Everybody knows about Boston’s Big Three — Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen.
Everybody knows about the Los Angeles Lakers’ Big Three — Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol.
Normally when each team’s respective Big Three plays well, that team wins.
The offense runs through them. The defense begins with them. And they are called on to provide leadership.
But the NBA Finals might be decided by bench players, because the stars are going to need to rest and the bench players are going to have to keep the momentum going.
For the Celtics, Pierce has a strained ligament in his right knee and Boston starting center Kendrick Perkins has a sprained left ankle. Those are two injuries that are tough to play through.
But the Celtics aren’t worried.
“Other guys are going to have to be ready,”
Pierce said. “We’ve gone through injuries in the season, that’s part of it. Other guys have to be ready to step up. I think we’ve got more than enough guys who are capable of stepping up, P.J. [Brown], Big Baby [Glen Davis], Leon Powe…We’ve dealt with this type of adversity (before).”
Depending on the extent of Pierce and Perkins’ injuries, Boston coach Doc Rivers might have to rely on his bench in this series. That could be a scary thought because Boston’s bench has gone through a lot of tribulations this season.
While each player on Boston’s bench can claim to have a few big games this season, only James Posey and Eddie House were consistent through the first five months of the season, with Posey backing up Pierce and Allen, and House filling in for starting point guard Rajon Rondo.
When Sam Cassell arrived in March, he began to take playing time away from House, and when forward/center Brown signed with the team after the All-Star break, he began to emerge as a consistent backup to Perkins and Garnett, and Powe and Davis saw their playing time shrink.
Rivers has shown a lot of confidence in Posey and Brown off the bench lately, but he’s only shown that same confidence in Cassell, Powe, House, and Davis sporadically throughout the playoffs.
Cassell averaged nearly 15 minutes a game in the first 12 games of the playoffs, but he did not play in the next four games. Now Cassell is averaging more than 12 minutes a game.
Powe played 124 minutes in the Celtics Eastern Conference quarterfinal round series against Atlanta compared to 55 minutes for Davis and only 45 minutes for Brown.
Against Cleveland in the Eastern Conference semifinals, Powe’s minutes dropped to 74 and Brown’s rose to 78. Davis played 12 minutes against Cleveland.
Against Detroit in the Eastern Conference finals, Brown played 101 minutes and Powe played 18 minutes. Davis played 24 minutes.
House, meanwhile, only played a combined 61 minutes against Cleveland and Detroit.
Because Rivers changes the role of his bench players from game to game, only Posey and Brown know that they will play each night.
Rivers said that if he does call upon his bench more, he doesn’t want anyone to play outside of their role.
“You don’t really want them to change who they are and how they’ve played,”
Rivers said. “I think that would be detrimental to the team, honestly. If it did happen, which again, I don’t think it will, but if it did, or if the guys weren’t effective, you bring in the other guys to do what they do, and that’s something else. That’s something we’ve talked about all year with the guys.”
The Lakers, according to Los Angeles All-Star Kobe Bryant, have the best bench in the league.
The Lakers have a young and energetic bench, led by sharpshooting guard Sasha Vujacic (8.1 points per game, 43.7 percent shooting from behind-the-arc), forward Luke Walton (6.9 points per game), point guard Jordan Farmar (4.9 points per game, 37.1 percent shooting from 3-point land), and rebounding specialist Ronny Turiaf.
The Lakers’ bench has played well this season, but in Game One of the NBA Finals, Boston’s bench (17 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists) outplayed Los Angeles’ bench (15 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists).
The Celtics believe that if they can continue that trend throughout the series then they will win their 17th NBA championship.
