Looking back at the highlights and having watched the game, I think it's pretty easy to say that L.A., with what they have right now, just doesn't match up well with Miami at all.
- Pau Gasoft doesn't match up well with either Ilgauskas' length or Bosh's physicality down low. Bosh absolutely sh!t on him yesterday and was physical with Gasol on the boards and on defense. Eventually, you could just see Gasol mail it in.
- The Lakers really don't have an answer for LeBron James. I used to think Artest would be it when they signed him but this is the second year in a row that LeBron has really abused Artest. This was evident in Artest's frustration.
- DWade is a great match-up for Kobe defensively. The Heat regularly had three bodies in the lane to try to dissuade Kobe from trying to penetrate, but it was really Flash who was handling him one on one even with a bad knee. Wade has the speed and the know-how to contain Kobe defensively. Wade also presents a headache for Kobe offensively as well.
- The Heat, as a whole, have a speed advantage at every single position over the Lakers. They also have guys who can knock down jump shots when the Lakers crowd the lane. This speed advantage kills the Lakers on both ends as the Heat's defense absolutely swarmed L.A.'s playmakers pretty much whenever they got their hands on the ball yesterday.
For all of the reasons I'm mentioning as to why Miami is a bad match-up for L.A., Boston is a bad match-up for Miami. The teams that can play with Miami are the teams that can play defense with them. Right now, Boston is the only team in the Eastern Conference that I can honestly say cause match-up problems for the Heat. Kevin Garnett is just as long and is stronger than Chris Bosh and routinely out-muscles him for the basketball. Shaq can, will, and has absolutely sh!t all over Big Z and Joel Anthony. It'll be interesting to see how he matches up with Dampier, although I can't see the result being all that different than it was with Z and Anthony. Paul Pierce can match LeBron shot for shot and defends him well (better than what I saw Artest do yesterday). I guess there's familiarity there because, otherwise, I would say that Artest is a better defender than Truth. Ray Allen is a bad match-up for DWade because Allen, at his age, can still stay step for step with Wade defensively and, on offense, is able to get loose for just enough open threes to kill Miami. And Miami really doesn't have an answer for Rondo and his distribution of the ball. I think it's laughable when people mention Chalmers in the same sentence with Rondo. It's not even close. Arroyo hasn't appeared capable of containing him either. If Rondo can find a consistent jump shot (IMO, the main thing that killed the Celtics chances in Game 7 of the NBA Finals last year), the Celtics will be unstoppable.
Bottom line, if the Miami Heat are Superman, the Celtics are their kryptonite. I don't see how L.A. is ever going to be able to match up well with them as long as Bynum is in a constant state of injured and, even then, I don't think L.A. matches up well with the Heat still. It wouldn't surprise me to see the Heat take them again in March. The Celtics, however, are another story.
