The Lakers Make Ugly Beautiful In Game 1

Game 1 of the 2010 NBA Finals wasn't a beautiful game by any means. If watching Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley go at it in the 1993 NBA Finals was Halle Berry, the first game of the 2010 version of Lakers vs. Celtics was Clint Howard.

The referees determined from the start (maybe they had a summit like LeBron and Dwyane?) that they were going to call the game closely, and probably a bit too closely at that. From the first backslide takedown by Ron Artest on Paul Pierce that was whistled for a double technical foul, it felt like the referees wanted to make sure both teams knew that they weren't going to allow much of the rough stuff, or at least allow the teams to get away with it. And that was to Boston's detriment.

Going into this series, I thought the Celtics had to have a few things fall correctly for them if they were going to win. Firstly, Rajon Rondo had to play out of his mind. Rondo vs. Derek Fisher/Jordan Farmar is the only place on the basketball court that the Celtics have a real, surefire advantage. In my opinion, Rondo can't just have solid games. They have to be dominating. Secondly, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett can't be as inconsistent as they have been so far in the playoffs. And the Celtics had to play a physical style to test Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom and try to take Ron Artest out of his game.

None of those things happened.

Rondo looked good early on, but he wasn't dominant in any way. He didn't shoot well, but more importantly, he didn't look like he wanted to take the game over like they needed him to. He made some quality passes, especially in transition, but Boston needed him to finish rather than hand off to a Kevin Garnett who had a hard time finishing or kick out to shooters who couldn't get their shot off freely because of the Lakers' defensive length.

While Pierce's numbers look decent (24 points and 9 rebounds), he wasn't effective. He missed all four of his three-point-shots and half of his points came at the free throw line, which is mostly because the referees called the game so closely. Ron Artest played him physically, frustrated him, and made him work hard on the other end as well. Pierce looked like a completely different player than the 2008 version who was the soul to Kevin Garnett's heart.

Garnett is an absolute shadow of himself. He showed energy early, but it wasn't enough. Pau Gasol blocked his patented turnaround jumper twice, and it seemed to deflate him. On one play in the fourth quarter that summed up his night, Rondo fed him what should've been an easy dunk, yet he didn't jump high enough and decided to lay it in and didn't even get it above the rim. And on the other side of the ball, Gasol had his way with him.

The Lakers were the more physical team in the end. Ray Allen was in foul trouble all night, and his replacement Tony Allen couldn't blink without getting whistled himself. But the Celtics can't solely blame the tempo of the game on the referees because it was called like that both ways. Boston was called for twenty eight fouls, while the Lakers had twenty six.

Within all that ugly, I thought the two Lakers' stars, Kobe and Paul, played beautifully. I found myself just watching Kobe, even when he didn't have the ball in his hands. Other than a couple games against Oklahoma City where he just seemed frustrated, this has been a terrific playoffs for him. He was able to get to the rim at will, slicing through the Celtics' defense. And no one even tried knocking him down.

After game one, I think anything having to do with Pau Gasol and the word soft should be disassociated. This was an opportunity for him to prove that the Gasol who was shoved around in 2008 is a different player and he did just that. Because of early foul trouble to both Andrew Bynam and Lamar Odom, Gasol ended up playing 47 out of the 48 minutes, scoring 23 points, gathering 14 rebounds, blocking 3 shots, and helped hold Kevin Garnett and Kendrick Perkins to a combined 7 rebounds. He was the best big man on the court by far.

The Celtics are going to need to turn up the defensive intensity in game two and ask Rondo to come up huge. Or else, they're going to be in a big hole going back to Boston.