Inside The Play: Lakers VS Celtics

Today is the first anniversary of NBA Inside The Play Nation, and today, we will make our case for some of the most controversial topics in NBA. For this post, we will discuss who which organization is the better one throughout their history.

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Aaron Jaros:
I have to go with the Celtics. Now, I'm not a Celtics fan or anything, but my Grandma liked the Celtics. What I heard was coming from a person that wasn't a really big Celtics fan that didn't attend games regularly. She tells me how amazing Larry Bird was, how great of a shot-blocker Bill Russell was, and how she was at the game where John Havlicek had his last game in Boston. And let me tell you, I can't even imagine what the atmosphere was like at that game! You can watch the video footage of it on Youtube, but if you weren't at the game, you really don't know what it was like to be there. And my grandma had a chance to be at that game, she knew what it was like at that game. She knew what it was like to watch these great players in John Havlicek, Larry Bird, Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, and Kevin McHale. These guys were great! And from what I've watched and heard from my Grandma, the Celtics were the team to watch.

The Lakers are a great organization, don't get me wrong. They have had Kobe, Magic, Shaq, Kareem, Jerry West, and more. That is tough to beat. Now the way I see it is that if you were going to have a game, the team will need great players. The Celtics have a variety of different players. Bob Cousy, probably one of the most underrated players in NBA history, he was able to finish at the rim and pass like Pistol Pete, except, he wasn't the ball-hog the Pete was. He lead the league in assists, 8 years in a row. That is what you really want from your point guard. John Havlicek and Larry Bird were also really great passers. To me, I think you are better off having Cousy at point guard than Magic. 

Then you look at the defensive side, you have KG, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish and Bill Russell. Bill Russell and Kevin Garnett were in both one of our picks for the all-time defensive teams. With these guys, nothing will get in the paint and I have a hard time believing Shaq and Kareem would have a lot of success in the paint. 

What else does this Celtics team have? Something that the Lakers team really doesn't have; 3-point shooting. Imagine the shooting of Larry Bird combined with Paul Pierce, John Havlicek, and Ray Allen, who is considered to be the best shooter ever by some people. 

Rebounding; Dave Cowens, Kevin Garnett, Bill Russell, Robert Parish and Kevin McHale got it. They are some of the best rebounders ever. Bill Russell was amazing on the boards, he could grab anything. Dave Cowens averaged 14 RPG over his career! Kevin Garnett is the all-time leader in defensive rebounds! Robert Parish is second in Celtics all-time rebounds and Kevin McHale was an underrated rebounder. 

And in the 4th quarter when the game is on the line, how do you stop this team. Larry Bird is the most clutch person ever to play besides Reggie Miller and Paul Pierce is just as clutch. When the game is on the line, you can't count on those two.

So as you can see, the Celtics got a lot going for them in pretty much every category. While the Lakers have tons of offensive players, all of the other categories are lacking for them since pretty much all of their players are scorers. While they have Kobe on defense, Shaq on the boards, and Magic with his passing, it's nothing compared to what the Celtics have. Not to mention that the Lakers really don't have any 3-point shooters. My Grandma tells me stories about the Celtics, and even though they were really great back then, they have consistently had more and more great players such as KG, Ray Allen, and Paul Pierce throughout their history. And one more thing, this isn't even counting what Len Bias could've been...

Lakers VS Timberwolves: The Kobe & Rubio Show

This was a great game to watch as we saw tons of potential from both teams. It was nice to see the Minnesota Timberwolves get a win after their head coach, Flip Saunders, recently passed away. Let's take a look at the game and how the Minnesota Timberwolves came to win this game by 1 point.

Rubio Can Shoot
No, I'm not lying. The first points of the game were a 3 pointer by Rubio. He looked great. He had a very great jumper and shot with lots of confidence. He shot 10-17 in the game, most of those being mid-range jumpers, as well as shooting 2-4 from the 3-point line. He also finished strong at the rim, something that Rubio has also struggled with in his career. His shot looks really good and it really helped Rubio find open players when the Lakers had to really guard him. He has 14 assists to go along with his 28 points. Rubio said after the game "Yeah, well, it was a tough year for me last year, sitting almost the whole year, so I was working on that shot. I've been working (the) whole summer on that shot, and um a, it is something that if I want to keep being in this league, I got to knock them out, knock them down, and today, they, they did." Well, if they do continue to fall for Rubio, he will be a big key to success for this team.

Kobe Still Has The Skills
Well, if there was any doubt that Kobe wasn't going to be the best player on the Lakers, those doubts can be put to rest. Kobe Bryant is still the Lakers main man. He probably should have shot that last shot. He had 24 points on the night, and he is still shooting as much points as he always has. Last night, Kobe shot just 3-13 from deep and only shot 8-24 from the field. However, it sure didn't seem like it because Kobe was dropping amazing shots last night. He crossed up Tayshaun Prince a couple of times, and really had a great performance in terms of increasing peoples expectations.

