From the brilliant desk of Bill Plaschke, journalist (If you can call him that) from the LA Times wrote the following four reasons why the Lakers will raise banner 16 and the beat the Celtics in the finals this year.
Reason a) Homecourt... So it turns out the Lakers are 28-3 in their last 31 playoff games at home. These are numbers that can not be argued. I would like to say competition isn't fair or they got lucky but it wouldn't be accurate. What I can say is that Boston could be playing in Iraq and bring the same intensity and teamwork needed to win. If we go back to 2008 in LA for the finals, we gave up game 3, made one of the greatest comebacks ever in game 4, and almost pulled off the same shit again in game 5. Long story short, if we don't spot LA 30 in the first 12 minutes, we shouldn't have a problem here. Also, as much as I don't agree with the 2-3-2 format, it helps Boston in this series. For the past two series against Orlando and Cleveland we went back to Boston for a must win game 6. Not game 7, but 6. I feel that if it even gets to that point, Boston won't have to play with that pressure...
Reason b) Kobe's memory... How about my memory... Kobe raped a chick once. Probably even more times but his bottomless checking account took care of it. Anyways, what does his memory have to do with anything? Pierce, KG, and Allen never had tough losses in their careers? What we did to Kobe in 2008 is what he did to that chick in Colorado in 2003. You don't recover from that no matter what. That being said, what is in his memory? The teams are the same except LA got slower and Rondo grew up. Does this mean Kobe will be clutch now? When LA is in a true last possesion in a game that is either tied or down by one or two, he is shooting less than .25%. Even Vince Carter has a better percentage! Remember all you want Kobe, whatever that means.
Reason c) Artest... In game 5 of the conference finals Artest went from goat to hero. Does that mean we have to forget about his entire mediocure season, and first 14 playoff games? The rumor is Artest is an NBA lockdown defender yet in ten years we will only remember him for pantsing Pierce in 2004. Oh, and now they get to play again, except the only difference is that Pierce got a ring and Artest attacked a fan. Anyways, this brings me to matchups i guess. So Artest on Pierce is a good one. Both may struggle on the offensive end, but Pierce won't be afraid to shoot when it counts and is unguardable for an entire game. Slight edge Boston. At the point Rondo will have a field day on Fisher's corpse, and With Gasol playing all over the place Rondo will have so many uncontested lay-ups it's making me hard. Kobe has the edge on both ends of the floor with Allen, but once Phil Jackson sees how Fisher is a nobody you got to expect the switch putting Kobe on Rondo. This leaves the biggest mismatch of the postseason... Either Fisher, Sasha, or Farmar, will have to guard Allen. (15/1 for Ray Allen to be finals MVP). Down low we got Gasol and KG. Both players very similar in many aspects but other than some dirty fouls, Gasol has never proven to be physical. Then a good mix of Bynum and Odem on Perkins will cancel each other out. When you talk about the bench, neither teams plays 12 deep for obvious reasons, but when we take the ones who will play, Wallace, baby, TA, maybe Nate vs Sasha, Brown, Farmar, and Walton, how do we not give the advantage to Boston? Much like Lebron had to do, expect Kobe to play 40+ minutes a game and be a non factor every 4th quarter.
Reason 4) Bynums "pressence"... wait? The fourth and final reason why LA will beat boston is because of some 7 footer who just had 2 ounces of fluid drained from his ligamentless knees? Bynum is like a younger looking Oden when it comes to health. Granted, that cat can ball when he needs too but his injury plagued career offers such a small sample size.
So those are Bill Plaschkes 4 reasons why LA will win. The worst journalist in sports has struck again. in 2008 he claimed Boston would loose in 4 games, but would probably pull one out on a Laker off night. This time around he hasn't been as bold for obvious reasons, mostly being that LA is completely outmatched.
