NBA Finals Preview: Boston Celtics vs. Los Angeles Lakers

June 1st, 2010 admin

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So far the NBA playoffs have been pretty entertaining as we have seen some intriguing matchups in some unlikely teams going deep in the postseason.

There is no doubting of the biggest surprise in the NBA playoffs so far has been the early exit of the Cleveland Cavaliers who lost to the Boston Celtics in the second round. Not only did the Boston Celtics start looking like the 2008 championship team once again, but they absolutely dominated with the lockdown defense that made them relevant in the NBA a few years ago.

Obviously, the biggest story of the playoffs so far has been LeBron James getting knocked out of the playoffs much earlier than anticipated. Now the Cleveland Cavaliers will have their hands full as they do all they can to convince LeBron James re-sign with the club for the foreseeable future.

After their early second round exit, the Cleveland Cavaliers chances of re-signing the two-time
NBA MVP seem very unlikely as LeBron may have lost faith completely in the franchise that drafted him number one overall seven years ago.

Even though LeBron James’ future is up the air, the Boston Celtics and the defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers have another epic NBA Finals matchup in their future as they are set to face off once again with game one of the NBA Finals being played on Thursday, June 3rd at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

If the Orlando Magic beat the Boston Celtics and advanced to the NBA Finals they would have been in the team with the home court advantage. The same goes for the Cleveland Cavaliers, if they were able to advance they would also have had home court advantage in the NBA Finals, but being the underdogs, the Boston Celtics will not have home court advantage and will have to play the first two games of the NBA Finals in Los Angeles.

Fortunately, Kevin Garnett and company were able to come out on top in their one game in LA during the regular season as Derek Fisher failed to hit the game-winner with time expiring the fourth quarter.

The one big difference in this game was that Kobe Bryant was injured and couldn’t play. So even though Boston Celtics might be confident playing in Los Angeles, they also might consider the fact that the only got a chance to play against the Los Angeles Lakers with Kobe Bryant once this season and when they did he had game-winning shot over Ray Allen with only a few seconds remaining on the clock.

Needless to say, in both games that these two teams went head-to-head this season, it was
extremely close in came down to the closing seconds in order to determine a winner.

These NBA Finals will be a classic matchup between the great offense and a lockdown defense as the Boston Celtics look to impose their will on the defensive the floor while Kobe Bryant and company try to light up the scoreboard their triangle offense.

Unlike last year’s NBA finals, this year has potential to be a series that goes the full seven games in one of the most entertaining NBA Finals series we have seen in a long time!

Boston Celtics advance to the NBA Finals

May 30th, 2010 admin

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Coming into this NBA regular season, the Boston Celtics were not really considered to be a title contender after having a disappointing season and their title defense, but they were able to upgrade the roster by adding veteran forward Rasheed Wallace through free agency in the offseason.

Even though this former All-Star is arguably on the downside of his career, Rasheed Wallace has a lot of playoff experience and has already won one NBA title with the Detroit Pistons few years back. Despite being one of the most versatile forwards in the league, Wallace still had come off the bench after joining the Celtics, but he has turned out to be exactly what they needed.

It was an interesting regular season for the Boston Celtics as they really didn’t impress anyone as the team seemed to be mediocre at best, but still playoff bound.

As the NBA regular season started to come to a close, the Boston Celtics were really struggling to get anything going as they lost a lot of games at season’s end and limped into the NBA playoffs. Despite being only the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference and no one thinking that the Boston Celtics could compete with the Cleveland Cavaliers or the Orlando Magic in the East, head coach Doc Rivers new that if his team was healthy they had the best chance of any team in the East of advancing back to the NBA Finals.

In the first round of playoffs, the Boston Celtics went head to head against Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat. Even though Wade and company gave Doc Rivers’ squad a run for their money in a couple games during this first round series, the Celtics ultimately advanced to the second round to face the number one seeded Cleveland Cavaliers and two-time NBA MVP LeBron James.

Needless to say, no one gave the Boston Celtics a chance to actually beat the Cleveland Cavaliers who are favored to make it always the NBA Finals and win their first NBA title in the LeBron James era. Coming into this second round matchup, the Cleveland Cavaliers were arguably the best team in the league as no one had an answer for LeBron and the Cavs role players finally were able to step up.
Despite the Cavs winning two games in the series, one of which in convincing fashion, the Boston Celtics seemed to finally come into their own get back to that lockdown defense that won them an NBA title in 2008 against the arch rival Los Angeles Lakers.

