laker creampuffs in beantown (so far)

aaagh!

the agony of being a laker fan watching the game in boston. in the first four minutes of the game i’ve watched pau gasol and luke walton actively avoid contact and fail to even make a move toward the basket after shots go up…oh the pain of it…after that, in comes chris mihm, there to let you know someone tall is nearby and that you should go ahead and go to the rim.

7:30 left in the second…eddie house gets a steal and goes the other way. drives to the hoop, and sasha vujacic shadows him on the way to the rim, but lays not a finger on him…i wonder what mchale would have done in the same situation?

the lakers make it clear…you can get to the basket…we’ll let you get there…anytime you want…go ahead…be our guest. josh powell, derek fisher, and trevor ariza seem to feel differently, but the rest of ’em? oh…my…god…

you know, as i watch leon powe give a clinic on inside play, i find myself thinking about mark landsberger. for those of you too young to have watched showtime, landsberger was the guy on a lakers squad full of stars whose job it was to go get rebounds. he was amazing at it…a guy with no obvious physical gifts, who was just totally committed to getting rebounds. that was his contribution, and he had no role in putting the ball in the basket. he started. this lakers team needs someone like that, and has for awhile.

42 sec left in the first half. kendrick perkins, the four of us lakers standing around you here (kobe, pau, luke walton, and josh powell) so admire you for having gotten that offensive rebound that we will stay here on the ground like statuary…we think you should just jump up to the rim and drop that ball in.

meanwhile, a couple of moments ago fisher got blocked by paul pierce on a breakaway to the basket. but then, pierce plays a different style than the lakers…he jumps *toward* the guy going up, not parallel with or away from him.

perfect end of half for the puffs…lose the lead, give the ball away with 1.9 sec left, and then dodge a bullet when an unguarded ray allen misses a wide open jumper.