Julius Randle and Karl-Anthony Towns
These big men have got some talent, and they were showing it off last night. Julius Randle really controlled the boards and did pretty good on the inside. However, he only shot 5-13 from the field. Towns lead all players in rebounding with 12 and had a nice inside game. He also showed us a step-back jumper in the game. Randle ended the game with 15 points and Towns ended it with 14. Both of these players have lots of potential and have lots of intelligence.

The 6th men
Louis Williams and Kevin Martin looked really well coming off the bench. Williams only shot 2-7 from three and Kevin Martin shot 0-5 from deep, but both of these players got to the line at a very high rate. Williams shot 7-7 from the line and K-Mart shot 11-12. Both of these teams are going to need this production from both of these guys through-out the season.

Other Points

• Roy Hibbert really didn't look all too great except for the fact that he had 10 rebounds and went 10-10 from the free throw line. He also had 2 blocks.
• Other than Towns and KG, the Timberwolves didn't rebound well. They lost the rebounding battle 39-51
• Nick Young had 14 points, including a near half-court buzzer-beater shot. Swaggy P was in the house last night and the crowd obviously loved him.
• Tayshaun Prince guarded Kobe most of the game, but I was really impressed with how well Andrew Wiggins was able to guard him. He really did a good job defending Kobe's shot. It should be noted that Tayshaun Prince seemed like he struggled with that.
• D'Angelo Russell didn't look too great in the Lakers opener. He shot just 2-7 from the field and 0-3 from deep to go along with only 4 points and 2 assists. He also had 3 turnovers in that game.

It was really nice to see these young talented teams play the other night and I'm excited to see them play this season.

Throwback Thurday (Sept. 17)

Happy Birthday

"Phil Jackson 3 cropped" by Phil_Jackson_3.jpg: Keith Allison from Baltimore, USA derivative work: Chris! my talk - Phil_Jackson_3.jpg. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Commons.

Phil Jackson 

Coaches get fired all the time, but I think that there are 2 coaches who should never get fired. Phil Jackson and Pat Riley. Other than that, every coach can be fired. Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant wouldn't be the players they are today if they weren't coached by Phil.

Now, of course Phil was rewarded with some great talent, but that great talent might not have came to be used without Phil. He shaped so many players over the course of his career. Many people including, Derek Fisher, Shaq, Kobe, Steve Kerr, Ron Artest, Metta World Peace, Panda's friend (well, actually China shaped him), and of course Michael Jordan. 

He started his coaching career with the New Jersey Nets as an assistant coach. After, he went to the Chicago Bulls as an assistant coach for 2 years and in the 1989-1990 season, he took over the head coaching duties for the Chicago Bulls. His first season as head coach, he won 55 games in the regular season. His second year he won 61 games and won his first NBA championship. He would go on to win 2 more in a row. After that, Jordan left to go play baseball, but the Bulls still did a great job, however, they were unable to make it to the finals. When Jordan returned 2 seasons later, They won 3 more Championships in a row. In 9 years with the Bulls, he won 6 championships and won 545 games and only lost 193. 

After the 3rd championship, he resigned because of tension with the Bulls GM. After he was signed by the Los Angeles Lakers as Head Coach. His first 3 seasons, he had another 3 championships in a row. 6 seasons later he would win 2 championships in a row and would have one more season with Kobe and the Lakers before he would resign. He won 610 games with the Lakers after 11 seasons.

After that he was hired as team president of basketball operation by the New York Knicks in 2014. 

In 20 season of coaching, Phil Jackson not only won 1384 total games, had a winning percentage of 70.4%, and won 11 championships, but he also shaped so many NBA players to the players that we know them as today. Phil Jackson will go down as one of the greatest coaches ever. In conclusion, Phil Jackson is great. And you can't argue with that.

Thanks for the season

The teams that are done and will not enter the playoffs are the Hornets, Pistons, Magic, 76ers, Knicks, Suns, Jazz, Nuggets, Kings, Lakers, Wolves

More will be decided tonight. I want to give a shout out to the best plays from these teams.

Hornets: Kemba's multiple buzzer beaters this season.

Kemba was probably the most clutch guy this season. He hit multiple shots to win and tie the game. Gotta love Kemba. Good bye Hornets. We will miss those close games.

Pistons: Reggie Jackson Trade. Ever since Reggie Jackson came to this team, it has been great. I will admit. I miss Singler, but you have to love what Jackson has done. Ever since he came to the Pistons, he has averaged 17.4 PPG, 35% from 3pt, and 9.1 APG. Just throwing this out, those are numbers that John Wall is pretty much averaging. Bye Pistons, we will miss Jackson's new numbers.

