Lakers-Celtics: News, Notes, and Observations from Game One

With Game 1 of the NBA Finals in the books, I thought it was time for an NBA Finals edition of my News, Notes and Observations.

But first, this week's trivia question: Which university has produced the most number one overall picks in the NBA Draft?

1. Both sides have to be encouraged by the events of Game 1.

If you're the Lakers, you've got no reason to feel you're out of this series in any way. Even though the scoreboard says they lost by 10, it felt more like a 6-point loss.

Considering that they were out-rebounded by 13, had fewer than 10 turnovers and made only three of their 14 three-pointers, they were still in the game until last two minutes.

If you're the Celtics, you really have to feel encouraged. KG missed nine consecutive shots in the fourth quarter, Kendrick Perkins was a non-factor and James Posey missed five of the six shots he took and they still won.

2. The Celtics own the third quarter.

It's pretty impressive how the Celtics manage to come out of the locker room and play so much better than their opponents in the third quarter. I've been writing about it all year and yesterday's game proved no different.

The Celtics outscored the Lakers in the third quarter 31-22. In the three games against the Lakers this season, they've outscored them 91-74 in the third quarter.

It took the Celtics 45 seconds to overcome a five-point halftime deficit and take a one-point lead. Even though the Lakers had other leads in the quarter, those 45 seconds immediately erased whatever momentum the Lakers had at halftime.

3. The Lakers are encouraging Rondo and Cassell to score.

You can't be surprised by the great first half that both Rajon Rondo and Sam Cassel had in Game 1. The Lakers will have no problem living or dying by the jump shots of those two guys.

In Round 1, it was Ronnie Brewer and in Round 2 it was Michael Finley and Brent Barry. The Lakers defensive strategy is to allow the non-stars to try to beat them. It's intentional.

Sam Cassell looked great with Derek Fisher guarding him. After he made three consecutive shots, the Lakers put Kobe Bryant on him and he wasn't heard from again until...

4. KG's backcourt save, aka "The Play of the Game."

Forget about Paul Pierce's dramatics. The play of the game was when KG chased down that would-be backcourt violation that resulted in an open jump-shot for Sam Cassell.

Take a look at the game's play-by-play and scroll down to the 10:07 mark of the fourth quarter. The Celtics were ahead 81-78. The violation would have given the Lakers momentum going into a possible game-tying possession.

Instead, they were so deflated by the play that they turned the ball over on the next three possessions, the last one coming out of a timeout. Lakers fans couldn't help but feel that it wasn't going to be their night.

Keep in mind that the Lakers had eight turnovers for the entire game. Instant replay proved that the backcourt violation on Pau Gasol in the first half was a bad call.

So the Lakers committed three of their seven legitimate turnovers within 80 seconds of Garnett making that save.

Trivia Hint #1: The school's first number one pick was Arnie Ferrin in 1948.

5. Where have you gone, Mr. Anonymous?

Am I the only one who noticed that the greatest byproduct of LeBron getting knocked out of the playoffs and Kobe winning the MVP is the disappearance of the "LeBron owns Kobe. Kobe fears LeBron" guy?

Quick story: My wife and I were at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills on Saturday. I walked into the lobby and I see LeBron sitting in a chair by himself in the corner of the room.

Through my teeth, I tell my wife (a New Jersey native and non-sports fan) that LeBron James is sitting behind me. She asks me if she should go talk to him and I say no. She doesn't care. She walks up to LeBron, gives him a thumbs-up and says "Go Lakers!"

Did I mention that my wife has no idea what team LeBron plays for?

6. I love Joe Dumars.

There's nothing like having a great GM in sports. More importantly, there's nothing like not having a crappy GM in sports. As a Dodgers fan, I've watched the team hire bad GM after bad GM. Fred Claire, Kevin Malone, Bob DePodesta and now Ned Colletti.

Pistons fans have to be delighted with the comments made by Joe Dumars after the firing of Flip Saunders.

"Make no mistake, everybody's in play now," Dumars said. "There are no sacred cows here. I have no interest in completely ripping the team down, but will I look to make like significant changes? Yeah, you're damn right I will."

A lot of GMs like to talk the talk, but Dumars actually walks the walk. He is the best GM in basketball. He's proved it time and time again with trades and draft picks.

