Obviously my primary focus during the NBA conference finals will be on the Cavs-Magic series. I don’t particularly have one NBA team that I follow, and haven’t since Michael Jordan retired from the Bulls and they completely blew up the franchise.
But I do love the playoffs from the perspective of a fan who enjoys watching the best in the world giving their maximum effort and playing at the peak of their abilities. And it is hard not to be completely enthralled with everything that LeBron James does on a basketball court.
Yet, the beauty of the NBA Playoffs is that you do not have to choose which conference finals game you will watch. You can watch them all. The NBA Playoff schedule is staggered with the Eastern conference one day and the Western conference the next, meaning that for a full fortnight (if each series goes 7 games) we should get an outstanding, competitive, intense basketball game each night.
That’s exciting.
And so, since I will be watching the Lakers-Nuggets series, and since our very own KVB is a die-hard Lakers fan, I figured I’d get you all of the information you need to know for the Lakers-Nuggets Western Conference Finals series, including the TV schedule and even links for tickets should you choose to attend the games in-person. All of that information is below, plus some other interesting tidbits and a completely meaningless prediction from me.
(Side note: In the link above on the words “our very own KVB” look at the filename of the picture you are directed to upon clicking the link. It is a photo of Kurt Rambis hosted at The Sports Hernia and the filename is “kurt-rambis-ass-sorcerer.jpg.” You know, I’d never thought about Kurt Rambis in those terms, but I have to say that looking at him in the black specs, mustache, and floppy mullet-like hairstyle, “ass sorcerer” does seem to fit.)
Here are your tickets links and the the Lakers-Nuggets TV Schedule.
And now, let’s take a look at some of the interesting news and notes regarding the LA-Denver Western Conference Finals matchup:
The Lakers won the season series 3-1, with two of the wins coming by double-digits.
This is truly a series between an NBA “have” and an NBA “have not.” The Lakers have won 14 championships including the five they won in Minneapolis, while the Denver Nuggets have never won an NBA championship. In fact, the Nuggets are the only active former ABA team to have never captured a title in either the ABA or the NBA. Interestingly, with neither Cleveland nor Orlando having captured the ultimate prize, the NBA will crown a first time champion unless the Lakers can grab title #15.
The same 10 ESPN experts who were unanimous in choosing the Cavs to beat the Magic were split 7-3 in favor of the Lakers. All of them see the series going at least six games, and all three people who chose Denver picked the series to end in six, obviously because Game 6 will be in Denver.
The Lakers outrebound the Nuggets 43.9-41.6 in terms of their season average. This statistic surprised me, as I would have thought that the rugged (thuggish?) Nuggets would have grabbed more rebounds than the laid-back Lakers.
With one more title, Phil Jackson will surpass Red Auerbach as the coach with the most NBA titles in history.
Okay, so there you have a few interesting news and notes. Now time to offer up a prediction for a series that should be pretty intense…
Coming into the playoffs, I assumed that the Lakers would roll into the NBA Finals, but I had not seen Denver play. After getting a close-up view of the Nuggets during their series with the Mavericks, I came away extraordinarily impressed.
Are they a tough, rough, hard-nosed team that borders on dirty? Absolutely. Does that style of basketball succeed in the playoffs? Absolutely.
The Nuggets play with incredible energy, especially at home, and after watching the Lakers get waxed twice at Houston when the Rockets were without McGrady and Yao Ming, I don’t think the Lakers stand a chance of beating the Nuggets in Denver. Seriously.
So that just leaves the Nuggets needing to win one out of four in LA. I think they can do it, and I think they’ll do it in Game 1 or Game 2.
I know that with Kobe the Lakers are capable of playing superb basketball on any given night, but they do not seem to be able to consistently bring energy. Kobe alone is good for two wins in this series, but I think that’s all LA will get. Unless the Lakers step up their intensity and focus, this Nuggets team will run and pound them into submission by the sixth game. At their best, all else being equal, I think the Lakers are a better team. But I think the Nuggets play to their potential more consistently than LA.
I’m picking the Nuggets, and picking them in six games. Now let’s hear KVB’s rebuttal for why Kobe and the Ass Sorcerers can beat Denver and advance to the NBA Finals to be LeBron’s sacrificial lamb.
What do you think?
