Punks Get Up to Get Beat Down

2-0 heading to L.A. Paul not only looks healthy, he has been the series best player hands down. Rondo is dominating the ancient Fisher. Ray Allen has found his stroke. KG is being his dominant self. The bench is going nuts. Best of all, the Lakers have yet to effectively defend the Celtics for a period more than 5 minutes. The Championship is nigh.

My two favorite parts of the game were the respective blocks by Rondo and Pierce on Laker threes. We got these suckas.

Despite the Lakers furious comeback in Game 2, they are a team in disarray. Brutalized by a 6-8 bench player, the Lakers have shown little or no appetite for physical basketball. Instead, the 'embittered because we entitled' duo of Kobe and Phil spent their post game interview pointing fingers at the officials. Better still, Pau spent his post game wondering aloud why he doesn't get the ball more often. Fun stuff.

The irony of Kobe, Phil and the Laker's front running fans complaining about calls is too sweet for words. To think of every heavy elbow the Daddy dropped into Sabas' jaw for an 'and one', every touch foul Kobe 'earned' 23-plus feet from the basket. . . or better yet, to think of the Laker bloggers and chat board geeks belittling of officiating complaints of Blazers, Wolves, Spurs and Kings fans over their run early in the millennium.

Sure there were some tough calls versus LA last night. Both Kobe and Farmar literally had their arms grabbed on whistle-less drives to the hole. But have you seen Kobe put his body on the line once this series? Remember Bron getting knocked to the earth again and again versus Boston? Dude knew that to get into he paint against the Celtics means taking a hit. Kobe knows that too, and yet he chooses to blame the refs. Pitiful. How was it the refs' fault that Leon Powe dribbled 3/4 court for a two-handed cram shot?

The Kob-ster talked about learning some things from the Lakers' 6 minutes of scoring in the 4th quarter. What did they learn? When the Celtics stop concentrating that the Lakers can play well on offense? Good luck building on that edge.

The Celtics see the blood in the water. The travails versus the kiddies in the ATL, Cleveland's Team LeBron, and the Motor City marauders have prepared them well. All 12 guys are locked in. If L.A. has a weak first half at the Staples, this series is a sweep. Unless L.A. has a radical change in character, there is no way Boston is not winning at least one out West.