Lakers & Celtics Game 1, Part Deux

And now a follow-up live blog of the second half:

• Uh oh, Pierce goes down. Of course, will we see Pierce make a dramatic comeback to inspire his team? This injury has the same feeling as when Bird banged his head and came back, or when Magic sprained his ankle against Ohio State in 79 then came back. Could spell trouble for the Lakers.
  
• The NBA needs to step up enforcement of the moving screen penalty. Seriously, every pick PJ Brown sets is moving. Pretty easy for Ray Allen to get open when he has a fullback blocking for him as he darts around the court.
• Yeahp, here comes Pierce. Crap. Of course, I'm not sure he was out long enough to warrant a full fledged "holly crap, Pierce is playing with a life-threatening shrapnel wound, I better step it up so we don't lose this game" from his teammates.
• Kobe's hang time on the alley-oop from Fisher with 2:50 to play in the 3rd was simply unreal. What an athlete.
• And Kobe follows it up with a double teamed, hand in his face, falling away from the basket 20 footer. The man is an assassin.
• Two big threes from Pierce to put Boston up 4. Pierce is a warrior, no doubt about that, and he would be truly unstoppable if he didn't let himself get psyched out by other players.
• Through the end of the third, Boston is maintaining a big lead in rebounds, 33-21. It's actually kind of surprising they aren't up by more than 4.
• Is it just me or is the split screen ABC commercial with Kobe and KG about liking the "fear" kind of ridiculous? Does anybody see that commercial and think KG is anywhere near as ready as Kobe is? I mean, I love the Big Ticket, but there's a reason he's never been to the finals before and Kobe has 3 rings.
• Why exactly was that not a back court violation? Because Garnett jumped in the air? So if you make contact with the ball in the backcourt after going over the line but happen to be jumping it's allowed? I never knew that.
• OK we need to officially nickname PJ Brown "The Fullback." Can the Vikings look at teaming him up with Adrian Peterson in the fall? I suppose the danger would be that he would set an NFL record for holding penalties in a season. Unreal.
• The Lakers sure are having trouble executing offensively down the stretch. When you have Gasol, Odom, and Bryant on your team and you are consistently having Ronny Turiaf and Sasha Vujacic take shots, it's time for a timeout.
• 2 minutes to go and Kobe has only scored 2 in the fourth quarter? Tough to believe the Lakers will pull this one out.
• And Garnett gets the follow-up dunk of his life. How does Gasol not box him out on that play? That's gonna be a youtube classic.
• And it's all over, the Celtics take a classic game one to start this series off.

Wow. If the first game is any indication, this looks like it will be a monster of a series. Biggest questions remaining from tonight's game (and my predictions):

• Have the Celtics stopped Kobe or was he just not hitting?
• Umm, definitely the latter.
  
• Can anyone in the Laker front-court keep KG off the boards?
• Not looking like it.
  
• Will the Celtics continue to get the kind of production off the bench they got tonight?
• Doubtful, but Cassell has come through on a big stage before.
  
• What defensive adjustments will Phil Jackson make to contain Paul Pierce?
• Continue to force Pierce to be a jump shooter, tonight's strong showing from outside was an aberration.
  
• Will Eddie House's son see more playing time than Eddie?
• More than likely, yes.
  
• Is Luke Walton going to make any impact off the bench?
• At home? Absolutely. On the road? Hopefully he can D-up and pull down some rebounds.
  
• Will Ronny Turiaf resort to his normal Rastafarian dreads after the Duncan MacLeod pony tail didn't work?
• Man I hope so.

Things are off to a great start!