There were several primary storylines we needed answered in Game 1 to determine how this series would look and several were manifested during the first few minutes of the game.

1. What kind of impact would Artest have on Pierce?

Ron Artest overcommitted with an aggressive defensive play on the first possession and then they tackled each other down on the Lakers' side of the floor, leading to a double technical. Paul Pierce will clearly feel Artest's presence both physically and mentally throughout this series.

Pierce finished with 24 points, half of which scored at the line, but didn't really control the game offensively in any meaningful way.

"Ron is a great defender," said Pierce following the game. "I have a lot of respect for him. You've got to expect him to be physical. He's going to wok hard."

I'm not sure what we can exactly make of it, but Artest had a +28 in Game 1 and scored 15 key points.

2. Would Gasol turn to jello again when matched with Boston's bigs?

Yes, he threw the ball away the first time he caught the ball and was soft on multiple other occasions in the opening minutes before getting a couple easy buckets on the offensive glass.

But he quickly found his footing and actually somewhat dominated the paint. Gasol finished the game with 23 points and 14 boards and was possibly the best player on the floor.

"I thought Pau had a big game," said Phil Jackson. "He tried a couple things in the post to start the game that weren't successful and he found a new rhythm. Other spots in the game I thought they did a good job on him in the post, but his movement and his activity was important."

Jackson spoke at more length about how Gasol has grown since the 2008 Finals.

"What I seem from him is just the little actions that represent not backing down type of things, getting hit, taking the blow, absorbing it, not reacting to it one way or the other with the mentality to look at the referee or wonder about the blow and the legitimacy of it. Those are the things he's learned in the last year and a half or two."

3. What impact would Bynum have in this series since he was injured in 2008?

An immediate one on the glass and in the paint offensively. Andrew Bynum's presence down low frees up Gasol substantially from the focus he received when Ronny Turiaf was the third big in 2008.

Bynum finished the game with 10 points (4-6 shooting) and six boards, but his impact on the game was far more meaningful than what shows up in the box score. His presence really freed up Gasol's play and that is probably where the Lakers will continue to see Bynum's impact. With a 16-0 advantage on second chance points and 48-30 on points in the paint, the Lakers are holding an insurmountable advantage in those specific areas.

4. Where would Kobe's offense come from initially?

Kobe Bryant has shot the ball extremely well throughout the playoffs and has largely avoided the paint, but his first points came on dribble penetration and took the ball to bucket on several subsequent possessions.

The other Los Angeles guards also were able to successfully get into the lane throughout the entire game.

"They killed us on the glass," said Doc Rivers following the game. "But you know, it wasn't the bigs as much as it was our guards. We did not handle their guards off the dribble. They were in the paint, Shannon Brown, Kobe, Fisher, I mean it was a parade down the paint."

5. Which team's bench would perform better?

Foul trouble for Ray Allen and Derek Fisher, both of whom hit early jumpers, along with two to Ron Artest, two to Kobe Bryant and three to Tony Allen forced Phil Jackson and Doc Rivers to go extremely and unexpectedly deep in the first quarter.

Shannon Brown and Jordan Farmar each had productive games, while Rasheed Wallace had a big impact in the first half, but his inability to really extend his minutes hurt Boston.

At the end of the first quarter, there were 18 total fouls committed and 20 total free throw attempts.

As the game continued into the second quarter, fouls continued to be the story with Lamar Odom picking up two more, which forced Jackson to go back early to Gasol.

Coming out of a late second quarter timeout with a 39-35 lead, Artest hit a three-pointer and then a steal on a fastbreak led to an Artest lay-up. Gasol blocked a Kevin Garnett shot in the low post, which led to Ray Allen being forced to close out quickly on Fisher to pick up his third foul.

An alley-oop from Rondo to Garnett broke the run, but a lay-up from Kobe and a runner off the glass for Fisher extended the Los Angeles lead to 11 (Celtics cut it down to nine before halftime).

In the first three minutes of the third, Artest, Fisher and Kendrick Perkins each picked up their third foul and Ray Allen committed four number four, forcing him to the bench. Allen has felt like he is capable of scoring in mass quantities for the Celtics if he can stay on the floor.

The Celtics continued to struggle to create offense and a lob from Fisher to Kobe with 2:10 remaining in the third quarter pushed the Lakers lead to 75-62.

Needing offense badly, Rivers went back to Allen despite the four fouls and he immediately picked up foul number five while contesting an elbow jumper on Kobe.

Following Rondo's charging foul bowling over Fisher, Artest took a top of the arc three-pointer off the dribble to give the Lakers an 84-64 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

To begin the fourth quarter, needing offense badly, Rivers brought back out Ray Allen and also took a chance on Nate Robinson in a microwave role. Neither player made an initial impact, but the Celtics went on a 9-0 run before the Lakers finally scored their first fourth quarter points on an aggressive lay-up from Jordan Farmar taking the ball to the bucket.

Boston held the Lakers to just 18 points in the fourth quarter, showing some of that defensive ability we had been expecting heading into the Finals.

The game continued to fluctuate between a margin of approximately a dozen points, but a strong defensive play by both Artest and Brown on an attempted lay-up from Glen Davis with the ball bouncing to Farmar, who found Gasol over the top of Boston's transition defense for a breakaway dunk to give the Lakers' a commanding 15 point lead that virtually sealed the win for the Lakers.

With a 102-89 victory, Jackson and the Lakers now have his famous 47-0 record when his team wins the first game of a playoff series, but he is of course not expecting 48 to automatically come to him.

"We've got a lot work ahead of us, but it's nice to know that that's on our side," said Jackson.

 

Chris Reina is the executive editor of RealGM. Follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/cr_reina.