For all you basketball heads, even if you are not a big Lakers or Celtics fan, you gotta have to have a little sense of excitement for this year's NBA Finals. The Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers back in the NBA championship is good for the league as the Celtics have had a rough decade with several losing seasons.
The story of this NBA season was simply amazing. The offseason of the Bosten Celtics saw them land "The Big Ticket" Kevin Garnett, "Jesus Shuttlesworth" Ray Allen, "Big Baby" Glen Davis, veterans James Posey and P.J. Brown, and the "great" Scott Pollard (kidding about that last one). Throughout the season, the role players of the Celtics began improving with Rajon Rondo making better decisions as a point guard and using his speed to his benefit and Kendrick Perkins consistently on the boards. By the end of the 2008 season the Celtics had the biggest single season turn around in NBA history with an improvement of 36 wins and became the best team in the East.
On the other hand, the Lakers had a crazy story throughout the NBA Season as it started out with the acquistion of veteran guard Derek Fisher and Kobe "KB24" Bryant requesting to get traded simultaneously dissing Andrew Bynum and Kwame Brown. Then, all of a sudden they started gelling with Bynum beastin on the boards and dunks and the Laker's bench maturing as Vujacic slowly pulled away from being a one dimensional player on the 3 pt line, Walton becoming a lot more consistent with his play, and Farmar making better decisions on the court. Then, the day of glory came in the post-Shaq era of the Lakers...they got Pau Gasol for nothing (Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittenton, Aaron McKie, the draft rights to Marc Gasol, and first round picks in 2008 and 2010). Despite the injury to Bynum, they soared to the top of the competitive Wild, Wild, West and became the top team in the West with KB24 winning MVP.
This 2008 NBA Finals is sure to please as both of these teams are incredibly talented. I think the X Factor for the Boston Celtics is Ray Allen. Pierce should be covered well by Bryant and Garnett will get his over Gasol, but there isn't anybody who can really cover Allen on the Lakers. If he can shoot the ball consistently and get out of his shooting drought to play more games like he did in Game 5 against the Pistons the Celtics will have a good chance.
However, Bryant will cause serious match-up problems and will attract several different types of double teams and with the way his supporting cast has played the odds look good for the Lakers. The X Factor for the Lakers in the series I believe will once again be Odom. Gasol will be defended pretty well by Garnett and you know Bryant will get his. Odom will need to stand out and will probably be covered by several different defenders including the defensive specialist James Posey. Another interesting match up will be the strong veteran Derek Fisher and the young Rondo, as the match-up is similar to what Rondo faced against Billups, but Fisher has no hamstring problems. Should be a great NBA Finals...get your popcorn ready...or your chips & salsa like I do it.
My Prediction: Lakers in Game 6
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