zao mi je sto sam zaspao ..al bezze je sto nemaju reprizu ..sad sam ih zvao, kazu zar nema (
) aj dobro pitacemo urednika..
..nasa posla ..
http://www.nba.com/finals2008/celtics_20080612.html
What the Celtics Do Best
By John Schuhmann
LOS ANGELES, June 12, 2008 -- The Celtics' win in Game 4 of the 2008 NBA Finals was the biggest Finals comeback in the last 37 years. And it was fueled by ... you guessed it ... defense. This is the Boston Celtics we're talking about, the best defensive team in the league.
Of course, they didn't show that in the first half at STAPLES Center Thursday night, as the Lakers eviscerated the Celtics' D to the tune of 58 points on 50 percent shooting, moving the ball and getting to the rim at will.
Lamar Odom, he of the 9.3 points per game average on .419 shooting in the first three games of the series, had 15 points on 7-of-7 shooting in the first 24 minutes of Game 4. Five different Lakers had hit threes and L.A. had 15 assists on 19 field goals.
They led by as many as 24 in the second quarter and by 18 at the half. Then five minutes into the third, the lead was at 20 when Doc Rivers called a timeout to stop an 8-0 L.A. run.
At that moment, the game, and perhaps the series, changed course.
Out of the timeout, the Celtics went on a 23-5 run, sparked on both ends of the floor by Paul Pierce. Pierce, tenaciously guarding Kobe Bryant, led a defense, the real Celtics' defense, that held the Lakers to just one field goal over the final seven minutes of the third.
But the turnaround actually started in the locker room at the half, when Pierce volunteered to guard Bryant.
"Paul came to me at halftime," Doc Rivers revealed after the game, "and said, 'I want to guard Kobe. Let me guard him.'"
Even though the Lakers had built their lead without Bryant hitting a field goal in the first half, the Celtics knew he would look to come out firing in the third.
"If you've paid attention to them all year," Kevin Garnett said, "usually the first half is team ball, second half is usually Kobe takes over the games."
Pierce had no fouls at the break and knew that he could be more physical with Bryant. "It would take [Bryant] off the post," Rivers said, "so we went with it and it was terrific."
Terrific because Pierce gave Bryant no room to breathe. He was in his shirt all period and made every possession tough.
"If he can go out there and make him work for everything he got," Pierce said afterward, "you give yourselves a chance, and that's all I wanted to do, just make him work."
After making two contested jumpers over Pierce early in the third, Bryant missed the last five shots he took in the quarter, including a turnaround in the post that Pierce rejected, fueling a Ray Allen fast break. More importantly, the Lakers lost all of the offensive rhythm and confidence that they had in the first half. Bryant, perhaps feeling challenged by the defensive switch, tried to do things himself.
And the Celtics, thanks to nine points and three assists from Pierce in the period, as well as some much-needed bench production, climbed all the way back to within two points as the period came to a close. It was a 23-5 run over the final seven minutes of the quarter.
The tenacious defense continued in the fourth, as the Celtics completed their comeback. Trailing by four with five and a half minutes to go, they finished the game on a 20-10 run. In the final minutes, Pierce, having carried the load on both ends of the floor while playing the entire second half, was exhausted.
"He was dead tired," Leon Powe said, "and we saw him sucking it up and he wasn't complaining. Everybody just wanted to dig deeper and just help him out and that's what we did. It was a team effort though. We had his back."
The Celtics' offense, scoring on their final 10 possessions of the game, was the difference down the stretch, but it was the defense that got them there. The Lakers shot just 8-for-21 in the final 12 minutes. After scoring 58 points in the first half, they scored just 33 in the second. The Celtics scored 57.
"The defense is going to create the offense," P.J. Brown said, "and we're going to feed off of that. Once we got into a defensive groove, it just happened offensively."
In baseball, good pitching beats good hitting. And in basketball, we're finding out that great defense beats great offense. And while we don't think of Paul Pierce as a great defensive player, we shouldn't be surprised that Pierce, as hungry for a title as anyone else on the floor and unwilling to know how badly his right knee is injured, was the heart of that defense tonight.
After the game, Pierce's teammates poured on the praise...
James Posey: "Paul did a great job. You don't get that nowadays with two superstars guarding each other, going back and forth and competing like that. That's the challenge that he wanted and he did a great job."
P.J. Brown: "If I wanted anybody on this team to take Kobe in a defensive situation, I want Paul on him."
Ray Allen: "You could just see he just went up another level of competition on both ends of the floor. He was guarding the Lakers' best player, and on offense he was attacking it just the same."
There's a saying that people use in sports about defense and championships. As we saw in the second half Thursday night, the Celtics have the defense.
And now they're one win away from the championship.