We know these Lakers are different. We know these are not the 2008 Lakers, that this team stands its ground.
But it was different Thursday when Andrew Bynum had to sit through most of Game 4, his knee clearly worse for the wear.
Suddenly, if you squinted just a little, it looked like 2008 again. Boston controlled the boards when it counted. Boston had the best big man on the floor. Boston got physical and the Lakers bigs were pedestrian. Boston pushed the Lakers around and they won Game 4, 96-89. And the series is tied 2-2.
Game 5, Sunday night in Boston, becomes huge.
One of the key differences between these Lakers and 2008 is Bynum and the physicality he brings inside. Thursday night he played just 12 minutes — six at the start of the game and a couple other three-minute runs — and he looked hobbled and slow. In the first few minutes he got an offensive rebound right under the basket and tried to go back up — a shot he normally dunks with authority. This time he could barely elevate and Kevin Garnett blocked his layup. It was that kind of night for him.
Bynum has a torn meniscus in his right knee but has played through the pain. However, he tweaked it again in Game 3 and he said the swelling has increased, limiting his mobility. The only fix is off-season surgery. He has to play through the pain, and he said he would be back for Game 5. But how much he can do remains to be seen.
Without Bynum, the matchups switch. They revert to 2008. The very physical Kendrick Perkins gets to cover Pau Gasol (he still had 21 points but just six rebounds) and puts Kevin Garnett on Lamar Odom (he had 10 points and seven boards).
When the benches came in, Glen “Big Baby” Davis got matched up on Lamar and just owned him inside. Davis used his strength to get what he wanted. At the other end, the much quicker Odom was hesitant to attack Davis off the dribble until late in the game, when the Lakers got desperate.
The biggest difference was on the glass. Boston grabbed the offensive rebound on 34.8 percent of their missed shots in Game 4. The Lakers cannot allow that.
Kobe Bryant had a good game — 33 points on 10 of 22 shooting and 6 of 11 threes — but he could not get going late and take over. He also had seven turnovers as the Celtics tried to force the ball out of his hands. He and Gasol also got tired, Phil Jackson said after the game, because he did not trust his bench.
In Game 5 the Lakers know they need Bynum back. Not the full strength Bynum, they’ll take the one from a week ago
"We're glad we have a couple days off to get him back hopefully in a position where he can help us out again" Phil Jackson said.
They will need him. They will need Kobe late. They will need a sense of desperation. Because Boston has won one game in Los Angeles and if they go ahead 3-2 they know they need to win just one more. They are starting to think and act like it is 2008 again. The Lakers need to shut that down Sunday.
Kurt Helin lives in Long Beach and is the Blogger-in-Chief of NBC's NBA blog Pro Basketball Talk (which you can also follow in twitter).
