Lamar Odom Observations I

I wake up at an ungodly hour to work out. During the work-outs I occasionally find time to watch a playoff game. Today it was Game 1 of the Finals.

Game 1 was pretty hotly contested and evenly fought. During the first-half you could actually watch as the much ballyhooed Laker offense had its way with the vaunted Celtic defense. I’m glad Doc was able to make adjustments, because the defense the Celtics were playing in the first half of game 1 may not have been good enough to bring home a championship.

But the Celtics defense started to clamp-down in the second half, and, as it did, you could see some space opening up between the two teams.

So could Lamar Odom.

On one play, Paul Pierce boxes out Odom to get a rebound. The Celtics were up by six, the Lakers couldn’t throw it in the ocean, and the clock had just ticked 3:59. Pierce got the rebound, but Odom certainly didn’t come up empty handed. Best I can tell, he walked away with a handful of Pierce's chest hair. Pierce walked to the other end of the floor to shoot a free-throw, rubbing a spot on his chest that was red and sparse.

Now fast forward to the fourth quarter of game 4, where the Celtics are up by 40 and Lamar Odom is bound and determined not to get blamed for the loss. He's grabbing rebounds, he’s taking it to the rack. HE’S THE MAN! (LOL). Then Pierce and Garnett said enough is enough, and put the wood to Ol' Odom. Odom took exception.

What a joke.

Odom not only was a major hack throughout the series, but let us not forget that he tackled Ray Allen in the fourth quarter of the 12/30/07 game at Staples at a point when the game was over.

So it is comical that Odom took exception to the hard fouls administered during the game clincher. I’m also pretty sure the Celtics had declared it “open season” on Odom by game 6, especially after hearing this story.