Celtics Take Game 1

Ugh....nothing else I can say...Ugh. 

Certainly not the end of the world and this series is by no means over, but there are certainly some concerns here. Here are my game 1 thoughts:

Officiating:

I'm going to get this out of the way now - and let me preface this with the fact that LA lost this game because of Boston's defense, poor shooting and getting creamed on the boards. BUT, the officiating in this game was so blatantly one sided it's ridiculous. Was watching the game with my stepfather and his good friend - they were on the phone with their buddy who's a big Celtics fan and even he was sarcastically commenting on the officials. Terrible, terrible game. Every single time the Celtics drove the lane the whistle was blown. The exact same contact/play on the other end of the court and the refs swallow their whistles. Outside of the blatant inconsistency my beef was this - let them play. They called way too many fouls in this game (51 combined). The amount of free throws that the Celtics shot down the stretch compared with LA was ridiculous.  The back court call on Gasol in the first quarter was not only a bad call, it was a lame call - who makes that call at any point in the game? Furthermore, there's no white line through the big graphic at mid court in the "Garden" so how in the world do they make the call? The other blatantly "made up" call was when Gasol blocked Garnett's shot (how in the world did that happen?) and the ref, who apparently could see through 4 players from his spot across the floor, made the call. Replays clearly showed it was a clean play. Unreal. 

Again, not at all why they lost, but the officials HAVE to be better than that. 

Pierce:

Let me now preface this little rant with this: as we were watching the game, we see Pierce go down and he looks as if he's in quite a bit of pain and all 3 of us said the exact same thing: "you hate to see that happen to Pierce. Good guy, hard player who's worked his ass off to get here, you really hope he doesn't go out like that." We genuinely felt for him and even as a Laker fan, you don't want to see that. As he's being carried off the court by his teammates a la Byron Leftwich during his senior year at Marshall, and then subsequently carted to the locker room in a freaking wheelchair we were thinking "he's clearly done". Then 4 minutes later he's hopping around like he's in his physical prime, bouncing out of the tunnel?

I dare any true, die-hard Celtics fan to justify that bush league performance as tough. I swear to everything holy if that was a Laker who did that exact same thing I would be utterly embarrassed. You don't get carried off the court wincing in pain, then carted off in a freaking wheelchair when you can clearly walk on your own. He made big plays in the quarter scoring 15 of his points on 5 three pointers, but I'm not talking about that - can't take any of that away from him as he's a good player. But, I lost all respect for Paul Pierce last night half way through the third quarter - now I almost hope he shreds his knee or something. Pierce has been relegated to the status of professional soccer player in my book (no offense Madeley) - he's a puss and he always will be for the rest of his career. The worst part? The media is eating this drama queen crap up so we'll be hearing this for the next few days. Pierce should be ashamed of himself. Seriously. 

Quick-Hit Reactions to Game 1:

• I'm calling you out Eric Miller - please defend Pau Gasol...please, I dare you to defend Gasol. 
• Gasol is clearly playing out of position - he's not a center and we know it. That's fine and I understand the challenge. BUT, he has to be more physical and go get rebounds - it's very obvious Gasol doesn't like physical contact very much. 
• Was saying this last night and I'll keep saying it - please continue to play Cassell Doc Rivers, PLEASE. His 7 good minutes still haven't made up for his season of street ball. I'll give him those shots he was hitting all series long because I guarantee you he won't be making those every game. Keep the alien coming. 
• Celtics played some great defense, we knew they would, but how many Laker shots (specifically, Kobe's shots) rattled in and out of the basket? I think Red Auerbach was out there tightening the rims before the game. 
• If the Lakers don't rebound better they should call the series right now because they have no chance - they only had 7 offensive boards for the game. That's a long night, especially when you're shooting so cold. 
• Will be interesting to see how Kobe responds after a 9 of 26 shooting night (that is beyond horrible). He got his points to lead both teams in scoring, but Boston has to be happy with that percentage. They did play some good defense on him and forced him into some bad shots, but the bulk of those shots he just missed. He won't "just miss" those same shots throughout the series. 
• I would have bet my right arm that the Celtics shot at least 50% from the field - they didn't. In fact, both teams shot the same percentage from the field. I'm looking at it right now and I still don't believe it. I have to believe that LA's percentage dropped off the map in the second half where Boston's picked up - I'm still not sure Garnett missed a shot this game. 
• Here's the bad news for the Lakers - all 3 of Boston's "Big 3" scored above their averages for the playoffs. Not a good sign at all. 
• The good news? I'm not one to say that there's any good that comes out of a loss like this, especially given it's the finals - no losses are good. Period. But, if you're looking for a silver lining here it is - Boston outplayed LA in every faucet of the game...big time. This was especially true down the stretch. Rebounding, offensive execution, role players, officiating - all advantages for Boston in this game...and the Lakers STILL had a chance to win it in the last 4 or 5 minutes. LA knows they can easily hang with this team, but they've got to execute, make their shots and get more production from the bench. Will be interesting to see if Boston can match their intensity in game 2. I picked LA to steal this one and was clearly wrong, but it won't stop me from picking them in game 2 - I just don't see Boston going to LA up 2-0. We'll see. 
  

We get a couple of days here before game 2 - I suggest that the Lakers practice their shooting and go sign a physical player who's not afraid to put a body on someone.