In truth,there is no number 2 pick here.There is no conceivable way either GM could screw this up,I have no doubt that both will do their utmost to sabotage this easy choice,but let's not get too cynical here.
Since the Miami Heat tried so hard to play a brand of soul destroying-ly bad basketball all to attain the number one pick,which up until the end of March Madness WAS Mike Beasley,I find it very fitting and,indeed,satisfying to see the Miami Heat with the number 2 pick, still able to choose the object of their season long affections,but it turns out they've changed their mind,and are now even threatening to draft OJ Mayo.It's like,when at a party,it's made abundantly clear that a girl wants you,but you only have eyes for her friend.Will this end in a drunken-porch-side argument?Probably not,but still.There was very little debate all year about who would be the number one pick,it was assumed that whoever would intentionally suck enough to grab the number one would pick Beasley.He was too exciting and intriguing for this not to be the case.If only it were now that simple.The combination of Roses' ridiculous crunch-time play and Chicago getting the number one blew the lid off the whole plan.
Now,the roles are reversed.Rose is the almost guaranteed first pick and the buzz surrounding Beasley seems to be fading.People are more interested in engaging in inane arguments about his height or in highlighting character problems which haven't been a factor since he left high school.Rose has been on the good side of people's short sightedness and gold fish like memory,whereas Beasley has been a victim of tired Prep-star stereotypes and people's unwillingness to accept someone's ability to change.It seems that people are basing their argument on Roses' case for number 1 solely because of his performance in March.Now,don't get me wrong here,these types of big performances are a crucial factor on teams deciding who they'll draft,but its not THE factor that needs to be taken
into account.Rose should not be drafted first just because he was the last of the big prospects we saw play.
But he should be the number one pick,the Bulls need him a lot more than he needs the Bulls and a whole lot more than Miami need him.Chicago's current batch of young,solid yet unspectacular Bulls-and Tyrus Thomas simply isn't working.That wasn't a revolutionary sentence.Many of Chicago's problems last year stemmed from the point guard position as a whole being completely devoid of any creativity.Kirk Hinrich and Chris Duhon's style of dribble-dribble pass play won't cut it in a team with any type of ambition to win.Chicago do need some interior presence,but having a strong athletic playmaker to which you can build a promising ,young, athletic team around trumps any frontcourt need.With Rose,the Bulls could be a winning team next year and even make and appearance in the playoffs,with Beasley-not so much.Everything is pretty much set in stone,all the GMs have to do is the obvious thing,the thing that every media outlet and mock draft to date says they should.GMs don't have a history of being particularly creative people,so they shouldn't start now.With Rose at 1 and Beasley at 2 everything is OK with the world and the NBA is the better for it.Chicago starts on the road to relevancy and Miami is at the very least an entertaining team to watch.
My anthem for this draft is No Surprises by Radiohead because that's exactly what we want,within the first two picks anyway..
Number 1-Chicago Bulls-Derrick Rose-Memphis
As stated above,the Bulls need a point guard not named Kirk Hinrich,Rose happens to be a pretty good one.He'll probably be the most athletic point guard in the Lig right away and will bring some immediate impact.Can do pretty much everything on the floor,excellent passer,rebounder,ball handler.Can finish like few others can.Do we get the picture yet?He's pretty great and great to watch and I hope to God he makes the Bulls and maybe even by extension the Eastern Conference relevant/worth watching.And I'm not sure if the NBA has ever been this lucky with the amount of young,quality point guards coming to the fore in such a small space of time(if this has happened before,please let me know-I'm young).Maybe I'm getting a little too excited about him before he's even played a minute in the L,but all I'll say is that I'm looking forward to him having battle with the like of Chris Paul and Deron Williams in the not-so-distant future.
Number 2-Miami Heat-Michael Beasley-Kansas State.
