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Monday June 16 2008 - 3:45pm Eastern

We were waiting for it to happen at some point in the first 4 games … but it never did.  However, finally, in Game 5, both Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom showed up for the Lakers.

Despite blowing a big lead (again), Los Angeles found a way to make the key plays down the stretch to hold on to the win and stay alive in their best of 7 series against the Celts.

Gasol finished with a team-high 13 rebounds … to go along with 19 points, 6 assists, and 2 blocked shots, and no turnovers in just over 42 minutes of action.  It was easily his best game of the Finals, and perhaps the best game he has turned in since the first round against the Utah Jazz.

Odom’s final totals were just as impressive. 

A virtual no-show for at least 3 of the first 4 games against the Celtics, Odom stepped up when his team needed him the most.  The New York native grabbed 20 points, 11 rebounds, and 4 blocked shots in 41 minutes of action.  Both he and Gasol took advantage of a Boston squad that was playing without Kendrick Perkins (in street clothes) for the entire game and Kevin Garnett for major stretches of the first half (foul trouble) as well.

Despite the fact that Kobe Bryant looked very “average” again … it was Odom and Gasol that saved the day for LA.

If the Lakers have any shot at winning Game 6 and forcing a game 7 on Thursday, that duo needs to step up again.  You can’t count on KG dealing with foul issues again and you’ve got to figure that Perkins will seek every treatment and every drug available to get his shoulder in shape to suit up again on Tuesday.

But Bryant needs to pull up his socks as well.  He has looked like an MVP in only 1 of the 5 games and he’s been shut down time and time again by Paul Peirce.  Peirce, not known as a great defender … and hobbling around on one leg since his game 1 knee injury, has suffocated Bryant and made it difficult for the game’s best player to get anything going on a consistent basis.

Bryant has to attack.  He must get to the hoop.  He’s at his best when he’s playing with that aggressiveness.  It not only opens up options for him personally … but it sucks it the defenders as well … thus … opening up the many options of the draw and kick game as well.  With guys like Derek Fisher, Sasha Vujacic, Jordan Farmar, and Vladimir Radmanovic armed and ready on the outside … Kobe can pick and choose his spots.  But he’s got to get to the hoop to have those options to select from.

An eternal LA optimist could look at the series like this:
Gm 1 - Close for most of the night; could have gone either way; BOS pulled it out down the stretch
Gm 2 - LA got hammered; Down 20+; they come all the way back; Too little too late … BOS wins
Gm 3 - Kobe’s only ‘good’ game; BOS makes a late rally; Lakers got the win they deserved to
Gm 4 - LA had it wrapped up; Up 20+ on BOS; They implode BIG time; Cough-up a historic game
Gm 5 - Played well enough to win … and bad enough to lose; Found a way to hold off another BOS comeback

The Lakers could easily be up 3-2 themselves right now.  They have not played well enough to have already won the series outright, but they certainly could be holding the lead heading back to Boston.  But they have nobody to blame except the men in the mirror at this point. 

Kobe has been average; Odom and Gasol have not been at the top of their games; the league’s best bench (in the regular season) has not risen to the challenge; and Phil Jackson has been losing the nightly chess match against Doc Rivers. 

Yet … none of that will matter if LA can carry momentum from Game 5 into Game 6 … and force a Game 7.  And I get a feeling in my gut that Bryant still has yet to explode. 

Will the giant - the Black Mamba - awake?

E. Smith

This entry was posted on Monday, June 16th, 2008 at 3:45 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.