The Rise of the East
I watched part of the last two Lakers game where they lost close games to Miami and Orlando. Orlando looked good. Howard had an off night, Kobe had his best game of the year, and Orlando still won. With the Cavs playing incredible, Boston the best team in the league, and Orlando, the East is rising. In the West, the Lakers are soft, San Antonio is old, Phoenix is old, Dallas is old, New Orleans is underperforming, Houston is injury prone, and Portland is both young and injury prone.
On the postgame, Magic and Worthy both said the Lakers looked soft and no one comes to play except Kobe and Fisher, sometimes. Why won't anyone say the truth - the Laker's don't have a leader. Kobe is a great player and horrible leader, but what's worse - he won't allow someone else to be the leader of the team. That's why the Lakers can only get softies (Lamar and Gasol) or too-nice guys (Fisher and Walton) or young guys (Bynum and Farmer) or foreigners (those weirdo Eastern European dudes).
2 comments:
You're absolutely right -- the East is rising and the Lakers have no real leadership on the court. The rise of the East was apparent about 10 days into the season when you saw their top four teams get off to near perfect starts, and their counterparts out West kind of struggled (except for the Lakers).
The Lakers have no inside physical toughness, and mentally, they're like a team of Scottie Pippens. That's why Boston, Cleveland, Orlando, and even Detroit can take them in a series. But Detroit is a team in transition and their balance of youth and experience is playing with schizophrenic results. They will not be a playoff factor this season (to my great dismay).
I think your points regarding the rest of the West is mostly spot-on, but I'm not counting out the Spurs until both Duncan and Popavich are no longer involved.
Boston is a force from hell, and one of their most important players this season is, surprisingly, Rajon Rondo. That kid has improved tremendously. The only team that can beat Boston is Cleveland.
It doesn't matter what their records are when playoff time comes, if Cleveland is healthy, I like their chances. Because of one man -- LeBron.
You can contain Kobe with length and traps. You cannot contain LeBron. He's stronger than Kobe, has better flat-out foot speed, and can drive to the hoop at will. The only real advantages Kobe has over LeBron at this point is that he's a better defender (though LeBron's improving there), and he's a better clutch player. But LeBron is incredibly mature for his age and is a superior leader. By a country mile. That means something.
Obviously, no one is going to be surprised if the Celtics return to the Finals, but I think Cleveland is going to beat Boston in the ECF this season.
I think if you're Boston, you pray that LeBron has a bad shooting night and that you can rebound the ball. Otherwise, you're most likely dead.
Boston talked a lot of trash last year, and LeBron has a long memory...
Cavs beating the Celtics is a bold prediction. I think if the Cavs are to beat the Celtics, it'll be the result of Boston getting cold or having some type of letdown or fatigue. Or the Cavs getting on fire. But Boston is way too deep, tough, and experienced for me to bet against them. You can't forget Pierce. The guy is a beast in big games. He outplayed Kobe in the finals last year. LeBron is a wonder, but it's really tough for a single guy to beat a great team in a seven game series. If LeBron pulls it off, it would be the first time it's happened. I think. To be fair, they went seven games last year, so it's not impossible.
The Lakers might get lucky this year and benefit from the East beating themselves up before the finals. In fact, I think they got through so easily last year because other Western teams beat up themselves prior to playing the Lakers. The Lakers didn't play a single tough team in the playoffs until the finals - Utah was only decent and San Antonio had injuries and I think was worn down from their two prior series.
Xmas day will be fun to watch the Lakers-Celtics and see if the Lakers are as weak as I think they are.
Post a Comment