Again,a freakish athlete,does very little wrong,has a good inside-outside game.Uses the triple threat position as it was meant to be used,his jab steps are hugely efficient.Has a variety of spin moves and fadeaways and a very solid all around game.Is a tireless rebounder and manages to grab rebounds he has no right to.Is a stat stuffer-can put up ridiculous numbers consistently.This pick will work for the Heat on so many levels.The first is not having the problem of Rose and Wade competing for the volume of on ball time that both need to be effective.The second is that this clears the way for them to either use Shawn Marion at the 4 or ideally-get rid of him altogether.At first,it probably won't be pretty but I'm confident that he'll get comfortable and average in and around 17-20 PPG.
Number 3-Timberwolves-Brook Lopez-Stanford
Let me start off by saying that this is not what I think should happen,only what I think will happen.If you mosey on over to the T'Wolves website,you'll see that Lopez is adorning the top three stories on the front page.They seem to want him-a lot.You can see why,they already have their off guard,a rising star power forward and with no other point guard worth taking at three in the draft,why not go for the semi safe center option?Brook will at least be a 12 and 7 career guy.I wouldn't take him but wouldn't be mad if the Wolves decided not to go for one of the many alluring yet risky 'tweener guards lurking around the lottery.
Number 4-Seattle Supersonics(?)-OJ Mayo-USC
Unless Miami go absolutely crazy and draft him as has been threatened,the Sonics will take the best player available on the board.Though this may only be used as trade bait for an older,more experienced veteran that is badly needed on this team of 14 year olds.Mayo will be good,there is very little debate with this.He won't be a perennial all star,but will be at least a 20 point per game scorer on most teams.
Number 5-Memphis Grizzlies-Eric Gordon-Indiana
For the past few weeks,it almost seemed that Kevin Love was a mortal lock for the number 5,but there have been indications of late that Memphis might want to orchastrate a trade involving David Lee and Brian Cardinal's expiring contract out of this pick and an uber athletic shooting guard will be eons more attractive on the trading block than Kevin Love.This pick could also easily be Russell Westbrook or Jarryd Bayless but the Griz seem set on Gordon.
Check back tomorrow for more draft related wrongness.
Done by: AR
by Tariq al Hayder
"For you to write new rhymes it is a must
But I come off with rhymes old as dust
Even as a speck of dust it existed
Ya got that?
Forget it, ya missed it"
- GZA/Genius
OK, it would be cheating if I just came out and declared that GZA is my favorite rapper. I have to take it back... See, back in the day, my boys and I were Westside-for-lifers, whatever the hell that means.
In fact, let me take it back even further: to 1995. That was the year I first heard Snoop's Doggystyle. To say I was blown away is like saying pre-pregnancy Jessica Alba was not THAT ugly. I don't know if it was Dre's funky beats or Calvin Broadus's laconic flow or both, but I was transfixed. Everyday after school I would fire up my Super Nintendo and listen to Doggystyle until nightfall. Occassionally, I did homework. I pledged my alleigance henceforth to all things Death Row. I wasn't alone, either: all my boys and I greeted each other with fingers twisted into W's. Geeky, I know. What can I say...fuckin' teenagers. But it was good that others shared my nerdiness: Bashar, Rio, Firas, Ahmad (aka Batman) and especially Dodi.
See, Dodi and I were more hardcore than the rest. We bought Laker jerseys. We rooted for the Raiders. Westside, baby. Dodi would take me aside, and with a mischevious twinkle of the eye tell me about the Clubhouse. The Clubhouse was a fictional place where all true Westsiders hung out. It was basically the two of us, Tupac, the king of all music, Snoop, Kurupt, Daz, Dre, RBX, Warren G, Stretch, a young Lamar Odom and Cesar fuckin' Sampaio, for some reason (remember him, Alan? #5 with Brazil? Dodi is not mentally stable). Basically, the members of this imaginary Clubhouse (us included) spent their days smoking weed, making gangsta rap, playing dominoes and cards, "entertaining" lovely females and drinking Alize and Hennessey. And Dodi would sometimes speak of the Westsiders in mock-exasperation, like thus:
Dodi: Man, the guys are pissed at TQ!
Me: Why? Dude is cool, man.
