You had to like the offense today. There were very few "Lebron offense" possessions. I can only remember 1 or 2 times where a ball was shot after no passing and ball pounding. Lebron seemed to force the issue big time, taking it in strong before the Lakers could set up their anti-Lebron 5 guy defense thing.
Our interior defense was definately hurting without Z, but their interior D was even worse, it was an offensive rebound and layup fest out there. The officials called this one tight too, there were more whistles this game than anything I remember, I think both teams were in the penalty every quarter of the game. We shot 55 free throws and the Lakers had 42... no wonder this game took until 1:30 to finish.
Give credit to MB on this one too, making the right personnel decisions with 2 starters out. He even got his guys to stop pounding the ball and putting up crappy jumpers early in the clock.