Lakers Blow Out Celtics 122-96

The Celtics were dominated by the Lakers in this one and the only reason we didn’t lose by 40 was that Kobe sat on the bench the entire 4th quarter because the game was already decided by the end of the 3rd quarter. There wasn’t much to be enthused about in this game but I will try to pick some highlights. One of the lowlights was the play of our Captain. While the Lakers’ star was scoring 38 points, dishing out 9 assists and grabbing 5 steals, the Celtics’ star was racking up 5 turnovers and a technical foul after turning the ball over on 3 consecutive plays. He finished with 15 points, 4 rebounds, and 6 assists but his bad plays stood out much more than the good he did.

On the positive side, Al continued his solid play with 18 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks and a steal. Scal played fairly well with 10 points and 5 rebounds in 25 minutes (but Powe played better). Green came off the bench and showed some fire with 21 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist and only 1 turnover. And the best positive of the night was that Doc finally put Powe in for some real minutes. Powe finished with 7 points, all on free throws, 4 rebounds, and 1 block in 15 minutes of play. The Herald had this to say:
One bright spot for the C’s was Leon Powe, who had seven points (all from the line) and four rebounds in 15 minutes. Expect to see more of him.
“I thought Leon was fanstastic,” Rivers said. “I’m going to play Leon a lot more because the one thing Leon does every night is he instigates. He’s physical and I’m going to put him on the floor. I could care less about the other stuff he doesn’t do.”
But then again, Doc said something like that the last time Powe got minutes and impressed and then he didn’t play him again for months, so we shall see. This kid does good things and deserves a shot.

The point guard situation was a bit shaky last night. West started and played decently, filling up the stat line with 12 points (5-13 shooting), 5 assists, 4 rebounds, and 4 steals. But neither Rondo nor Telfair could get much going behind him. Telfair played 17 minutes and shot 1-7 for 3 points with 3 assists and 3 turnovers. Rondo shot 0-6 with 3 rebounds, 2 stteals and 2 turnovers in just 15 minutes. Rondo is still clearly playing better than Telfair, but Doc has been giving more minutes to Telfair lately.

We play the Jazz tonight and our luck is still the same. Boozer and Williams both came back from injuries last night and played well. Tonight would have been tough even without them but now it will be very hard to win. I just hope they are competitive. I hate to see them giving up like they did last night.

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