Dodi: It's just that all he says is "Westside!" Like the other day Kurupt was preparing a DMX diss, and Snoop and Lamar Odom were playing Tekken, when Cesar Sampaio said: "Hey, senors, we need to get some grub!" and TQ said "Westside!" So Snoop suggested Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles, but 'Pac wanted In n Out. And for some reason, Omar Epps stopped by and insisted on getting take-out from the Ivy. Finally, we all settled on Arby's, and when we asked TQ what he wanted to eat, he just kept saying "Westside" like a fucking parrot. Overkill, man.
Me: I meant to tell you...we need to let Tim Brown into the Clubhouse.
Dodi: Westside.
So yeah, we were all about the Westside. And I HATED Biggie. In fact, I hated EVERYONE 2Pac ever dissed, which means I hated 93% of the population of the Earth. And then I heard "Triumph."
Thank God Pac was cool with the Wu. That song changed me, musically. The song my boys called "I Bomb Atomically". Inspectah Deck's opening verse was especially intriguing; I mean, a dude was rapping about "Socrates philosophies"? Wow. Ear-opening. And slowly, the Westside's grip on my soul began to weaken. I even liked Biggie's "You're Nobody Till Somebody Kills You", which killed my soul a little.
New rappers began to enter the Clubhouse. It wasn't just Westsiders anymore. Even Jay-Z got a pass when he dropped Blueprint. Eminem was allowed in, but both the Batman and Dodi argued that his membership be revoked after his duet with Elton John. I begged that they forgive his transgression. Batman said he didn't really care as long as we let in Bone Thugs N Harmony.
I was in love with the Wu. Method Man was my favorite. I would drive around, eat Chicken Flamers from Burger King and listen to Enter the 36 Chambers. To this day, I associate Meth's gravelly flow with grilled chicken sandwiches with extra mayo and pickles. So where does the GZA figure in? Well, to quote the man himself, I guess "with age and experience my reason ripens".
See, I realized that lyrically, GZA may or may not be the best battle-rapper out there, and he may or may not be the best story-teller out there, but he had a peculiar relationship with words. To illustrate what I mean, let me take it all the way back to pre-Islamic Arabia. The ancient Arabs had markets where poets came to perform. The really bad-ass poets became judges, and they decided which poets won and brought honor to their tribes and which ones 50-Cented up the joint.
One prominent judge was nicknamed, fittingly, the Genius. One day, two very skilled poets came to do battle in front of the Genius: a woman named Khansaa' and a man called Hassan. Both were supremely talented. When they delivered their verses, the Genius looked at them both and then turned to Khansaa', smiled, and calmly uttered: "No owner of ovaries has ever impressed like you have."
Khansaa' smiled and replied "You'd do well to find someone with only two testicles on my level!"
The Genius laughed, but Hassan saw this as an insult directed at him, so he shouted "You know what, Genius, you have no right to judge us, because I'm a better poet than YOU!"
The Genius smiled, put his arm around Hassan's shoulder, and whispered "Nephew, perhaps you CAN surpass me one day, but let me ask you this, can you match this:"
And then he dropped a single verse of poetry, off the top of his head, which only maintains a faint glimmer of its majesty in translation:
You are like the night, which will inevitably reach me/ Even if you perceive a vast schism between us
Hassan dropped his head and moved along.
This struggle for verbal beauty, for aesthetic perfection, is inextricable from the Arab psyche. In fact, when Muhammad came with the Qur'an, one of the reasons so many people eventually embraced Islam was that it was widely recognized that it was IMPOSSIBLE to produce a literary work in the Arabic language which could even rival the Qur'an aesthetically. Even Muhammad's enemies conceded this point. And they took a strange approach: they urged people to fill their ears with cotton, because Muhammad's superior words were "sorcery". How else could an ILLITERATE man produce a work of such beauty.
Poetry, the love of words, is so ingrained in Arab culture that even Osama bin Laden tries to pass himself off as a poet (He's a very bad one, incidentally).
But I digress.
