They watched a team dressed in green come up short when chasing loose balls and rebounds. In one second-half sequence, Kendrick Perkins and Kevin Garnett were close to a ball clanging off the rim, then watched as Ron Artest beat both of them for the offensive rebound.
The Celtics can point to the tight officiating as the source of their troubles, but the video revealed the truth. They were as sloppy as a Pop Warner game in a rainstorm, and they have one chance to respond with more of an effort or head home down, 0-2.
So the Celtics awoke from their stupor, trickled into Staples Center for practice, and shook their heads when asked why they followed up their Game 6 Eastern Conference finals win over Orlando with an almost unrecognizable outing.
“Well, they had a clip — we had a film clip with all the 50/50 [loose balls, long rebound] plays, and I don’t think we won none of them,’’ Celtics guard Rajon Rondo said, shaking his head at the podium. “They got all the loose balls. They dove on the floor first. They were the more aggressive team. Winning none of those categories, it’s hard to win a game.’’
While the Lakers were efficient and impressive offensively, evidenced by 48.7 percent shooting and a whopping 48-30 advantage on points in the paint, the Celtics blamed themselves for their lack of defensive execution. The Lakers offered no mysteries or riddles in Game 1, they went at the Celtics with ball movement, pick-and-rolls, and vicious attacks on the offensive boards.
The Celtics were burned by dribble penetration, which forced their big men, mostly Perkins and Garnett, to help on defense, which opened up lanes for Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. Of Gasol’s 14 shots, 10 came inside the paint, including four layups and a dunk.
Three of Bynum’s six shots were dunks and five were in the paint. The Celtics’ defense did little to push LA’s two big men away from the basket, and it resulted in easy hoops and a nonexistent Boston transition game.
