From an offensive standpoint, if Odom is on his game he will eat Pierce alive, if Garnett leaves Gasol to help on Odom, Gasol will have a huge series, I still say he is one of the best trailing big men in the NBA and they collapse on Odom, Pau will make them pay. I just don't see a defensive combo that can stop Gasol/Odom, assuming Odom is on his game. Radmanovich has been hitting his outside shot early and if this continues what does Garnett do then? He CANNOT leave the paint and Rad can shoot over anyone, including Pierce. NOBODY in Boston can guard Kobe, Allen is a joke of a defender and Rondo has not the speed. LA's passing is superior and IMO they need to play a true inside out game to give Odom room to operate, even if it does give Garnett more rebounding opportunities. LA's bench is slam dunk a better, faster, more athletic squad and Sasha will bomb away till he finds his stroke and forces Boston to respect him dooming them to give up post defense.
Defensively LA will have trouble with Garnett but not IMO Pierce, he has been hot an cold and Allen has been the height of inconsistant, and Sasha can guard him and bother his shot, but when LA's second unit faces Boston's, that is where we can shut them down, too much speed and too much energy.
Overall, for such a young team, LA has an awful lot of weapons on both ends of the floor. This is nowhere CLOSE to the teamBoston beat twice earlier in the season. They have speed all over Boston, and they were tested by MUCH tougher teams in the post season and it never looked like any of those series were in doubt, even for a game, which takes us to what everyone is agreeing on, coaching. Boston has not HALF the coaching skill Jackson and company bring to the series and this puts LA over the top. LA takes one of the first two in Boston and this series could be over in five.
