Good game Pau.

I’m calling shenanigans, LA should not even have Pau Gasol because the trade to Memphis that took Kwame Brown, and Jarvaris Crittenton, who are good for nothing, and Marc Gasol who is a borderline good player/stiff, was so lopsided it should have been vetoed. Then Kobe would have a garbage supporting cast, would be known for selling out teammates on the court worse than Dwayne Bowe off of the field, and would take the same heat Lebron is getting now for not being able to elevate his team past the 2nd round.

In all seriousness though, Gasol was terrific tonight and Kobe as well, and the Celtics did not play well at all. Not enough good looks at the hoop, turnovers and too many second chances for LA that kept the Celtics out of this game for almost its entirety. There has to come a point though where the refs put the whistles away. It was not to the point where it favored one team, but it cheated the game and they are allowing players to flop at any point of contact and receive the call.

This is going to be a series. I have no doubts the Celtics will bring it for Game 2. They just did not play well. KG looked like he had down syndrome when he shot that lay-up and went back for the tip-in that looked even worse. I would really like to see Doc put Pierce on Kobe, the physical mismatch between Ray Allen and Artest will not hurt the team significantly. In fact I’d rather see LA go to Ron if Allen is on him and try to exploit it in the post, Boston would be better off than letting Kobe have an easier time with Allen on him than Pierce.

If there is one thing we know from Game 1 it is that Gasol is a much different player from ’08, and KG needs to step it up and neutralize him to give the Celtics the ability to win this series.