Anyway, back to the GZA/Genius. He reminds me of the other Genius. I feel like he's an old man who collects words like seashells. You see him alone on the shore, and you think to yourself "What's wrong with this dude?" But if you inspect him closely, he picks up a shell, twirls it around for you, and shows you part of a living creature, when all you noticed before was a pretty rock. And he does this by structuring an entire album on a chess metaphor (Grandmasters), or by playing with words for whole songs, whether those words are the names of celebrities ("Fame"), record labels ("Labels"), animals ("Animal Planet"), NFL teams ("Queen's Gambit") or magazines ("Puplicity"). Just look at these sample lyrics:
Puplicity:
"Rap lords, swing swords, SLAM microphones, shatter BILLBOARDS" (SLAM mention!)
Animal Planet:
"The owls are private eyes that watch from the bark
Black panthers are the militant who strike in the dark
Porcupines had a rep' for sticking everything that moved
In areas that the rhinos and hippos approved
And the giraffe was a look-out for gorillas in the mist"
Fame:
"Paul +Pierce+d in the heart as the crowd pushed
Acting alone... Drew +Buried More+ bones
of the victims, three blocks from Jim's +Brownstone+
Queen's Gambit:
"Her ancestors were CHIEFS, who ran with running deer
On the sail with the SEAHAWKS, who battled the BUCCANEERS
The REDSKIN garments, was suede coat liners
Held rare coins, frequently sought from gold miners
They were hard working warriors, we call over timers
Shot plenty arrows at COWBOYS and 49ERS
Her interesting background, but quite unusual
great for a script, but out of bounds for a musical
She told me to call her, if I came to town
I started TEXAN her, soon as my plane had touchdown"
And sometimes it's not even that complex. The Genius himself recognizes that "the significance was not the vulgar applause on entrance, but the feeling at exit: COMPLETION OF A SENTENCE". Sometimes it's simple; just raw metaphors and similes:
"My enemies get cooked like eggs when they scramble"
"I slash like a hyphen"
"Lyrics are weak like clock-radio speakers"
"They're stingy, like they got short arms and deep pockets"
"Unbalanced like elephants and ants on seesaws"
"It's a wide entrance, small exit like a funnel/ So deep it's picked up on radios in tunnels"
So when it comes to wordplay, GZA describes it best; he's an athlete:
"Run on the track like Jesse Owens
Broke the record flowin, without any knowin
That my wordplay run the 400 meter relay
It's on once I grab the baton from the DJ
A athlete wit his iron cleat in the ground
Wildest nigga who sprint off the gun sound
The best time yet still 7.0
Swift flow made the cameramen clothes blow"
Thank you, Genius.
Since you all care WAY too much about the minutae of my everyday existence, I thought I'd share the songs that have been doing the rounds on my iPod/iTunes recently:
- Fear Not of Men - Mos Def
- When You Were Mine - Prince
- I Feel Good - Jay Electronica
- The Rape Over - Mos Def
- Breaker, Breaker - GZA
- Creep - Radiohead
- Billy Jack Bitch - Prince
- And Justice For All - Wu Tang Killa Bees
- Underwater - Ghostface
- November Has Come - Gorillaz feat. MF DOOM
- Eight Days a Week - The Beatles
- Love Hangover - Kidz in the Hall feat. Estelle
- The Hurricane - Bob Dylan
- Who's Johnny? - El DeBarge
- Rising Down - The Roots
- The Game - Common
- Accordion - MF DOOM
- Sweet Child O Mine - Guns n Roses
- Even Flow - Pearl Jam
Also, when writing, I find Eagle Eye Cherry to be very effective.
I love you, Jellybean.
That's the message I'd like to convey to Kobe Bean Bryant. He may not like the fact that I just called him a confectionary, but he gets the picture. And I'm not kidding either: I love the dude. I love him because he made me laugh when I saw his Stephen A. Smith interview. And for apologizing to his wife with a FOUR-MILLION-DOLLAR ring. I also kinda love him for not letting Lamar Odom beat himself up TOO much. In fact, I think I need to go back to that Screamin' A. interview for a sec: For those of you that missed it, Kobe was very candid and unguarded. He revealed that he had managed to "impose his DNA" on the Lakers. Smith, understandably, didn't understand, but I think I get it: Correct me if I'm wrong, but it's all about love, right Kobe?
