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SI.com's Ian Thomsen spoke with an NBA advance scout to break down the Celtics-Lakers Finals matchup.

3 Key Lakers

1. Kobe Bryant. There are no simple answers here, because no one guy is going to lock down Kobe. It helps to have a good one-on-one defender, but even that guy is not going to stop Kobe. Team defense stands a better chance, and what team is better in that department than Boston? The Celtics also have an advantage in that they've already faced an almost identical threat in LeBron James. It's the same basic dilemma. Maybe Kobe is a little more shot-oriented than LeBron, and LeBron may be a little more willing passer, but in both cases you know who is going to have the ball when it matters.

In any case, Kobe is going to average 30 a game. The key for the Celtics is to make him take more shots to do it. They need to be as physical as they can and make him take tough, defended shots at all times, to frustrate him and force him to get his 30 while taking 25 or 30 shots, as opposed to 20 shots. The shots they force him to miss might ultimately make the difference in the game.

Kobe is a better playmaker than he used to be, and his confidence in the guys around him has hastened that, as well as his maturation as a player. He might have been capable of making more plays for his teammates in previous years, but if he didn't believe in the guys he was giving the ball to or they were missing shots, then he would stop giving it to them -- he would stop in a hurry. But now you see that he knows when he needs to do that and when he needs to score, and in that sense it's very reminiscent of Michael Jordan. He knows when he needs those guys and that gets their confidence up, and he also knows when he needs to make plays himself and take the game over. And then with the coach and the style of the offense being the same, it's pretty conducive to comparing Kobe to Michael.

Michael was same as Kobe when he first started. I remember that series when Jordan scored 63 in Boston and people said he'll never win like Larry and Magic because he shoots all the time. I remember that like it was yesterday. So the criticisms of Michael and Kobe are similar.

In this series, Kobe is far and away going to the best player on the floor. If you're going to pick your poison, you'd rather have him take the contested jump shot than let him get into paint. If he gets into the paint, then you're already beaten. You stand a better chance of him not having as prolific a night if you're forcing him to guard defensively at one end and make jump shots -- contested jump shots -- at the other.

2. Lamar Odom. Kevin Garnett is going to have to guard Odom, because Boston couldn't have Kendrick Perkins trying to guard him. Odom and Garnett are very similar in that they're multifaceted. They can hurt you in different ways, but the biggest thing is they have the ability to play unselfishly and it isn't about their numbers. Both can score when called upon, though I wouldn't say scoring is the main strength of either one of them. The strength for both is their versatility. Odom can create for others as well as himself. He has the ability to step out on the perimeter and occasionally hit the three, in addition to being good off the dribble as a passer.

Where they differ is in Garnett's ability on the defense end. Odom doesn't have Garnett's length and he doesn't have the intensity.

Putting pressure on Garnett off the dribble will be a factor. For one thing, Garnett is used to guarding guys in the post; he's not used to guarding a guy who can take him off the dribble. As good as the Celtics have been with their help defense and all the things they do, they are very susceptible off the dribble. When you move the ball from one side to the other and drive off a ball reversal instead of isolations, they can be beaten. You move the ball from side to side and make them change sides, and all of their aggressiveness sometimes works against them and opens up seams against them.

That's where you'll see the Lakers taking advantage: They will move from side to side out of the triangle because that's what their offense does naturally, and in those situations the Celtics' inability to defend the ball off the dribble will be exploited by Odom, Kobe and Jordan Farmar as well.

3. Derek Fisher. Fisher is a guy the Lakers can count on to perform well under pressure. He has the experience of having been in situations where he had to make a shot or a play. He has proved that repeatedly. He also benefits from the very simple but important ability to shoot the ball.

Let's be honest: Derek Fisher is a role player. He's not a great player, but he's the kind of guy you pair with stars, and he makes himself invaluable because he has the right makeup and the ability to knock down shots when it counts.

His value is at its peak this time of year. During the regular season, you don't think twice about him because he's not a 20-point scorer, and he's not going to do a lot on his own. But championship teams are made out of guys like him complementing the stars, and they are every bit as necessary as the stars are. And the shooting aspect of a guy like Fisher outweighs everything else. Go back through all of the championship teams: Dwyane Wade had James Posey making big shots, the Bulls had Michael surrounded by Steve Kerr, B.J. Armstrong and John Paxson, the Rockets put Robert Horry, Sam Cassell and Vernon Maxwell around Hakeem Olajuwon, and the Spurs had all of their shooters around Tim Duncan. With very little exception, the key is having those star guys to draw the defense, then the role-playing, solid-shooting guys make the shots when it counts. They also help spread the floor because the defense can't afford to help off them.

Sometimes we try to outthink ourselves about basketball, when the most important thing is the ability to catch the ball and shoot it. At this stage of the season, it's incredibly valuable and hard to stop, and yet it's not something that everyone can do.