By James Morris, Rick Morris
June 3, 2008 1:10pm CDT

EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS RECAP: Kevin Garnett's numbers have gradually become more T-Wolve-like throughout these playoffs, going from 18.8 PPG in the regular season to 21.1 PPG in the postseason overall to 22.8 PPG in the conference finals. Ray Allen, however, who posted a fairly disappointing regular season total of 17.4 PPG, has dropped further to 14.2 PPG in the playoffs. The quarterbacking of the offense has grown more solid as Rajon Rondo (something of a question mark at the helm of this powerful unit earlier in the year) has progressed from 5.1 APG in the regular season to 6.6 APG in the playoffs. His defense in the East Finals was admirable as well, posting 2.3 APG, which was up 0.6 APG from the regular season. Fellow role player Kendrick Perkins brought the defensive intensity against Detroit, notching 9.2 RPG, up a full 3.1 RPG from his 2007-2008 stats. Sam Cassell's jump shot remains MIA, as his disappointing 7.6 PPG post-trade (which were down 3.6 PPG from his full-season production) has plummeted to a miserable 4.7 PPG this postseason. Meanwhile, as the Pistons have gone down to yet another bitter near-miss in the spring, Richard Hamilton can at least take solace in the extent to which he stepped up offensively when it counted most (17.3 PPG in the regular season, 21.6 PPG in the playoffs overall and 22.0 PPG in the Eastern Finals). However, Detroit's overall scoring in the conference finals collapsed to 89.8 PPG after the team averaged 97.5 PPG during the season. One leading indicator of how the Celtics' defense choked off the Piston playmaking? Chauncey Billups' assist total nosedived, from 6.8 APG in the regular season to a mere 5.3 APG against Boston. Tayshaun Prince was also nowhere to be found in the last round, averaging 9.8 PPG after putting up 13.2 PPG during the season.

NBA FINALS PREVIEW:

By Rick Morris
Not surprisingly, given the defensive credentials of Detroit and San Antonio, both squads come into the Finals after putting up far fewer points in the last round than they did in the regular season. Boston's reduction was covered above; the Lakers' fall was actually more significant, considering the ease with which they dispatched the Spurs (108.6 PPG in the regular season, 93.4 PPG in the Western Finals). Despite that, Kobe Bryant picked up his own scoring with 29.2 PPG against San Antonio and 28.3 PPG in the regular season. His assists dipped, though, from 5.4 APG in the regular season to 3.8 APG against the Spurs. Is this the return of the old allergic-to-passing Kobe? The Finals will tell the tale. For anyone attributing LA's offensive decline in the last round to the absence of Andrew Bynum – that simply wasn't a factor. He hasn't suited up yet in the playoffs (and won't at this point), but the team totaled 105.9 PPG for the playoffs as a whole. The man who's filling his shoes did have a falloff in the last round, though. Pao Gasol fell off to 13.2 PPG after averaging 18.9 PPG during his regular-season tenure in the City of Angels. Lamar Odom (14.2 PPG during the season, 12.8 PPG in the conference finals) and Derek Fisher (11.7 PPG during the season, 6.2 PPG in the conference finals) accounted for much of the rest of the drop-off. With Boston having posted far better defensive numbers in the regular season (the Celtics allowed 90.3 PPG and the Lakers yielded 101.3 PPG), Los Angeles might have a difficult time inflating their offensive production back to where it was prior to the last round, especially with the Celts having home court.

By James Morris
Lakers: Kobe Bryant is the leader of this pack, but he has been trying to take a back seat in order to get his other teammates involved. I never liked Kobe when he was hoisting up 40 shots per game earlier in his career, but if you think Lamar Odom, Pau Gasol and Sasha Vujacic are going to step up and pull out a win, you would be mistaken. Bryant needs to assert himself early and often if the Lakers want to have a shot at another title. Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol just need to keep doing their thing, but Jordan Farmar coming off the bench needs to look to distribute the ball first. Derek Fisher looks more surprised than anyone when he logs an assist, so Farmar needs to be looking to hit the open man and shooting as a last resort. Vujacic thinks he is a machine, so he better turn the knob to “swish� and leave his shooting worries at home. Bryant is the key… all roads to victory lead through him.

Celtics: Kevin Garnett is a big part, but Paul Pierce is just as important as KG is. Ray Allen isn’t what he once was, so Garnett and Pierce need to stay on top of thing on the court. Pierce has shown his strong shooting last series, and he needs to keep that going if the Celtics are to have a chance. Garnett needs to own the middle and keep Gasol and Odom in check. Allen… Allen just needs to be consistent. Ray-Ray disappeared for three games (games 6 and 7 against the Cavaliers and game 1 against Detroit) and he wasn’t all that impressive in game 4 against the Pistons either. Rojan Rondo is off and on, and Boston really needs the kid to step up and play his “A� game. Kendrick Perkins came out of nowhere to finish the Detroit series strong, but does he have any more of those games left in his tank? Either way, Garnett and Pierce are the keys to victory. Ray Allen can’t be relied upon anymore, so the gruesome-twosome better be ready to take the Bryant by the horns!