[KingKolzig]

and by shutdown i mean as well as lebron did. cause if he is as good a defender as lebron and he does play Pierce then i think the Celtics lose in 6

[kobefanatic]

pierce will get bothered by artest so no more heroic game like he did in 08

[KingKolzig]

i think ppl are overlooking this important matchup this series. the most important i believe. will artest get away with bruce bowen like tactics? can pierce drive past him to get into the paint? is artest really that great a defender? inputs folks?

[wrongturn]

not sure about shutdown, but should be better than whoever guided pierce in 08.

[jmiezie]

I LOVE THIS MATCHUP! Artest is very MOTIVATED right now.. He knows his role on this team and its to SHUT DOWN PIERCE.. After his game winning shot the other night the guy went straight to the GYM.. and then comes out in game 6 and drops 25.. Artest is gonna be huge for the Lakers in this series and I am very excited for Thursday!

[Slim]

Artest is going to choke.

[suicidekings]

If I was Doc Rivers, I think I would take a page out of the Suns defensive playbook (ha!, I know...) and incorporate that tough Zone D. Not rely on it as much as the Suns did, but the Lakers looked really lost at times trying to penetrate. Bynum is hurt and Pau had a very frustrating series. Imagine if the Celtics play them man to man in the first half of game one only to switch to the Zone in the 2H.

Beyond that, you have to think that considering the defensive plan Doc had to punish the Magic, disrupting them badly, that he'll have something worked out to frustrate the Lakers.

[Goat Milk]

just put it this way suicide, if Kobe plays the way he did against the suns, opening the game with a fluid jumpshot, not driving, and just shooting, the celtics are in big big trouble. Once you get up on Kobe to stop his jumpshot, you're finished unless you're going to play a zone.

[suicidekings]

just put it this way suicide, if Kobe plays the way he did against the suns, opening the game with a fluid jumpshot, not driving, and just shooting, the celtics are in big big trouble. Once you get up on Kobe to stop his jumpshot, you're finished unless you're going to play a zone.

I don't think the question in this series is if the Celtics are going to stop Kobe. He's playing his best right now and is going to get his points in this series. The question is how effectively the Celtics are going to defend the rest of the Lakers, particularly Gasol/Bynum/Odom in the paint. They all had their moments in the Suns series, but were largely frustrated by the Suns.

[Goat Milk]

I know i'm not saying Kobe is going to be the question. There are dozens of other factors. I just was saying that it'd be smart for the celtics to play a zone and they probably will once they realize that you can't guard Bryant 1 on 1. This isn't the same Kobe as 08.

[Snowball]

Pierce can hurt you in a lot of ways. He's lethal inside and outside.

[KingKolzig]

celts will somewhat contain gasol and odom, they are so good inside on d so look for those guys to get frustrated. kobe of course will go for 28+ a game. and i dont see stern influencing this series either except to get it to game 6 or 7. so i think its straight up the best team wins, and if pierce shoots 35-40% and cant have a few real good games i dont see the celts winning. remember how good he was 2 years ago, will artest change that? remember how he messed up durant, durant is better than pierce

[initialX]

Artest going to get foul out if he guarding Pierce too aggressive because Pierce is a master at drawing fouls.

[suicidekings]

Durant went off for 25ppg in the series. It's hard to argue how much he was really contained by Artest. The Lakers won that series by putting a decent effort on Durant and shutting down the rest of the team (except Westbrook), knowing that Durant/Westbrook couldn't win it by themselves.

LAL vs OKC and LAL vs BOS is not a fair comparision at all unless you think Krstic/Sefolosha/Green are equivalent to Perkins/Garnett/Allen.

No matter how much effort you put into Pierce, Boston has more ways to hurt you.

[lakerboy]

Durant went off for 25ppg in the series. It's hard to argue how much he was really contained by Artest. The Lakers won that series by putting a decent effort on Durant and shutting down the rest of the team (except Westbrook), knowing that Durant/Westbrook couldn't win it by themselves.

LAL vs OKC and LAL vs BOS is not a fair comparision at all unless you think Krstic/Sefolosha/Green are equivalent to Perkins/Garnett/Allen.

No matter how much effort you put into Pierce, Boston has more ways to hurt you.

Durant shot 43-123 from the field and took 62 ft's in 6 games to get 25 points ppg. I think Artest contained him pretty good considering the guy won the scroing title at 30.3 ppg. 35% shooting to the nba scoring champ is great defense considering that same guy shot 47.6% in the reg season. Artest was brought in to defend Melo/Lebron/Pierce. Melo lit up Ariza last year so the lakers made a good move in getting him. Now imo he will prove his worth.

[only_one]

no way

[KingKolzig]

Durant shot 43-123 from the field and took 62 ft's in 6 games to get 25 points ppg. I think Artest contained him pretty good considering the guy won the scroing title at 30.3 ppg. 35% shooting to the nba scoring champ is great defense considering that same guy shot 47.6% in the reg season. Artest was brought in to defend Melo/Lebron/Pierce. Melo lit up Ariza last year so the lakers made a good move in getting him. Now imo he will prove his worth.

thats what im talking about. if he does that to pierce it will be the difference i think. yes the celts can score in other ways but if artest shuts down pierce and with lakers having home court i think lakers win. you can see it in phil jacksons face after they beat the suns, when asked about the celts he had a little grin. i think he knows that they can do it this time around. i dont agree that the lakers are that much better than last year or two years ago but the big-3 are like 95% of what they were then so i think lakers in 7

