… is what the Lakers managed to do last night. Garnett, had he not rebounded well, would have also been a huge negative, although he had three offensive and nine defensive boards, which is the same as Pau Gasol, who people incessantly call “soft.” Bryant really tried to take this game over, and managed to win it for his team, I admit that I was skeptical that such an approach would work (he had only one assist), but it seems to have in this case.
| tm | Player | MP | PTS | MEV | PVC | PtC | Credit | G/B |
| lal | Kobe Bryant | 45.25 | 36 | 28.07 | 0.370 | 33.39 | 0.397 | 2.62 |
| bos | Ray Allen | 41.42 | 25 | 25.54 | 0.370 | 28.91 | 0.344 | 4.06 |
| lal | Sasha Vujacic | 27.60 | 20 | 20.08 | 0.265 | 23.88 | 0.284 | 5.93 |
| bos | Kendrick Perkins | 28.45 | 8 | 16.05 | 0.232 | 18.17 | 0.216 | 5.10 |
| bos | James Posey | 24.60 | 9 | 12.25 | 0.177 | 13.86 | 0.165 | 5.94 |
| lal | Jordan Farmar | 20.05 | 5 | 11.55 | 0.152 | 13.74 | 0.164 | 6.67 |
| bos | Kevin Garnett | 41.98 | 13 | 10.17 | 0.147 | 11.52 | 0.137 | 1.49 |
| bos | Rajon Rondo | 21.87 | 8 | 7.62 | 0.110 | 8.622 | 0.103 | 1.97 |
| lal | Pau Gasol | 39.47 | 9 | 4.97 | 0.065 | 5.906 | 0.07 | 1.36 |
| lal | Trevor Ariza | 8.82 | 4 | 4.61 | 0.061 | 5.483 | 0.065 | 5.53 |
| bos | Eddie House | 19.80 | 6 | 4.82 | 0.070 | 5.461 | 0.065 | 1.74 |
| lal | Derek Fisher | 28.07 | 6 | 4.02 | 0.053 | 4.778 | 0.057 | 1.60 |
| lal | Luke Walton | 11.23 | 0 | 1.97 | 0.026 | 2.342 | 0.028 | 1.60 |
| bos | Sam Cassell | 6.85 | 2 | 0.95 | 0.014 | 1.07 | 0.013 | 1.29 |
| lal | Lamar Odom | 27.97 | 4 | 0.75 | 0.010 | 0.89 | 0.011 | 1.05 |
| lal | Ronny Turiaf | 18.87 | 0 | 0.26 | 0.003 | 0.31 | 0.004 | 1.16 |
| lal | Vladimir Radmanovic | 12.68 | 3 | -0.42 | -0.006 | -0.5 | -0.01 | 0.89 |
| bos | Leon Powe | 5.98 | 1 | -2.25 | -0.033 | -2.55 | -0.03 | 0.57 |
| bos | P.J. Brown | 17.48 | 3 | -2.39 | -0.035 | -2.7 | -0.03 | 0.68 |
| bos | Paul Pierce | 31.57 | 6 | -3.67 | -0.053 | -4.16 | -0.05 | 0.80 |
| Totals | 480 | 168 | 144.93 | 2.000 | 168 | 2.01 | 1.94 |
It is difficult to identify what to take away from this game: PP had a game last night like Kobe has been having all season against the Celtics–last night, some folks were saying that the Celts should take heart because their two best players played terribly, and they still made it a close game on the road. However, to the extent that LA caused their terrible play with good defense, this is not a reason to rejoice, unless they can come up with a better plan for the next game.
