Two game sevens tomorrow. I expect the home teams to come through though I wouldn't be surprised if Magic wins and if Houston makes it close. I am proud of what Houston is doing, but I would be shocked if they win in LA. I just hope for a close game. LA has looked shakier and shakier as the playoffs have progressed. More and more people are now jumping on the Denver and Cleveland bandwagon and Mark Jackson says he is done picking the Lakers to win another series in these playoffs. So expect a lot of experts to pick Denver in the next round. Denver has looked awesome, but I am not sure if they match-up against the Lakers as well as Houston. We will cross that bridge when we come to it.
The Rockets have 2 things that are killing the Lakers. The Lakers have absolutely no answer to Aaron Brooks and they have Shane Battier (and Ron Artest) to keep a hand in Kobe's face all the time. A few years back I tuned in to a Pac-10 basketball game and was completely blown away by a player I saw in the Oregon uniform. That was Aaron Brooks and I have been his fan ever since. He was laser quick and unstoppable in college. I was sure he had NBA quickness, but I was not sure if he had the size for the association. Heck, he looked tiny even for college. I was happy when he got drafted and even happier when the Rockets traded away Rafer Alston and expanded Aaron's role. He has repaid them in full in this series.
Derek Fisher and Jordan Farmar are especially useless trying to defend Brooks. Phillip had to dig deep into his depth-chart and try Shannon Brown on Aaron Brooks for a few minutes. The dude is VERY quick. I don't expect anybody to stay in front of him. But he is exposing Lakers defensively and showing how soft they are in the middle. The Lakers team defense seems busted. Both Brooks and Scola killed them in game 6. Andrew Bynum can help defensively, but Phillip is not able to play him much for whatever reason. So Houston has shown us that the Lakers are still the Fakers and have defensive issues and are still soft.
The Fakers are at home and they can't lose this game. The other game 7 is even more interesting. Boston is at home and they have made a habit out of winning game 7's at home over the last 2 years. They play well during the regular season, get home-court and then use it to win game 7's at home during the playoffs. Like the Lakers against the rockets, they had no business even going to game 7's last year, but this year without KG, this is the best they can hope for. Magic are probably more talented, but they seem immature from coach on down. The Magic probably need Hedo to show up big tomorrow. Not sure what happened to Hedo this season. He has taken a step back from last year. The smart money should be on the Celtics in this one though I picked the Magic to win the series originally. I was not counting on this going 7. Ray Allen is due for a big one for the Celts.
2 comments:
The Lakers are all but in at this point. Up big going into the 4th.
The Magic are still a little young to take Boston on their home floor in a game 7.
The Finals are the Cavs to lose. Lebron has distanced himself from the rest of the league and as he goes the Cavs will go. I don't see them losing to anybody in a 7 game series.
Magic played well. Good ball movement, good d on Ray Allen.
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