually work on conveying the ball to the other side of the court, preferable by air and not land,” Hamblen said. “They are a very good team at stacking the defense up on you on one side. They try to put two men in between the ball and basket. If you play one-sided basketball against them, you will fail against the Boston Celtics.”
— Win the game in the trenches.
The Lakers had 48 points in the paint, the Celtics 30. The Lakers had 16 second-chance points, the Celtics zero.
The Lakers had 42 rebounds, 12 offensive. The Celtics had 31 rebounds, eight offensive.
“We want the ball to go inside and we want to do certain actions off of that,” Hamblen said. “That’s one of our best ways of penetrating the defense, is getting the ball inside.”
— Play defense for long stretches.
“We’re going to have to be prepared to play defense deep into the 24-second clock,” Hamblen said. “They do an excellent job of moving the basketball, making the extra pass and closing out plays.”
As for the Celtics, Hamblen expects Boston to rebound better. Then again, during the regular season, the Celtics were ranked next to last in rebounding.
The Celtics have talked about getting Kevin Garnett more touches — he made seven of 16 shots and scored 16 points — and keeping Ray Allen, who defended Kobe Bryant, out of foul trouble.
The Lakers looked much better than the Celtics in the first game, leading many fans and some in the media to say the series is all but over, that the Lakers will win it easily.
“It’s not over at all,” Hamblen said. “It hasn’t even started yet.”
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