East 1st Round
Cleveland over Chicago in 4: The Cavaliers are on a mission. They will be focused every night out.
Miami over Boston in 6: Dwyane Wade has been possessed lately and the Celtics have looked disinterested since Christmas. Old too but, worse, disinterested.
Atlanta over Milwaukee in 7: I think this is the best first round series in the league this year. I'd be really tempted to pick the Bucks if Andrew Bogut was healthy.
Orlando over Charlotte in 6: The Larry Brown factor will prevent the Bobcats from going quietly. The year has been a good first step for Charlotte. Next step: change the team name.
East Semifinals
Cleveland over Miami in 6: Wade will steal a game or two and I really look forward to those moments when LeBron and Wade have a scoring duel for four or five minutes at a time. It will happen. Multiple times.
Atlanta over Orlando in 6: The one team the Magic doesn't want to play is Atlanta. The Hawks play the Magic really, really well. Plus, Vince Carter will bring Orlando down at some point.
East Finals
Cleveland over Atlanta in 4: The Hawks brief moment of prosperity ends in a hurry as LeBron demolishes them and Joe Johnson flees in July as a free agent.
West 1st Round
Los Angeles over OKC in 6: I think this is a better series than people expect because the Lakers have played horribly over the last month and Ron Artest is no longer a good defender, meaning Kevin Durant will have a game or two where he goes nuts and wins it for his team.
Denver over Utah in 7: George Karl's absence could actually help the Nuggets. They can play more inspired ball for him and Karl's postseason history suggests a different coach on the bench may actually help them.
Phoenix over Portland in 5: Brandon Roy's injury eliminates any chance for the Blazers.
San Antonio over Dallas in 6: Try as I might, I don't trust the Mavericks. At all. And I think the Spurs, while old and at the end, have one last hurrah in the Duncan-Ginobili era in them. They've played better of late.
West Semifinals
Los Angeles over Denver in 6: The only type of player that Artest can still effectively check is the wing scorer who relies more on being physical than being quick. Fortunately for Los Angeles, that's exactly what Carmelo Anthony is.
San Antonio over Phoenix in 6: Again, the last hurrah for Duncan-Ginobili. Plus, the Steve Nash Suns never beat the Spurs. You still have to play some defense to win in the spring and the Suns don't do it.
West Finals
Los Angeles over San Antonio in 4: The last hurrah ends with a thud.
NBA Finals
Cleveland over Los Angeles in 7
Everyone wants to see a LeBron-Kobe matchup. No one even acknowledges that it would be a Shaq-Kobe matchup too. That tells you how far Shaq has fallen and how sick of the Shaq-Kobe soap opera people are. Anyway, the one thing that gives me pause with picking the Cavaliers against the Lakers is that the coaching matchup couldn't be anymore lopsided. However, if Doc Rivers can beat Phil Jackson in an NBA Finals, so too can Mike Brown. I really like the size the Cavaliers bring, with all of their guys who are 6'8" or bigger (LeBron, Shaq, Antawn Jamison, Anderson Varejao, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, J.J. Hickson). The Lakers offer the same sort of size but not the same toughness down low.
But more importantly, this is the moment where the torch gets passed. Once LeBron wins his first title, he's probably going to win a few more (so long as he doesn't sign with the wrong team this summer like, you know, the Knicks). He has been the best player in the league for four solid seasons now and now he's possessed to do what the best player is supposed to do. I don't see the Lakers having any shot of even making him work to score and those big bodies inside will make it harder and harder for Kobe to get to the basket as the series progresses.
It just feels like its time. We will all witness.
No comments:
Post a Comment