We are down to 4 teams vying for an NBA Title with the Lakers and Nuggets in the West, and the Cavs and Magic in the East. Before the playoffs, I had the Lakers playing the Cavs in the finals with LA taking the title and I’m going to stick with that just because it’s still a possibility. But, after watching the Denver Nuggets play a few games this postseason,I think they will beat LA, especially if LA keeps playing nonchalant ball every other game. Billups is too tough for Fisher and Farmar at the point (figuratively and literally) and I think that is the difference. Plus, Denver has three tough battlers inside with Nene, Kenyon Martin, and Chris “Birdman” Anderson. This should be a great series and I can’t wait to see how it unfolds. I’ll be rooting for the Nuggets.
The other series has the Magic against the Cavs. Clevelend was 39-1 at home with their regular lineup and the only loss was vs. LA. I know the Magic won 2 of 3 in the season series but I can’t fathom Orlando winning a game on the road and going undefeated at home, which they’ll have to do in order to win the series. LeBron and his guys are so focused and you can see they are on a mission to win a title. I don’t know if they are more talented than Los Angelos, Denver, or even Orlando, however when you have King James on your team, it doesn’t matter. They have great chemistry and everybody knows their job. Mo Williams and Delonte West can penetrate and shoot and Gibson and Szczerbiak can come off the bench and hit open 3s. Ilgauskas can shoot and Varejao does the dirty work and keeps possessions alive and Joe Smith is a verteran guy who can score and rebound. These name don’t whoa you but they get the job done efficiently and they have a championship caliber defense which is much better than Denver and LA and a little better than Orlando, who also play good team defense. I’ll take the Cavs in 5 or 6, which leaves my pre-playoff prediction of a LA-Clev showdown intact.
