If the NBA Playoffs started today, how would the teams match up in the first round? The Spechater takes a look at the Western Conference pairings based on today’s standings.
L.A. Lakers (1) vs. Portland (8)
A depleted Portland post presence spells doom for the young Blazers. Camby was a great addition to fill in for the losses of Joel Pryzbilla and Greg Oden, but the Blazers are simply not big enough to handle the trio of Gasol, Bynum, and Odom. Oh yeah, there’s this guy named Kobe Bryant to worry about too. Lakers in 5.
X-Factors: Ron Artest – L.A., Marcus Camby- Portland
Dallas(2) vs. San Antonio (7)
A classic Lone Star State and Southwest division matchup, this should be a great series. As much as I respect the Spurs’ championship experience, I give the Mavs the edge in this one. Dirk has been on fire all season and the new additions of Caron Butler and Brendan Haywood have added much needed depth to the once-struggling Mavs and have made them a legitimate threat to the Lakers. Mavs in 6.
X-Factors: Caron Butler- Dallas, Manu Ginobili- San Antonio
Denver (3) vs. Oklahoma City (6)
The world will get to witness the playoff coming out party for Kevin Durant and his surprise OKC teammates. This team will be one to reckon with…just not this season. Denver reached the Western Conference Finals last year and have a former NBA Finals MVP in Chauncey Billups to lead the show. Plus, Denver is probably the most physical team in the league (Cleveland is probably 1A) and will force their will on the young Thunder. However, the Carmelo Anthony vs. Kevin Durant matchup will be fun to watch. Denver in 6.
X-Factors: J.R. Smith- Denver, Jeff Green- Oklahoma City
Utah (4) vs. Phoenix (5)
This matchup features two great PGs in Steve Nash and Deron Williams and two opposing styles. Phoenix favors an uptempo style with Utah preferring a slower, half-court offensive style. Which team will be able to impose its style on the other? I’m going with Utah in 7, giving the Jazz the series purely based on home-court advantage because Energy Solutions Arena is one of the toughest places to play in.
X-Factors: Paul Millsap- Utah, Robin Lopez- Phoenix
After a six day rest the Denver Nuggets prepare to fly to Los Angeles and take on the Lakers in Game1 of the Western Conference Finals on Tuesday. The Nuggets were a bump in the road of the Lakers march to the Finals last season, losing in the first round. But this years Nuggets is a far cry from the team the Lakers saw last season. The addition of playoff veteran Chancey Billups and uber hype man Chris “Birdman” Anderson have changed the demeanor of the team. The Nuggets have steam-rolled through the playoffs, embarrassing the New Orleans Hornets and over playing the Dallas Mavericks. The Nuggets are the the most impressive team this post-season next to the Cleveland Cavaliers who have yet to lose. The Los Angeles Lakers enter this series unsure of who they are. After losing big leads in Round1 to the Utah Jazz, it appeared the mighty Lakers had chinks in their armor. In Round2 the Houston Rockets put a serious dent in that armor pushing the Lakers to the brink of elimination, without Tracy McGrady or Yao Ming. Kobe Bryant said on Sunday following their Game7 victory over the Houston Rockets “We are bipolar”. The Lakers clearly showed a tendency to play at a higher more determined level at home. This would be a problem if they didn’t posses home-court advantage throughout the Western Conference playoffs. But their “bipolar tendencies” will come back to bite them come Tuesday when the Nuggets roll into town. Chauncey Billups is the key that Denver has needed for years and has the Nuggets poised to make it to beyond this match up. The key for the Lakerswill be using their length to their advantage once again. Andrew Bynums howed up in the playoffs for the first time in Game7, Sunday with 14 points on 6-7 shooting, and Pau Gasol was huge with 21 points and 18 boards.The Nuggets are a much smaller team, but can match the Lakers offensively. Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony in the Western Conference Finals is a must-see, but they will be out shined by the performance of Billups, super sixth-man JR Smith, and the post players of the Lakers. This series looks to go the distance with the winner being bruised and exhausted at the end.
