The NBA playoffs this season has been surprisingly one-sided. Usually, the playoffs are tough, tight and competitive. Even if certain games are one-sided, the series usually swings back and forth and most series go 6 and a couple even go to 7 games. This year, most series don't even seem to go past 4. It's been broom-town for the most part and even the conference finals seem to be trending that way. Unfortunately, the Suns are at the receiving end of one of them mismatches though they were dishing the sweep last round. It's too early to be talking sweep in the Suns-Lakers series because they don't even play their first home game until tomorrow. I don't think there will be a sweep and I totally expect the Suns to take game 3. But they are definitely the inferior team in the series. Lakers have been toying with them so far. The Suns have no defense for Kobe, which is normal. But they don't seem to have any answer for Gasol or Odom or Bynum. Basically the Lakers are huge and are unstoppable.
The Suns problems are all at the defensive end. The Lakers have won both the games almost in identical ways. The scoreboard read 128-107 after game 1 and 124-112 after game 2. Even the Suns can't outscore their opponent if those opponents score 120+ without even really breaking a sweat. They have to figure out something to slow down the Lakers. Easier said than done, but I want to see them at least try tomorrow. Gentry has pushed all the right buttons this playoffs so far, but here is his real test. I don't know if he goes deeper into the bench or what, but he has to do something to slow down this Lakers offense. Offensively, the Suns are fine. The guys even have decent numbers because they have scored almost 110 in both games, but they have given up way more than that. Honestly, the Suns probably don't have a shot in this series. But the question is, can they make it interesting unlike the Magic.
Speaking of the Magic, they have now fallen to 0-3. That series was over the moment Magic lost both home games to go down 0-2, but still today's effort in game 3 was horrible. The Celtics are just on a roll right now and I can see all the experts picking them to win it all even against the mighty Lakers. I can see the Celtics winning it all just like 2008 though the Lakers are a better team now than they were in 2008. Celtics are tough and strong defensively and that always helps. The Magic have nowhere to go against them. Dwight Howard is great, but he is not all there yet offensively. He has a looong way to go and the Celtics have him completely bottled up. This series should be a sweep come Monday night and the Celtics may have sent 2 premier Eastern conference teams into a massive rebuild mode this off-season - the Cavs and the Magic. Match-ups always play a big role in the NBA playoffs and both these series prove this point. But if the Magic do get swept, it does raise some serious questions about Howard and the Magic. They may decide they need another alpha-dawg to improve. Howard may not be the guy, at least not offensively. He is getting exposed in this series.
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