The Cleveland Cavaliers had absolutely no answer for this intensity on defense by the Boston Celtics and therefore went down six games. This loss to the Celtics sent shockwaves through the NBA as the Cavs were thought to at least get to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Not only were the Cavs favored to win this series, but losing to the Celtics the way they did had some serious consequences as Cleveland may have lost LeBron James to free agency as a result. Boston on the other hand were revitalized as their patent lockdown defense was back to form and got the league talking once again about Kevin Garnett and company possibly getting back to the NBA Finals.

In the Eastern Conference Finals, it was more of the same for the Boston Celtics as they dominated the Orlando Magic with their defense and got out to a quick 3-0 lead and seemed on the verge of pulling off the sweep. With the possibility of getting swept on the horizon, the Magic stepped up their game and got back into the series with two straight wins and headed into game six with the potential to tie up the series at 3-3.

Unfortunately for Stan Van Gundy, his squad just could hang with the Boston Celtics in game six and were blown out and sent packing.
Now the Celtics will be waiting to see who they will face in the NBA Finals with everyone wanting to see a rematch of 2008 against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Orlando Still Alive but Not Kicking

May 27th, 2010 admin

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All of us could see this coming – Dwight Howard exploding for a 32-point, 16-rebound performance in Game 4 facing elimination. Howard led an inspired effort by the Magic against the Celtics and managed to steal a game in Boston with an overtime victory. Jameer Nelson finally found a map to the Eastern Conference finals and played like he did in the Magic’s first two series. He made back-to-back three-pointers in extra regulation.

Although Orlando received a big game from Howard and late game heroics from Nelson, it doesn’t mean that they’ll pull off a “Philadelphia Flyers” comeback and win the series against Boston. The Celtics only lost by four points, it’s not like Orlando dominated the whole game. Howard got monster numbers but Boston hung in there ‘til the very end.

If not for a few Paul Pierce mistakes down the stretch, Howard and Co. would’ve found themselves sitting on a couch at home. The Magic victory in Game 4 is not because they played desperation basketball, but because Boston did not. Pierce decided to play hero and opted to go on isolation plays down the stretch. Head coach Doc Rivers failed to remind Pierce that the Celtics are not a one-man team like LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers or Dwyane Wade’s Miami Heat. These Celtics thrive on playing team ball – great rotations on defense and crisp passes that lead to smooth ball movement on offense.

Still, the Celtics have nothing to worry about. This is not the NHL where the Boston Bruins committed the biggest choke in sports history by allowing the Flyers to win four straight games and steal the series. T his is the NBA where an educated guess can lead to the right choice. I’m not saying that I expected to see the Celtics within a win of the NBA finals. All I’m saying is with the way the Celtics have been playing in the playoffs; it would be a crime against humanity for them to collapse against a one-dimensional Magic team. One-dimensional meaning, dump the ball to Howard and wait for the defense to collapse and kick the ball out to an open shooter.

The Magic were lucky to survive Game 4. This would be a series if they won in a manner like the Suns did against the Lakers. Phoenix figured out how to stop the Lakers on offense. I didn’t see this last night from the Magic. They didn’t figure out anything. Nelson finally got out of the straight jacket Rajon Rondo was holding him in. Rondo had a bad game last night. With the way he’s been playing, don’t expect it to happen again.

Game 5 will be different. The Celtics will remember what got them here in the first place. In the words of Amar’e Stoudemire, it was a “lucky game” for the Magic.

Is Kobe Bryant this season’s real NBA MVP?

May 27th, 2010 admin

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Over the past two seasons in the NBA regular season, the Cleveland Cavaliers have seen their superstar forward LeBron James come into his own and become arguably the best player in the league. Gifted with the ability to dominate on both sides of the floor and finally getting the supporting cast he needs in the form of Mo Williams, Antawn Jamison and Shaquille O’Neal, LeBron seemed poised to lead his Cavs to an NBA title.

Unfortunately, even though he won two straight NBA MVP awards over the past two seasons, LeBron James has failed to produce in the playoffs and as a result the Cleveland Cavaliers have gone home early in two consecutive seasons.

Not only have the Cleveland Cavaliers failed to live up the hype and self-imposed expectations over the past two years, but people are starting to question whether or not LeBron James is really as good as everyone thinks he is.


Before LeBron James burst on the scene and started becoming the dominant player we see today with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers was considered to be without a doubt the best all around player in the NBA.

Obviously, LeBron James and Kobe Bryant are completely different basketball players with completely different styles of play, but their ability to take over a game at any given time sets them apart from everyone else in the league.

There is no doubting that Kobe isn’t getting any younger and every passing game is one step closer to his last in the NBA, but not being considered the best player in the league or the world for that matter is something that needs to change.