Let me start by saying that The Truth Sports is a fan of NBA players. first..Kevin Garnett, Allen Iverson, Tayshaun Prince, Tim Duncan, Shaq to name a few. We try to watch each NBA game without bias towards one team, but during the Western Conference semifinals matchup between the Houston Rockets and the Los Angeles Lakers we are having a hard time not rooting for the Rockets. The Houston Rockets are the absolute definition of an underdog. Rooting for underdogs is something that is done with ultimate sensitivity. The majority of the public is rooting for the Lakers, even native Houstonians that haven’t ever been to Los Angeles. They are fans of winning, and the Rockets haven’t won it all in nearly 15 years. Or they just chose to root for a team that is consistent. 15 years is a small amount of time when it comes to the Chicago Cubs, or the Milwaukee Bucks, but even when Houston was winning back-to-back titles no one outside of Houston cared. Hakeem Olajuwon is a top ten all-time NBA player but the world could care less. Sports Illustrated didn’t even put the Rockets on the cover after they beat the Knicks in the 94′ Finals. The city had to beg for a cover and SI delivered a “special SI” for the city. If the Knicks had won that series SI would have run commercials for championship merchandise around the clock. The Rockets are a team that seem to start off each season with a solid roster “on paper” , but it never ends that way. Rocket uniforms have been donned by Charles Barkley, Scottie Pippen, James Posey, Stromile Swift, Bobby Jackson, and Walt Williams. All of these players had impacts but none of them could get Houston over that hump. The Rockets traded for Steve “Franchise” Francis and paired him with a 7’6″ Asian-born player Yao Ming, but still remained underdogs. Then the unthinkable happened and the “Francise” was traded for a scoring champ, an all-star, the person that would erase the underdog tag from the Rockets. But Tracy McGrady could not fight off the injury bug, and seasons were lost to back, shoulder and knee problems. The Rockets continued to add role players that would help to erase the underdog tag. Shane Battier, and Luis Scola, were all pieces of the puzzle needed to erase the underdog tag. The signing of Ron Artest before this season spelled the end of losing and a return to the mountaintop. The Rockets fought to the 5 seed in the playoffs and after 12 years got out of the first round. This seemed like the ticket to a different level of respect from the NBA, but the Rockets were far from gaining any real respect. The series with the Lakers has seen Shane Battiers face bloodied, Ron Artest elbowed(and called for a foul) and officials that keep their whistles in their pockets when Yao has the ball. Of course a fan of any team feels his/her team is treated unfairly from time to time, but no team is more disrespected, underrated, or simply passed on then the Houston Rockets. Hopefully one day they can again prove the world wrong! GO ROCKETS!
After 12 years of either missing the playoffs or losing in the first round the Houston Rockets have made it back to the second round. But dont get excited so fast, because waiting in the second round is the best team in the Western Conference, the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers won all four games between the two teams in the regular season. In their first meeting Tracy McGrady scored just three points on 1-of-11 shooting. Shane Battier did not play and the Lakers went on a 92-50 run to blowout the Rockets 111-82 in LA. In the second game Kobe Bryant gave props to Rockets gaurd Von Wafer, who had 23 points in a losing effort. Wafer was the Lakers’ second-round pick in 2005. The game was close but Kobe scored 13 of his final 33 points in the 4th quarter. Lakers won 105-100. The third game was again in Houston and once again second half offense for the Rockets was non existent. The Lakers outscored the Rockets 62-45 in the second half — led by Kobe Bryant’s 31 second-half points — to beat Houston 102-96. The final game was back at the Staples Center and the Lakers pulled out a hard fought, physical 93-81 win. Although the Lakers won each game, neither team was at full strength. The Lakers were without Andrew Bynum for the last three, and the Rockets did not have Battier in the first game and no Carl Landry in the final game. The lost of Dikembe Mutumbo will also hurt the Rockets depth. If in some miraculous way the Rockets are able to “contain” Kobe Bryant in the second half then they may have a chance. Charles Barkley said on Inside the NBA “the only person that can stop Kobe is that person we get down on our knees and pray to at night” But with Shane Battier and Ron Artest(the Brains and Brawn) two of the best defenders in the league Kobe will have his work cut out for him. The Rockets are a team that wears its confidence on its sleeve. They have offensive lapses for quarters, but the defense never stops. The Lakers are destined for the Finals while Houston has to be relieved just to be out of the first round. This is the second round series to watch. Hopefully for at least six games.
