Stan McNeal
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- Of course, the Lakers can bounce back. Don't be silly. The sun, after all, will come up today. Maybe not in L.A. but somewhere. Probably in Boston.
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1. The Celtics are banged up. Three starters are considerably less than 100 percent. Well, that's what the team says, anyway. The Celtics' credibility regarding the severity of injuries has to be viewed with a little "Hmm. Really?" skepticism after the Paul Pierce deal in Game 1.
Coach Doc Rivers said Friday that Pierce tweaked both an ankle and his sprained knee Thursday night. A sprained ankle also has slowed point guard Rajon Rondo, and center Kendrick Perkins may have the most serious injury -- a strained left shoulder suffered when he fouled Lamar Odom on Thursday night. Perkins underwent testing on the banged-up shoulder Friday, and Rivers was not optimistic. "That could be significant," he said. Perkins' chances of playing on Sunday are iffy, at best, although he claimed Saturday that there's a "strong possibility" he can play in Game 5.
2. The Lakers have Kobe Bryant. And he has added incentive, according to his coach, Phil Jackson. At Jackson's press conference Friday, he said Kobe would be driven to bounce back from a 6-for-19 shooting performance because of something Kevin Garnett said following Game 4. What, exactly, did Garnett say to rile the Lakers? Jackson wouldn't be specific, telling a questioner, "they're in the transcripts."
OK, here's my guess after checking the transcripts. Garnett: "If you watch them, if you've paid attention to them all year, usually the first half is team ball, second half is usually Kobe takes over the games. They weren't nearly as aggressive as they were the first half. It just looks like they wanted to get the ball to Kobe and him sort of finish it off. That's what it looked like to me."
Translation: Either Jackson is trying to create a bit of controversy where there isn't much or Kobe is pretty thin-skinned to consider that an insult.
3. The Lakers are at home. Well, that didn't work on Thursday. The Lakers lost at the Staples Center for the first time since March. Still, when playing consecutive games at home this season, the Lakers have only lost both games once.
4. They'll be rested. Jackson called off practice on Friday, after checking the shape of the team during a morning video session. "We have guys that are well-conditioned at this time, and we need rest and recuperation in this situation, probably more psychologically than we do physically," he said.
He said his decision was not based on whether the team took Kobe's suggested recommendation on how to deal with blowing a 24-point lead.
Kobe: "A lot of wine, a lot of beer, a couple shots, maybe like 20 of them, digest it, get back to work."
Jackson: "They looked relatively clear-eyed."
5. David Stern will tell the refs he wants an extended series. Relax. That's a joke. The league never ever would rig games. Only rogue refs acting on their own would. And there has been just one of those -- that we know about.
That being said, the way things have gone this week for L.A., it seems the odds of another crooked ref being outed are greater than the Lakers' chances of bouncing back against the Celtics.
Stan McNeal is a writer for Sporting News. E-mail him at smcneal@sportingnews.com.
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