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After game 3 of the NBA Finals we still have yet to see the Lakers play their best. Last night was certainly the best game they played thus far, but Boston still had a chance to win late. If I’m Phil Jackson, last night does not make me feel any better about my team for the rest of this series. The Celtics have gotten the Lakers completely out of sync offensively (which does not always matter when Kobe is on; the guy can win games by himself). Even on a night that the Lakers were the aggressor, they had very little offensive rhythm.

The Lakers can’t rely on Sasha Vujacic scoring 20 points a game. Pau Gasol only had 9. Lamar Odom, who I am now convinced is the homeless man’s Chris Webber, only had 4. Kobe won that game in the 4th for the Lakers offensively and Vujacic played outstanding basketball (although, as John Hollinger pointed out yesterday, he still takes too many long two-point shots, just terrible shots), but it is a good thing that the Lakers decided to step up their defensive game a notch (the three early fouls on Paul Pierce helped too; guy couldn’t get going at all after that).

All year (as I believe Mike Breen pointed out during the telecast) the Lakers have been one of the most inconsistent defensive teams around and last night they really decided to lock down on defense and their best chances on offense came in transition, which is certainly going to have to continue because the Celtics are one of the more consistent defensive teams in the league. I can’t see Lamar Odom getting going at this point (maybe one 20 point game, but let’s be honest, Phil Jackson would probably just love 10 from the guy) and I’m not sure Pau Gasol has any more big games coming either. The Celtics have basically stymied the Lakers half court sets, especially in the paint. As much of a baffoon as he is sometimes, Kendrick Perkins is a large human and can really be physical dwon in the paint and obviously Garnett is one of the best defenders ever down there. That’s why the Lakers will really have to continue to rely on their defense to get their offense rolling.

This could pose a problem because I don’t for a second believe that Boston has played their best offensive basketball. They’ve had an “abberation game” (Simmons line) from Leon Powe, Paul Pierce played great offensive basketball in games 1 and 2 and Ray Allen put up 25 last night. But they haven’t had a game where each of the big three has really gotten theirs and each looked strong on the offensive end. They’ve gotten points, but they haven’t had a great offensive game. This is mostly because Garnett’s shooting percentage is 35.5% for the series, but Pierce was awful last night too. They Lakers are going to have to give consistent effort on the defensive end to make sure that the Celtics can’t get into an offensive rhythm. The rhythm happened in the 3rd last night and Boston stormed back and looked like they may take the game. Then the Lakers seemed to step up their effort on the defensive end and sealed the game. If they are going to have a chance in this series that defensive mindset has to remain.

When this series began, I was a little surprised at the love the Lakers were getting. I felt they were going to win, but not in 5 games like most people were predicting. You don’t win 66 games during the regular season and not come to play in the Finals so the Celtics were going to put up more fight than 5 games. But the Celtics have really pushed the Lakers and this series is going to be tight all the way. I really don’t have a prediction on who will win because their are so many ways that this can play out, but whatever way it does play out it should be really interesting.

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