Think about it: this is a sublimely gifted athlete who entered the league around the time of his PROM, for God's sake. He KNEW that this, what we're seeing in front of us, the unfurling of the career of an all-time great, was SUPPOSED to happen. It just was. And people hated that. But that's our problem, not Kobe's.
To give you an idea of what I'm talking about, let me share my Top 10 all-time list:
1- Michael Jordan
2- Wilt Chamberlain
3- Oscar Robertson
4- Magic Johnson
5- Larry Bird
6- Bill Russell
7- Jerry West
8- Kareem Abdul Jabbar
9- Shaq
10- Dr. J
Now, understand this: the only players on that list I've actually FOLLOWED are MJ and Shaq, but I obsessed over that list. I was fixated, and then I expanded to the next ten: Elgin Baylor, Earl Monroe, Walt Frazier, Karl Malone, George Gervin, Barkley, Duncan,...etc. And I obsessed even more: At this point in his career, is Kobe better than Elgin Baylor? Is Kobe, right now, #17? #12? #19? What? God, give me a sign!
And then I realized I was asking the wrong questions, because really, I wasn't assembling these lists for MY benefit, I was doing all this so that people would think I was smart, that I knew a lot about hoops. Because really, how in the hell am I supposed to compare Kobe to Elgin Baylor or Walt Frazier? I've never even SEEN those dudes play. How often have you?
A good friend of mine taught me a valuable lesson. It was a basketball lesson, but I think it also applies to life, and she did it by asking me a simple question: Who are your Fave Five?
That's a much easier list to compile: Iverson, Baron Davis, Stephen Jackson, Josh Smith and KG. With Amare and Gooden's Beard (just the Beard) coming off the bench. Simple, right? And this list? This was for ME. These were the players that brought ME pleasure. Fuck historical context.
Ah, historical context: that's the root of the hate you must endure. You realize that, right, Kobe? You are TOO SIMILAR to that guy. You're like Shyne in relation to Biggie, except if Shyne were actually as good as GZA or Jay-Z. That's why they hate you, Kobe, why they can't even let you kiss your kids without accusing you of faking it: because you're too UNCANNY.
And I think that's what you figured out: that the only way to combat that hate was through LOVE. I imagine you telling your boys:
"Listen, whatever happens, happens for a reason. It's SUPPOSED to happen. So no matter who screws up, the love will always be here. Don't even sweat it."
And that's why I think that after Game 6, you told the press "I'm proud." Because you KNEW that the Celtics deserved to beat you and your boys, but that didn't diminish the love. It was just SUPPOSED to happen this way. And speaking of how things are SUPPOSED to happen, it makes you smile when people say that Jordan "wouldn't have allowed" this or "WILLED his team" to that, right? It makes you smile because you know it isn't true. Because you know he was JUST like you: just some guy who was exceptionally "good at basketball," as it were. All he could do was play, and then events transpired according to dozens of other variables.
In fact, people talk about teammates, rule changes, officiating... they talk about every single variable imaginable, down to the new Gatorade flavors that weren't available when Money was playing. But they forget the most important one: Love. Because let's face it: MJ was the most loved athlete in professional sports, and you? You're the most hated. So, in a way... all your failures? Our bad. And I'm sorry, Kobe Bean Bryant, because maybe if I really loved you, you'd have a fistful of rings by now.
So please accept my apology, and I promise not to hate you from now on. I've become a Laker fan for life, and your love is one of the reasons for that. So shyne on, my brother. You corny little bitch!
P.S.
For all of you who read my insane Ray-Allen-hate diatribes, allow me to apologize to the great Jesus Shuttlesworth. Congratulations on your ring, and I hope your kid is doing well. You'll ALWAYS be a Hall-of-Famer in my book. I didn't even hate you, you were just a vehicle for my unadulterated hate. And I needed to get the hate out so I could find the love. So congratulations, Mr. Future Hall-of-Famer. Enjoy your much-deserved ring.