This league loves young players and hyping them up so much for that living up to the expectations are damn near impossible at times. LeBron James is a perfect example of that as he does display the skills of the dominant force in the NBA, but has failed to get anything done in the playoffs and never seems to come through when his team needs him the most.

Kobe Bryant on the other hand, has an NBA MVP trophy, NBA Finals MVP trophy and four NBA titles to his credit during his time with the Los Angeles Lakers. By the end of this season he might have one more title and a handful of rings.

A lot of people believed that the Lakers success in the past was due to the dominance Shaquille O’Neal in the paint and that definitely had a lot to do with it, but during this time without Shaq as a running mate in Los Angeles, Kobe is shown time and time again why he is by far the best player in the NBA.

Not only can Kobe Bryant put up 40, 50, 60 or maybe even 80+ points on any given night, but in my opinion he has the smartest player in the NBA when it comes to figuring out a defense and knowing exacting dissect it. Along with is extremely high basketball IQ, Kobe also get done on the defensive end of the floor and has been the best closer in this league since the days Michael Jordan with the Chicago Bulls.

The MVP award is regular season award and it would be hard to argue that the Cleveland Cavaliers didn’t have the best regular-season of any team in the league led by LeBron James, but I still believe that Kobe Bryant is the best all around player in this league needs get much more consideration for being the most valuable player in the NBA.

Mark Cuban wants LeBron James in Dallas

May 25th, 2010 admin

Will Mark Cuban get his star

Throughout the history of professional sports in this country we have seen some pretty outspoken owners from the MLB, NFL and NBA franchises.

Most owners take the approach of not being in the public eye and keeping to themselves while watching their teams play from a luxury suite, but then there are quite a few others that like to take a more hands on approach and be involved as much as possible.

In the MLB, there is George Steinbrenner of the New York Yankees. Although he isn’t seen much by television cameras anymore, Steinbrenner makes his presence felt with his checkbook as he has no problem dishing out the big bucks to get players like Alex Rodriguez and C.C. Sabathia.

In the NFL, there are two prominent NFL franchise owners that frequently make headlines for their antics. One of which is actually a former head coach in the Oakland Raiders Al Davis. Even though he has been around a long time and been quite successful for the most part, his Oakland Raiders have really struggled over the past decade and Davis has done his part in alienating players and coaches alike to show his discontent for losing.

Along with the near senile Al Davis, the NFL also has one other owner that gets a lot attention in the Dallas Cowboys Jerry Jones. Much like Steinbrenner with the New York Yankees, Jones has no problem putting up the money to sign big name players or to build billion dollar stadiums.

Even though all of these famous owners have been around for quite some time now, the one owner in professional sports who makes more headlines than any of them these days is the Dallas Mavericks Mark Cuban.

Jerry Jones, Al Davis and George Steinbrenner may have the championship rings and banners to display in their stadiums, but Mark Cuban is still trying to do everything within his power to make the Dallas Mavericks a title contending team in the NBA.

Over the past decade or so, Cuban has been able to completely turn around this struggling NBA franchise as he has made a point of it to sign and or trade for big name players like Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd, Shawn Marion and Caron Butler in
order to compete for an NBA title every single season.

Even though Cuban seemed to have the right pieces to the puzzle back in 2006 when the Dallas Mavericks made it all to the NBA Finals, the Miami Heat were able to comeback from a 0-2 deficit and beat the Mavs to win their first NBA title in franchise history. This was a severe blow to the Mavs to say the least as they seemed destined to win a title that year, but just couldn’t play consistently well in the NBA Finals against Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O’Neal.

Needless to say, Mark Cuban had a taste of what it could have been like to win an NBA title and has been dying to get another taste ever since. Unfortunately, the Mavs just haven’t been able to compete with the best of the best in the Western Conference and have been knocked out of the early rounds of the playoffs ever since that magical season in 2006.

This summer things could drastically change for the Dallas Mavericks as arguably there will be a number of big name free agents available to the highest bidder, including Dirk Nowitzki who could opt out of his current contract.

Even though there are plenty of game changers out there like Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and Amare Stoudemire, the one free agent that every NBA franchise wants to get their hands on is LeBron James.

Obviously, chances are that LeBron James will just re-sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers, but there is a possibility that he might go elsewhere and that has led Mark Cuban to believe that he has a legitimate shot at landing arguably the best player in the league today.

The only way that LeBron could come to Dallas though would have to be through a sign-and-trade deal. This way the Cleveland Cavaliers aren’t left with nothing and would have the possibility of getting Dirk Nowitzki in the exchange.

The future is still very much uncertain for LeBron James, but one thing is for certain and that is Mark Cuban will do what he can to bring him to Dallas.

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