I often wonder what opposing teams, their beat reporters
and bloggers are saying about the Celtics after playing the Celtics.
Here's a dose of 'enemy chatter' from Los Angeles.
Paul Pierce is bobbing his head and yakking again. Glen Davis is
shaking his butt and clowning again. Kevin Garnett is bending at the
knees and barking again.
The TD Garden is rocking again. The Celtics' cheerleading routine is
being drowned out by "Beat L.A." chants again. The Celtics are
improbably, but undoubtedly, championship contenders again.
A series that felt finished two nights ago is now alive and tied at two
games apiece after Boston outscored the Lakers by nine in the final
period and stole a 96-89 victory that felt like a doubleheader sweep.
LA Times (Plaschke) – Lakers turn Celtics back into contenders
played harder.
The Lakers went back into bug-on-the-Celtics-windshield mode.
With Bynum gone, Kendrick Perkins went back to pounding on Pau Gasol,
who went into flamingo-in-a-cement-mixer mode with Lamar Odom in
deer-in-headlights mode.
LA Times (Heisler) – With Bynum out, Celtics are drooling
Oh, those fickle LA Times columnists. One minute they are (prematurely) crowned champions, the next minute they are torn down and ridiculed.
On Page 2, praise for the Celtics defense and rebounding.
Over the past few games, it's become clear that the Celtics, for
stretches at least, can crank up their defensive pressure enough to
cause real problems for the Laker offense. Kobe at times has difficulty
with his handle against these guys, and Pau is showing a distressing
tendency to disappear in the post. (Sheed's defense is giving him
probs.) Offensive rebounds, moreover, are getting harder to come by.
After being dominated on the boards in Game One, the Celtics are
steadily seeing improvements in their defensive rebounding.
Attention Lakers fans: This is what happens when you play teams not in OKC, Utah and Phoenix.
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