I will say it until I am purple in the face, the Lakers cannot beat the Celtics without significant minutes from Andrew Bynum. Anyone that does not realize that he is the difference maker for LA is either ignorant to the game of basketball or seriously thinks that he is easily replaceable.
In the last two games, the Celtics have been able to finally do two things that the could not do - drive to the basket and hoard offensive rebounds. These things are much harder to do with someone of Bynum's width and length in the paint. Interestingly enough, the plan before the Finals began was to play the big young C for roughly 24 minutes a night, half a game, surely spreading out his minutes to guarantee time on the floor during the stretch runs in the 4th would make sense. Instead, Bynum logged 29 minutes (not bad) in game 1 and was dominant. He logged 39 minutes, for no good reason, in game 2 and the Lake Show lost. He tallied 29 minutes in game 3's win and again controlled the paint. In the game 4 loss, his knee was shot and he played a meaningless 12 minutes. In the game 5 loss, he hobbled around, logged 31 minutes but had 0 impact on defense and did not play down the stretch. That was with an extra day of rest. Now the teams are flying cross-country, have only Monday off, and Bynum needs to get better or the height/length/paint advantage shifts to the Green/White.
No comments:
Post a Comment