I love you, Kevin Garnett. You too, Paul Pierce. Sorry, but your pictures will NOT be on this cover.
And I'm so sure of this, that I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is:
Yo Eboy, if the Lakers DON'T win, I'll send you this DVD. But if they DO win, you let me send it to you anyway.
What do you say?
DEJA VU, ALL OVER AGAIN
written by Eboy
My, my, my (no Johnny Gill). How utterly convenient that the most wild NBA season, maybe in it's entire history, comes down to it's most storied rivalry, with some "divine intervention" thrown in to make sure it happened. One of the most boring playoff seasons ever followed one of the greatest regular seasons of all time. How odd. And all we are left with is this crappy t-shirt and a matchup that is sure to disappoint. Why, you ask? A simple reason, really. For the week leading up to Game One, we will have been told probably 1759 times that besides this being the most storied rivalry in team sports and that these two teams will be remembered as legendary, there would be little way this series will meet the expectations. NO WAY! Unless each game headed to various overtimes and history books were rewritten in each game, this is going to be a pedestrian series. A 6 or 7 game series that will go back and forth between two teams that in the scope of all things great in NBA teamfolklore, barely make a blip on the greatness meter.
Yes, Lakers fans are like Yankees fans. Glib, pampered, ridiculously oversensitive and way too expecting of greatness. Celtics fans are like....well that's easy...like Red Sox fans. Big mouthed, overconfident and always crass. Usually why most fans outside of Boston and LA can't get behind either of them, is because the bloodlines run way too deep. This isn't like the 80's when you could "choose your weapon", like the old shoe commercial said, and attach yourself to Magic or Larry's gravytrain. This is more than that. These teams are force fed to basketball fans today. "The Big Three", "Kobe's Lakers". Enough. Let's see if these two teams, the best two teams by record in each of their conferences, can do what we hope for. Provide a thrilling, high quality basketball series. If they can, they may just yet be able to salvage what has so far been a let down of epic proportions in these playoffs.
Let's get into it. After hearing the ramblings of sportswriters/broadcasters like Tim Legler, Steven A. Smith, Bill Simmons, Mark Jackson, etc. for the last week, all I can surmise is that the Celtics have no chance to win this series.....if listening to the words of these "experts". Surprisingly, not one of these guys has ever been part of the process of winning an NBA championship, so I think my opinion is equal to theirs. Alright, maybe not, but I can dream right? After some serious introspection (well, rereading my season preview from back in November) I had the Celtics playing the Spurs in the Finals and just missed out on a 100% percent prediction for the parties involved. Now, with the Lakers "juggernaut" coming to town, the much talked about Boston Massacre is just a day away, and I'm trying to keep my wits about me testing all I know about basketball history and it's strategies and matchups. The 80's are back baby! I'm breaking out the acid wash, people!!!!!!
Guards
Hmmm........The game's most dominant player, headlining, against a crop of guards on the Celtics that have either all seen better days or none at all. Should be a walk in the park for Mr. Bryant. Seriously. Ray Allen, while a future Hall Of Famer, isn't likely to have his own wing there, like Kobe may have. Ray's going to have his hands full on the possessions he winds up getting caught on switches with Kobe. Kobe should be off the charts great in this series. Figure about 35 pts per game, 5 assists, 5 rebounds. The best single player on the court. Ray needs to shine for at least 14 pt per game to at least throw something out there (a jump shot) that the Lakers have to respect from the Celts backcourt. Rajon Rondo vs. Derek Fisher is intriguing. The young guard on the come up, who ran the NBA's best team all season, against the old, grizzled guard, with the championship pedigree and big time history. This will be a critical matchup, with whoever stands out the most, giving his team a huge boost towards a ring fitting. The bench guards for both teams are interesting too. The Lakers would seem to have the advantage with young guys Jordan Farmar and Sasha Vucovic playing critical minutes and looked to to provide timely three point shooting. Both have done that this season, so if they can continue on, they should win their matchup with Sam Cassell and Eddie House. The thing is...if Cassell and House can have a hot shooting game here and there, they can be streaky enough to steal a game, let alone this matchup. The LA boys should be good though.
