Pivotal Game 3

With the series tied at a game a piece, Game 3 was especially crucial for the Lakers, who will find themselves playing the next 3 games in Boston. I still don't like that they haven't changed the Finals 2-3-2 format. It doesn't make sense to me why they would change the preceding rounds to the 2-2-1-1-1 format and not the most important series. As we've seen in years past, the 2-3-2 format is an advantage for the underdog, who can get right back in the series with a 3 game sweep. Anyway, that's a topic for another day. Here's some things that stood out in Game 3.
1) Ray Allen's performance. Would you believe me if I said I expected this? Well not exactly, an 0-13 night, 0-8 from behind the arc, but a bad night. My criticism of Allen has always centered around his penchant for disappearing in games. He will have a huge game like he did in Game 2, and then come back with a less than stellar performance. He's not really all to blame, it also has a lot to do with the way the Celtics are constructed. When you have 4 guys who are big-time scorers, one or two are bound to be left out of the loop. Ray Allen was left out today, although he did have some pretty good looks that he just couldn't knock down.
2) Derek Fisher's big 4th quarter. Fisher's play down the stretch won this game for the Lakers. He scored 11 of his 17 in the 4th on 5-7 shooting. Kobe only shot 1-6 from the field in the 4th. It was Fisher's play that put the Lakers over the top. Every year I, and many others want to write him off, but he'll come up with a game like this. Fisher's contract expires after this year. He'll be 36 at the start of next season, but don't the Lakers need to resign him to at least a one year deal? Are they really ready for the Jordan Farmar era?
3) Big Baby's continued licking of lips. The cameramen have finally caught on, and now after every shot Davis hits, they cut to him backpedalling down the court, rolling his tongue around his lips like a mid-90s R&B video. His performance in Game 3 was nowhere near his legendary tongue rolls of Game 1 that seemed to last for 30 seconds, but I appreciate the effort. I don't like Big Baby and I especially don't like seeing him play well, but these ridiculous tongue motions almost make it bearable.

4) ABC's use of of the bleep. They picked some interesting times to use it. The bleep seemed to be mandatory anytime Kendrick Perkins or Rasheed Wallace approached a ref. I think they even used it on Jeff Van Gundy one time. I wish just once, a west coast game perhaps, after the kids have gone to sleep, that the NBA would mic up every ref and present a special edition censorship free game. I've never had the privilege of sitting close enough to the court to get an idea of what's said down there. The NBA needs to make this happen, no one cares about the clean version of what Doc Rivers says in a timeout or in the locker room.
5) Instant replay aka the refs blow 3 calls in the span of 2 minutes. I don't think NBA fans need any more convincing, but if you do, take a look at the last few minutes of this ball game for proof that the NBA has the worst officiating in all of professional sports. Every time I see a blown out of bounds call in the NBA I wonder why they can't get it right. Especially considering an NFL referee can spot a ball accurately 95 percent of the time watching a game that goes 100 mph. That would be looking at the negative side. The positive is that instant replay allowed the refs to get all three calls right. Hopefully Major League Baseball catches on.