Orlando Magic: Elfrid Payton's hair. Wait! That was an April Fools Day joke! He sure fooled NBA article writer Lang Whitaker. Good Bye Orlando Magic. We will miss all the jokes and laughs you have given us.

Philadelphia 76ers: We will miss the stats you have given me. You ranked 1st in steals and second in blocks. You also ranked 1st in turnovers though. Still, thanks for the stats. But really, don't trade off anymore of your players for future draft picks. It gets a little old. We will miss you 76ers. We will miss your crazy defensive stats you gave us.

New York Knicks: Knicks winning against the Hawks. That was pretty good. You have put up some fights. Not to mention your fans are probably booing you for lessening your chances at the #1 draft pick. Still, you had some great games. Most bad, but there were some good ones. And thanks for finally taking Lou Amundson out of the starting line-up. We will miss you New York Knicks. For your wild win over the Hawks.

Phoenix Suns: That Trade deadline wouldn't have been crazy without you. You traded off Miles Plumlee, Isaiah Thomas, and Goran Dragic and changed your team completely. Wow, this was one of the most interesting trade deadlines of all time, and we owe most of it to the Suns. Them and Sam Hinkie, who makes no sense at all. Why is he a GM?! We will miss you Suns. Thanks for the trades we will miss so much.

Utah Jazz: Thank you Jazz for upsetting a lot of teams and going to make a playoff run, even though you were already eliminated. You put all your effort but just could 't make it. I would also like to make a shout out to Gordon Hayward for leading his team and making the Cavs go home with a frown on their faces
We will miss the Jazz and that face LeBron had after Hayward made that shot.

Nuggets: I don't know that I will miss much from this team. Sure, Gallinari had 47 points, but that's the best that has happened. We will miss you Nuggets, I guess.

Kings: All three coaches. Let's face it, they will have a new coach next year. It's just what the Kings do. They love finding new coaches. C'mon they had three this year. I know that their arena isn't that good (more like horrible). But you can't tell me that it hasn't been fun seeing a variety of post-game conferences from a variety of coaches. We will miss you Kings. And all three of your coaches too.

Lakers: Steve Nash. He is gone. Never played a game for the Lakers this regular season. And now he is gone from our lives. Never got a ring. Just two MVP trophies. We will miss you Steve Nash. And so will the Starters. Good bye Lakers, and good bye Steve Nash.

Minnesota Timberwolves: The worst team had given us some great plays. And by great plays I mean Dunks. From Zach LaVine to Andrew Wiggins to Anthony Bennett, we have seen some great dunks.

Thanks Zach for the Dunk Comp.

Thanks you Wolves for the worst season and turning it into a dunk festival. We will miss you Wolves and we will miss the highlight dunks from you.

As the Regular season closes. These teams are done til next season. So I ask that everyone dedicates this moment to these teams and all they have brought. Whether it's Mo Williams 52 points or Payton's Triple-Double. They made the NBA season just that more special. Besides, without them, we would have no regular season. It would just be the playoffs and the playoff teams. We will miss all these teams, and we will miss the Regular season.

Injured Teams

This year has been struck by injury for many team. Many teams were hoping for playoffs and more but then injury got in the way. Lets take a look at the worst

5.Oklahoma City Thunder: Durant and Westbrook went down. But Westbrook came back with fire in his eyes. After Ibaka went down and Durant was out for the rest of the season, it's really hard to see this team making much noise in the playoffs. But you never know with Westbrook.

4. Minnesota Timberwolves: This is a team that suffered way too many injuries this season. They were looking at the possibility of the 8th seed in the West. All of a sudden, Rubio went down on their 5th game against the Magic. Kevin Martin played against the Knicks and broke his wrist at the beginning of the game. After he broke it, he scored 37 points that night. Nikola Pekovic went down (as usual) Shabazz Muhammad went down for the season after averaging about 13 points per game. And this is just to start with.

3. Miami Heat: It's bad enough that LeBron James left their team. Now Chris Bosh is out with blood clots on his lungs. This team thought they could do some great things in the playoffs. Dwayne Wade and Shabazz Napier are out. How does this team expect to beat anyone with two of their stars out. It's going to be a bumpy ride for this Heat team. Someone needs to send them a sympathy card.

2. Los Angeles Lakers: Julius Randel goes down before the season even starts. So does Steve Nash. Kobe goes down of course. Nick Young is injured. The playoff hopes that this team had pretty much flew away. They had to start players like Wayne Ellington who was supposed to be a bench player this year. No playoff for this team. And no more Steve Nash.

1. Indiana Pacers: This team was coming back from the loss in the Eastern Conference Finals looking toward next season. Then Paul George goes down ruining all their hopes of a title run for next season. Minor injuries occurred along the way like George Hill going down. They still await the return of Paul George. We all miss him. But I'm pretty sure the Pacers miss him most.