Edge- Lakers
Small Forwards
Vladimir Radmanovic against Paul Pierce and James Posey. Let me think..........yeah, Celtics HUGE in this matchup. I know, I know, Kobe will help here, Odom may take some time on Pierce, but Pierce should be the startout man against Radmanovic and there is no contest in this matchup. Posey is a wild card in this series. A champion too, he is the type of pesky defender that will be in the Kobe carousel, taking minutes battling the beast, pestering and frustrating to a point. Don't sell short his effort and intangibles. He will make a mark on this series. Radmanovic needs to just play his game, shoot the open three and get to the basket when he can. His D is going to be on full display though, so he needs to be up to the Pierce challenge until Kobe makes the switch and chases him to the bench in the first 5 minutes of each game.
Edge- Celtics
Power Forwards/Center
This is the matchup that I think will decide the series. I'm going to list 5 names for the Celtics and 4 for the Lakers. You decide.
Celtics
Kevin Garnett
Kendrick Perkins
PJ Brown
Leon Powe
Glen Davis
Lakers
Paul Gasol
Lamar Odom
Luke Walton
Ronnie Turiaf
Still thinking? Don't. Let me help you. The Lakers only hope in this matchup is that Phil Jackson finds a way to integrate Lamar into the gameplan in an unexpected way that will throw the Celts for a loop. It can be done. But the real problem for the Lakers lies in the Gasol matchup. He got by in the Nuggets series against a disjointed group of bigs that missed out on exploiting him. He was ordinary against the Jazz, but played well enough to support Kobe in the series win. And against the Spurs, he played well enough against Tim Duncan, but it was the lack of help The Robot got from his teammates that nullified his dominate numbers in the series. Pau will be in for a rude awakening. A force of nature that only his teammate, Mr. Bryant, can match in intensity. Kevin Garnett will, in my opinion, take this series by the throat by doing whatever is needed to get his team to the promised land. The rest of the Celts bigs will wear down Pau, and while they may struggle to contain Odom at times, foul trouble will DESTROY the Lakers chances in this series, since their are no other bigs to counteract the Celts. It will be critical for Gasol and Odom to stay out of foul trouble which means they can't be overly aggressive, which neither ever is defensively, so the Celts should own the paint, as they did in their regular season matchups. They were a +12 in the rebound column in their two games. Granted, Gasol wasn't there for those, but there was a certain young center that played those games and didn't do much to change the fortunes in those games. Now with Kendrick Perkins and PJ Brown delivering decent minutes, the Celts have the decided advantage. Turiaf provides a nice spark off the bench for the Lakers and his rebounding and his little outside game is a nice compliment to Odom and Kobe's off the dribble work once Gasol goes to the bench. Luke Walton....welcome to the bench.... again. 5 to 4? I like the Celts odds.
Edge-Celtics
Coaching
Phil the legend against Doc the underachiever. Pretty decided in the favor of the Lakers. Phil will have his guys and his gameplan tight. Always does. Doc will use the "them against us" motto to full effect and his boisterous sideline presence will counter Phil's "ass in the chair still down by 25" look. If it's a critical change that needs to be addressed, Phil's staff is better prepared for that.
Edge-Lakers
Intangibles
Interesting. Kobe's manic drive for the perfect season and some form of redemption against the hunger of the Big Three. The game's greatest coach of the last 20 years trying to win the elusive 10th title to put him in rarefied air. Home court sitting in the Celtics favor. Two wins for the Celts in the regular season, both pretty handily. KG vs. Kobe for the whole ball of wax? KG's fire should finally pay off and a championship pedigree will return to Boston basketball after 20 years. The good thing for the Lakers, their future is brighter than the Celtics so their chances at being back here should be much greater.
Edge-Even
My pick: Celtics in 6.