The Lakers Make A Statement With Their Defense In Game Six

A day off and a trip home can cure all wounds. And there's a reason why home court is so important in the NBA, especially when you've only lost one home game all season long in the playoffs.

Coming home down 3-2 in the 2010 NBA Finals, the Lakers played as if they were the ones in the lead. They were loose, focused, and made an extra effort to clamp down on defense in game six.

Led by Kobe Bryant's 26 points, the Lakers cruised to victory, holding the Celtics to just 67 points and making them look badly in the process. The Celtics four-core of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Rajon Rondo, and Ray Allen all scored in double figures, but all four together also averaged a minus 20 in the plus/minus stat category.

What was more impressive than his 26 points was Kobe Bryant's 11 rebounds and 4 steals. He also showed tremendous energy which seemed contagious to the rest of the club. Pau Gasol caught it like a cold. After two games in a row of pedestrian big-man performance, Gasol was one assist short of a triple double with 17 points and 13 rebounds to go along with his 9 assists.

Starting center Andrew Bynum only played 16 minutes, and at one point had to go back to the locker room for his knee. But Lamar Odom picked up the slack. Odom's 8 points and 10 rebounds don't look spectacular on paper, but his presence was huge, especially after Celtics' starting center Kendrick Perkins went down with a knee injury.

The Celtics backed off Rajon Rondo all game long and forced him to shoot from the outside to the tune of 5-15. They also forced Kevin Garnett out of the paint as much as possible and he was the guy taking 18-foot jump shots for the Celtics as the shot clock was about to expire on more than one occasion. They ran at Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, forcing them to take tough shots, or put the ball on the floor.

After being the goat of game five for the Lakers, Ron Artest not only played Paul Pierce tough, but he had a rare quality offensive game. He chucked up six three-pointers, making three of them and had 15 points.

Perkins says he'll try to play with ligament sprains in his right knee, but it's unlikely he'll even be as helpful as Andrew Bynum has been, who has been trying to play with knee issues of his own. While Bynum being out has definitely hurt the Lakers, they can switch to a faster line-up by putting Odom in. Perkins being out for the Celtics means that KG has to be the sole defender on Gasol. Also, it means Big Baby and Rasheed Wallace have to play a bigger part offensively and defensively. What did they do together in game six? They shot a combined 0-10.

Advantage, Lakers.