Rajon Rondo in Dime #39

* What do you think of the refs so far? A Lakers fan would say they’re simply letting the players play; a Celtics fan would say this is blatant pro-L.A. officiating at its worst. Consider that the Lakers shot more free throws in the first half of the first quarter than they did in all of Game 2, or that sequence where KG went to he rack and got hammered with no call, then Lamar Odom trucked Paul Pierce with no call. Then again, there have been a couple of occasions where Kobe got hit going up and no call was made, and the refs obviously didn’t have a problem calling fouls on Odom.

* Kobe (19 pts) came out in attack mode and hasn’t let up. On his first touch of the game he basically called “Mouse in the House” on Ray Allen and immediately went to work. Since then he’s been going for Boston’s throat.

* What is wrong with Sam Cassell? He’s shot the ball almost every time he’s touched it. Isn’t he supposed to be a cagey veteran? Isn’t he supposed to be patient and picking his spots? Not to mention, isn’t his shooting wrist supposed to be hurt? Cassell has been in the League for 27 years and he’s already got two championship rings, and yet he’s playing like a kid trying to get noticed at NBA Pre-Draft Camp. You’d almost prefer Kevin Garnett’s under-aggressiveness at this point to Cassell’s Capt. Jack Sparrow act.

* Everyone’s been talking about Lamar Odom between Games 2 and 3. Phil Jackson even called him out publicly. On DimeMag.com today we even had a piece about how he’s made a career of not living up to expectations. So what does he do? Picks up 3 fouls in 7 minutes of court-time. And to think, L.A. chose to kept Odom over Caron Butler.

* The odds are stacked against Boston and they aren’t playing with any fire, but they can still take this game if (A) Garnett decides to show up in the second half, (B) Pierce gets hot, and (C) they keep Kobe under 40 points. One reason the Lakers were able to knock off the Spurs was they mastered the art of closing out halves and quarters with momentum-killing runs, which they haven’t done yet in this game.