| Vujacic And Farmar Can't Be Kobe's Best Options Authored by Christopher Reina - June 11, 2008 - 12:03 pm
The Big Ticket played his first Finals game in Los Angeles on Tuesday at Staples Center and I couldn’t find a single person in attendance who believed the Lakers would have a better team with Kevin Garnett.
For about two or three years when it was becoming clear that Garnett couldn’t make the playoffs with the level of talent surrounding him in Minnesota and that Kobe Bryant was desperate for upgrades in Los Angeles to duplicate the two-star strategy he enjoyed with Shaq, almost everyone associated with the NBA expected KG to end up in Malibu year-round with the Lakers.
Getting Garnett would have meant losing Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom and the potential foursome of Bryant, Pau Gasol and those two that would have been shipped to Minnesota are younger and deeper and could become dynastic.
But there is an uneasiness about the championship armor of Kobe’s supporting cast.
If Kobe is God and Pau is Jesus, Pau has been Jesus in his manger-stage during this year’s Finals.
Though Gasol was soft, at least he was a low volume soft, shooting just 3-9 from the floor. He also attempted eight free throws, but made just three of them. But he really wasn’t all that soft on the glass and on the defensive end of the floor; he grabbed 12 rebounds and helped hold Garnett to 6-21 shooting.
But instead of Kobe getting supplementary scoring from Gasol and Odom, it is Sasha Vujacic hitting corner 3’s in crunch time and getting the newly created ‘Leon Powe Unexpected Player Of The Game Award.’
Vujacic shot 7-10 from the field and 3-5 from 3-point territory and was really the only player down the stretch beyond Kobe who had the confidence of his team.
Also outplaying Kobe’s projected caddies was Jordan Farmar who had 5 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists in just 20 minutes of work, but more importantly didn’t back down to P.J. Brown in the first half of the game, which helped set a tone.
Even if the Lakers do win Games 4 and 5, Vuajcic and Farmar are unlikely to duplicate that play on the road, leaving Gasol and Odom to stop playing like marshmallows on offense.
Despite the Lakers being the aggressor and outplaying the Celtics in almost every facet of the game, Boston took a five-point lead in the second half. Los Angeles was +12 on free throw attempts, but went just 21-34, compared to 15-22 for the Celtics; not surprisingly the +6 was the end score differential.
How The Big 3’s Compared
Game 1 FIC40
Kobe: 6.8
Gasol: 14.9
Odom: 8.6
Garnett: 17.5
Pierce: 16.6
Allen: 13.5
Game 2 FIC40
Kobe: 18.9
Gasol: 18.4
Odom: 7.5
Garnett: 13.3
Pierce: 18.9
Allen: 7.9
Game 3 FIC40
Kobe: 16.2
Gasol: 6.7
Odom: 4.1
Garnett: 11.0
Pierce: -3.1
Allen: 18.5
Team Game FIC Scores
Game 1: BOS 69.9, LAL 54.8
Game 2: BOS 88.5, LAL 67.8
Game 3: LAL 61.3, BOS 55.8
Christopher Reina is the executive editor of RealGM |
