What an interesting Christmas all these games. I'll recap the others in the other thread...
The Lakers played as if they were back in the finals. it's always amazing how much more a player can "turn it up." If Pau can be that much of a presence why doesn't he do it more often? Kobe and Fischer are the only players who seem to get the concept of developing habitual toughness and passion (Although Fischer is getting old and bad). I couldn't coach Vujacic. He irks me. I don't enjoy watching him. his comments are feeble minded. Anyways, if the Lakers play like this more often, especially Ariza and Gasol, they'll be hard to stop. Odom seems to have lost all confidence though, something that'll be hard to overcome.
Boston looked like they're just simply getting a bit restless. Very few teams can remain that intense for the entirety of an NBA season. They've now lost two in a row. I suspect they'll cruise for a while and then turn it up in awhile. I'm not sure the bench is a problem though. I disagree that other benches are that much better. I think the NBA in general is simply diluted. How many bench players should be starting? When I watched the league in my early teen years the bench players were just better. However, if TA isn't going to be any sort of sparkplug then they'll be a bit thin and may need some help off the bench.