He traded Jerry Stackhouse for Rip Hamilton and signed Chauncey Billups and Antonio McDyess for the mid-level exemption. He traded Zeljko Rebraca, Lindsey Hunter, Chucky Atkins and Bob Sura for Rasheed Wallace.

He drafted Tayshaun Prince with the 23rd pick in the draft. He traded Darko Milicic for the Magic's first round pick in this year's draft and took Rodney Stuckey with it. He's also used late-round picks to add Amir Johnson, Jason Maxiell and Aron Afflalo.

The only blemish on Dumars' bio is taking Darko ahead of Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade and even Michigan native, Chris Kaman.

It's looking more and more like he'd prefer to trade Rasheed Wallace than Rip Hamilton or Tayshaun Prince and teams might be afraid to trade for another three years of Chauncey Billups.

I doubt that Dumars wants to trade him to another team in the Eastern Conference. Looking at the teams in the West, I could see him going to the Nuggets, Suns, Mavericks, Rockets or Warriors.

The Mavericks have never been afraid to pull the trigger on a trade, and Rick Adelman and Don Nelson seem like the kind of loose coaches who can tolerate players like Wallace.

As for the Suns, they're also more concerned with hiring a head coach, but the chance to play with Shaq, Nash and Grant Hill might appeal to Sheed. Having one year left on his contract also fits in with frugal owner Robert Sarver.

We'll have a better idea about what personnel changes both the Suns and Pistons will make as soon as they hire coaches.

7. Dwyane Trade?

Every once in a while we hear a trade rumor that is so stupid it's not even worth commenting on. There were recent rumors that the Heat were trying to trade Dwyane Wade to the Bulls. Normally, I would have laughed it off except that it was Wade that was reporting it.

The Heat are not trading Dwyane Wade. First of all, they wouldn't trade him while his value is as low as it's ever been. Second, they wouldn't do it just for Kirk Hinrich and the right to swap picks with the Bulls.

The best thing the Heat can do is to not let anyone know who they want to draft with the second pick.

I wouldn't be surprised if there was some type of trade that enabled the Heat to swap picks with the Bulls but it wouldn't involve Dwyane Wade.

Trivia Hint #2: The school's second top overall pick was Bill McGill in 1962.

8. Tiago Splitting?

The Spurs have had a lot of success in recent years by using their second-round picks on European and South American players and stashing them overseas until they are ready for the NBA.

The problem with that strategy now is that the rise of the Euro versus the Dollar means that there's no longer the financial incentive that there used to be for these guys to come over right away.

Splitter seems on the verge of signing a new contract to stay with Tau Ceramica. This can't be good news for a Spurs team that could really use his youth and athleticism next season.

If a second-round pick is gonna make $800K in his first two or three seasons when he can make twice that by staying in Europe, there's suddenly a risk for using draft picks on guys that might never make it over here.

The good news is that players can still make more money over the length of their careers in the NBA and, more importantly, I doubt that the Spurs would use a pick on a player that didn't want to test his ability against the best players in the world.

Case in point, Rudy Fernandez made it official that he's leaving DKV Joventut to join the Portland Trailblazers next season. Fernandez was a first-round pick, so he stands to make a little more money than a second-round pick but he's still needs to take a pay cut and contribute to his buy-out.

9) Thanks, JVG!

A few weeks back, I wrote about Phil Jackson's great skill for knowing when to call timeouts on the road. During last night's telecast, Jeff Van Gundy echoed those sentiments during the first half of Game 1.

But no timeout better proved the point I was trying to make than the one that Jackson called when Paul Pierce returned from the locker room. Pierce had checked in and the Celtic faithful were ready to explode when Jackson popped their balloon by calling a timeout.

10. Draft Pick Carousel

I get the feeling that this year's draft will see more picks traded than any draft in recent memory. There really isn't much of a difference in risk between pick ten and pick forty. If you don't have a top-ten pick in the draft then you might as well trade out of the first round.

This might be the most unpredictable draft we've ever seen. I've seen some players, like Kansas State's Bill Walker, going as high as 17 on some draft boards and as low as 40 on others.

The draft is three weeks from tomorrow, and we still have no idea who is going where.

Needless to say, there will be a bunch of college kids who will regret that they left school early and hired agents.

Trivia Answer: The University of Utah (3) Ferren, McGill and Andrew Bogut. Eleven schools are tied for second with two each.