[kobefanatic]

thats what im talking about. if he does that to pierce it will be the difference i think. yes the celts can score in other ways but if artest shuts down pierce and with lakers having home court i think lakers win. you can see it in phil jacksons face after they beat the suns, when asked about the celts he had a little grin. i think he knows that they can do it this time around. i dont agree that the lakers are that much better than last year or two years ago but the big-3 are like 95% of what they were then so i think lakers in 7

lakers are better this year than in 08

[podunk]

celtics are battered and bruised...lakers repeat

[Scorpion]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3339

[acarmelo1]

yayooooo

[Goat Milk]

Durant shot 43-123 from the field and took 62 ft's in 6 games to get 25 points ppg. I think Artest contained him pretty good considering the guy won the scroing title at 30.3 ppg. 35% shooting to the nba scoring champ is great defense considering that same guy shot 47.6% in the reg season. Artest was brought in to defend Melo/Lebron/Pierce. Melo lit up Ariza last year so the lakers made a good move in getting him. Now imo he will prove his worth.

Its not about shooting percent its about POINTS PER SHOT.

How many points per shot did Durant average in the series. Shooting percentage is the most irrelevant stat out there that seems to mess with peoples heads. If you shoot 6-17, but get to the line and hit 13-15 at the line and end up with 28 points for the game, that is phenomenal.

Coaches try to say limit guys like Kobe and Wade to 1 point per shot. That is the defensive goal. If Artest "contains" durant to 6 for 17 shooting but still lets him get to the line 15 times, he did not do his job.

[Goat Milk]

No Artest won't shut down Pierce, no one can shut down Pierce, but Artest is probably the best cover in the league on Pierce because he doesn't fall for the pump.

Study Artest on tape defensively. He doesn't fall for pump fakes and keeps his feet on the ground always. Pierce's move is one dribble going towards the elbow step back jumper. Artest knows this move. And its going to be hard for pierce to create separation because he can't really use his strength against Ron.

The main thing here is that Artest will make pierce work so hard to get his 23 ppg that he'll be exhausted at the end of games.

[lakerboy]

Its not about shooting percent its about POINTS PER SHOT.

How many points per shot did Durant average in the series. Shooting percentage is the most irrelevant stat out there that seems to mess with peoples heads. If you shoot 6-17, but get to the line and hit 13-15 at the line and end up with 28 points for the game, that is phenomenal.

Coaches try to say limit guys like Kobe and Wade to 1 point per shot. That is the defensive goal. If Artest "contains" durant to 6 for 17 shooting but still lets him get to the line 15 times, he did not do his job.

refs are always going to let guys like durant get to the line thats why phil was trying to get the edge in that dept before the series. artest defends like a beast but nba allows to much bullshit wishy washy fouls. as for pps your right. how many pps did durant avg in that series?

[Goat Milk]

refs are always going to let guys like durant get to the line thats why phil was trying to get the edge in that dept before the series. artest defends like a beast but nba allows to much bullshit wishy washy fouls. as for pps your right. how many pps did durant avg in that series?

no clue bro i'm way to lazy to check but I know it was probably above 1.2 points per shot. Maybe around 1.4 I would estimate. No one can get to the line like Durant. And it really wasn't only Artest on Durant he was drawing so much more attention. So its easy to give Artest the credit but it really wasn't just him.

Like yesterday, Amare still dropped like 28 on the Lakers even though he could have played better. But Gasol shouldn't get the credit for that. Amare was drawing tripple teams at times. Just way to much attention on him and you saw how the Suns folded quickly without his production early on. That just clearly shows you that Phil was way more concerned with Amare like I said. He's the best player on the Suns by far. Sttep aside Nash fans.

Pierce is really going to have a hard time drawing fouls, Artest won't fall for those pumps. Any calls Pierce gets are gonna have to be driving to the rim he's not going to get those pump fake fouls at the elbow against Ron.

[Ralphie1412]

Ray Allen defense kobe as well as anyone can. KG and Pau are a great matchup thats kinda heated. I dont think Artest can "shutdown" pierce but its another good matchup.

I cant wait, I wanted this series. The Lakers took what was the celtics with KG on the bench. Its payback time.

[Goat Milk]

If the celts think they can play Kbe the same way they did in 08, they have another thing comin at them.

[Carnage]

Artest is very overrated on D, and after a few atrocious games he drops in a game winner and all of a sudden he is the greatest defender in the playoffs again. He will be the reason why the Lakers don't win this series, somehow, someway.

[tealish]

Pierce won't be shut down by Artest. I don't know why everybody thinks Artest is still a shutdown defender. He's not.

[Shafted69]

There's no kobe stopper on the CELTS but there's a paul stopper on LA. Pierce's scoring average will drop in the finals and they will leave rondo open for jump shots but not let him penetrate. That is how you stop the C's. Garnett isn't the same as he was 2 years ago and should be neutralized by gasol.











-

[will2survive]

Artest will be a nuisance

[Goat Milk]

Artest might not even guard Pierce some of the time.

[Gopi-1]

Artest going to get foul out if he guarding Pierce too aggressive because Pierce is a master at drawing fouls.

I agree... If you even graze any of Pierce's body hair, he'll act like he got hammered and
the refs always falls for it, and he already got a trophy as proof for that great acting sh*t...

[Holtgetsback]

Lot's of good matchups....

[suicidekings]

I agree... If you even graze any of Pierce's body hair, he'll act like he got hammered and
the refs always falls for it, and he already got a trophy as proof for that great acting sh*t...

The Lakers have their own award winning actor in Derek Fisher...