1.    Lakers-Celtics...blah...blah...blah:    Did you hear?  The Lakers and playing the Celtics and they may have even met before.  We've all touched on the history of the Lakers and Celtics and such.  ESPN.com and Classic Sports have been all over this story, giving us all a chance to re-live the old series.  Last time, we cursorily explored how the Lakers and Celtics have met 10 times in the Finals, with the Bill Russell Celtics beating the Lakers all seven times they played and Magic Johnson taking two of three from the Celts.  This time, however, the match up seems more like two teams passing in the night, rather than an ongoing battle.  The Celtics are propped up by older players and the Lakers are surprise team bolstered by the outright theft of Pau Gasol.  So forget history...Who wins this time?  Let's take a look look at the factors to consider going into the Finals:

 

-Match ups:  It seems that the Lakers are well-suited to match up with the Celts.  Boston swept the series 2-0 but they haven't played each other since late 2007, and the Lakers are a much different team now than they were then.  In terms of line ups, both teams seems set in stone:

 

PG: Rajon Rondo v. Derek Fisher:  Fisher is still Mr. Scrappy and could give Rondo problems with his holding, grabbing, and hustle.  But Rondo is much faster and should be able to get to the basket.  I don't see a major advantage to either team here on paper but the winner of this a match up will help determine the series.  If Fisher can hit his jumpers, the Celtics are in trouble.

SG:  Ray Allen v. Kobe Bryant:  This was an intriguing match up a few years ago.  Ray Allen was never as good as Kobe but he was smart, tough, and not shy about calling out Bryant for being a bit of an jerk.  Now, Allen seems too limited offensively to make Kobe pay.  In addition, Kobe has as looked as good as ever against the Spurs, single handedly killing the San Antonio runs in Game 2 and Game 5.  I don't think Allen can hang with him any more.

SF:  Paul Pierce v. Vlad Radamanovic:  Phil Jackson has insisted on starting Vlad for all of the playoffs.  While 82Games.com suggests that Radmanovic is of limited utility, there are certainly times when a good pure shooters helps. Jackson always likes to have shooters available and he feels that Vlad confers some benefit (I assume in offensive spacing) that is worth significant time, something Jackson liked to do with John Paxson and Steve Kerr over better athletes on the Bulls in the 1990s.  It's hard to argue this strategy when both Paxson and Kerr both hit big shots to clinch titles in 1991, 1993, and 1997.  The match ups allowed for Radmanovic against guys like Bruce Bowen, Robert Horry, and Andrei Kirilenko, who were not multi-dimensional offensively.  Against Pierce, however, Radmanovic doesn't fit.  He certainly can't guard Pierce and there is really no one on the Celtics' starting squad that makes sense.  You could put Radmanovic on Kendrick Perkins but then Pau Gasol has no one to guard either.  Because of this imbalance, tt might make sense to sit Ramdanovic for Luke Walton, who is a better defender (by default) or Sasha Vujacic or Jordan Farmar (move Kobe to Pierce and put Vujacic/Farmar on the Allen or Rondo). 

PF:   Kevin Garnett v. Lamar Odom:  This match up might be mentioned a few times going into the series.  The consensus, which I agree with, is that Odom should be good enough against KG to narrow the usual advantage that Garnett provides over most forwards and that this will give L.A. the series.  That's the inkling. But how has KG done against Odom over the years?  Let's check out their head-to-head numbers the last few years to see if we can discern a pattern.  Here's how KG v. Odom has gone since 2004-05 (when Odom first played with the Lakers) to the present:

 

Date	Player	MP	FG	FGA	3s	3A	FT	FTA	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
1/10/2005	Odom	23	2	6	1	2	0	0	3	2	0	0	3	4	5
1/10/2005	Garnett	40	5	12	0	1	13	16	13	7	2	0	3	4	23
1/19/2005	Odom	29	4	10	0	0	3	4	7	1	0	0	2	4	11
1/19/2005	Garnett	38	12	19	0	0	3	4	9	4	3	1	3	4	27
11/9/2005	Odom	36	6	16	1	2	2	4	6	3	2	0	4	6	15
11/9/2005	Garnett	41	8	16	0	0	1	3	15	4	1	1	3	3	17
12/2/2005	Odom	41	8	16	2	3	6	6	7	8	1	1	6	4	24
12/2/2005	Garnett	38	11	16	0	0	7	8	8	4	1	3	2	5	29
12/10/2005	Odom	40	7	13	0	1	2	5	4	4	0	4	1	3	16
12/10/2005	Garnett	40	12	22	1	1	5	7	8	3	0	2	1	3	30
3/15/2006	Odom	44	9	15	2	4	0	0	12	8	0	0	2	3	20
3/15/2006	Garnett	38	4	14	0	0	8	8	14	3	2	1	2	3	16
11/7/2006	Odom	43	5	13	2	7	3	4	9	4	0	2	4	3	15
11/7/2006	Garnett	39	10	18	0	1	6	6	9	5	4	0	1	6	26
3/18/2007	Odom	40	7	12	0	4	2	4	9	8	0	2	3	3	16
3/18/2007	Garnett	43	9	16	1	2	7	8	15	6	0	3	2	1	26
11/23/2007	Odom	32	2	7	0	2	0	0	5	2	2	1	4	4	4
11/23/2007	Garnett	36	7	16	0	0	7	8	11	3	1	2	0	1	21
12/30/2007	Odom	41	6	17	2	3	0	0	10	1	1	2	0	4	14
12/30/2007	Garnett	30	9	13	0	0	4	4	12	6	2	3	3	4	22

 

Taking it a little further, here are the averages of the two players in the ten games they played versus each other that are listed above:

 

Player	MP	FG	FGA	3s	3A	FT	FTA	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF	PTS
Odom	36.9	5.6	12.5	1.0	2.8	1.8	2.7	7.2	4.1	0.6	1.2	2.9	3.8	14.0
Garnett	38.3	8.7	16.2	0.2