By Kyle Soppe
The Lakers came into the famed Boston Garden and left with a hard fought 88-87 win in overtime, ending the Celtics five game winning streak.
This was a tight game throughout, as the Lakers largest lead was four points, and that came halfway through the overtime period.
Pau Gasol has taken this month (four games) to separate himself from the “soft” title that the public, and Chris Paul, have saddled him with. The Laker forward tallied 14 rebounds last night, giving him 58 in February.
Kobe Bryant missed his two three point attempts, the first time in seven games in which the Black Mamba hasn’t canned a long ball.
The artist currently known as Metta World Peace has peaced out of the box scores of late. He managed two points against the Celtics, giving him one made field goal or less in seven of the teams last eight games. Even when he makes multiple shots, they rarely come in bunches, as he has only recorded double digit points twice since late December.
Matt Barnes, who doesn’t start and played less than 18 minutes on Thursday, attempted more free throws than the entire Celtics roster. And we aren’t talking about a guy who shoots a lot of free throws, as Barnes has attempted 0 FT’s in half of the Lakers games this season.
Onto the home team, who recorded a season high 97 shot attempts. It took them 25 less shots to score a season high 107 points against the Heat on December 27th.
Many of those shots came from Kevin Garnett, who let a season high 23 shots fly from the field. It is reasonable to think that in a game in which KG took that many shots, that his point total would reflect the aggressive style. Not so much, as Garnett scored 12 points, a total he matches or surpasses in 72% of Boston’s games. KG only attempted two free throws, as a result of settling for perimeter shots. This is a disturbing trend, as Garnett has attempted two or fewer free throws in more than half of the games this season.
Boston only had three players attempt a three pointer, but they combined for 19 attempts.
A day after every team who won the assist battle won the game, the Celtics out assisted LA by nine and lost. Rajon Rondo and Paul Pierce combined for 14 helpers, more than the Laker team.
The “Big Four” of Boston accounted for more than three quarters of the Celtics production. They scored 75.9% of the points, took 76.3% of the shots, and took every free throw.
Twelve games highlight tonight’s NBA schedule, what would you like to see broken down and dissected? Post or tweet me @unSOPable23 with requests.
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