If you listen to most of the players and media that are around the locker rooms, almost to a man they say that Kevin Garnett is the leader of the Celtics.  Everyone in America can tell you that Kobe Bryant leads the Lakers.  But one of the most compelling storylines about this Finals is that once you move beyond the leaders, there are two lieutenants on each team that could almost lead a championship caliber squad on their own.  The Pau Gasol/Lamar Odom front line for the Lakers and the Paul Pierce/Ray Allen swing men for the Celtics have each played a huge role in making their respective teams juggernauts for the past three years.  So, what can we expect from them this time around?

I've written for years, and I continue to believe, that Gasol and Odom are almost criminally underrated.  They are unfairly talented for their size, and when you match them with Andrew Bynum they form a front line rotation with so much size that the shorter squads out West (i.e. Utah, Phoenix) never had a legitimate chance in those series.  Size matters in the NBA, and the Lakers are overflowing with it.  But it's not just size.  As strange as it sounds, Odom has the talent to be a perennial All Star and NBA first team player.  He doesn't have the mindset to match his ability, but on sheer talent alone a 6-10 forward that can handle the ball like a point guard and grab double-digit boards per game is going to be an impact player.  And when you add to it that now he is in the perfect situation...he is not relied upon as a leader, he is in a system that suits him, and all he has to do is go out there and play...he is an extremely dangerous, almost Kevin-Mchale-light 6th man.  And then you have Gasol.

Gasol is very arguably the best offensive big man in the NBA right now.  His post moves and touch are outstanding, he has a decent mid-range jumper, and he can drive off of the face-up.  He has also become an underrated defender in the last few years, holding his own in matchups with Garnett, Dwight Howard and Tim Duncan defensively in the postseason.  And after being bullied in '08, he seemingly has more edge to his game now than he had when these two teams last faced each other.  He is currently leading the NBA in postseason Win Shares, and is just a step off the lead in postseason PER.  Gasol has been among the most valuable players thus far in the postseason, and the fact that with all of those plaudits he still isn't the best player on his team...it makes the Lakers very dangerous.

For the Celtics,  Pierce and Allen are a slightly different story.  Unlike Gasol and Odom, both Pierce and Allen have shown that they have both the ability and the will to relish the big stage against anyone.  Pierce just got done destroying the Magic in the Eastern Conference Finals, and both Pierce and Allen got votes for Finals MVP in 2008 (which Pierce won).  Allen has always been a long-range sniper, and he seems much more comfortable in that role thus far in the 2010 postseason than he did in '08.  He also has been doing more driving to the rim this year than he has for the Celtics in years past, giving him more offensive diversity than just being the best shooter in the league when he gets on a roll.  What is especially promising for Allen in this Finals is that he seems destined to be guarded by Derek Fisher if Kobe Gets the call on Rondo and Ron Artest on Pierce.  Fisher is just too short to challenge his shot, and with his quick release Allen could conceivably control entire stretches in this series.

Pierce is still the Captain of the Celtics, and he just showed that he can dominate a series offensively with his play in the ECF.  He is more of a jump shooter now than he used to be, when he used his penetration to routinely get himself to the line.  But he won the 3-point shootout this year at the All Star break, and that reliance on shooting range could hold him in good stead against the bull-like Artest.

There are very few teams in the league with better wing play than the Celtics, just as there are very few teams in the league with the size and skill to out-muscle the Lakers front line.  The fun thing about this Finals is that for each team, they are facing maybe the only team in the NBA for which their lieutenants really might come up short.  Garnett, Kendrick Perkins and Rasheed Wallace have the length, aggression and defensive chops to control the paint while Ron Artest has the ability to blanket Pierce like LeBron James did two rounds ago (13.5 ppg on 35|PERCENT| FG) and Allen will almost surely be outshone by Kobe.  Nevertheless, these duos are extremely important in determining who walks away with this title.  The team that gets the most production from their Lieutenants have a very, very good shot at winning this thing.