Basketball Thoughts #7

I was watching a Knicks-Heat game tonight on ESPN. The Knicks look really tough with Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire. The newly designed New York Knicks basketball team with head coach Mike D'Antoni at the helm is really a cakewalk. Chauncey Billups is the Knicks' steady floor leader and he has made the big shots in this game against the mighty Heat trio of Lebron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh. I don't think this game means anything just yet, because the Knicks do not have a true point guard who can get Anthony and Stoudemire the ball in their spots. When the summer comes around, Chris Paul will be a great candidate to play PG alongside Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire. The three Knicks players will prove to be a great challenge to Lebron James and Heat. Overall, I think this game won by the Knicks 91-86 will be the start of a Heat-Knicks rivalry dating back to the 90s rivalry between Pat Riley's Heat and Jeff Van Gundy's Knicks with Patrick Ewing and Alonzo Mourning. Strike one for round one between the new look Knicks and Lebron James and Co. This time New York stole the show.

The NBA Title is going through Los Angeles

The L.A. Lakers are champs of the basketball world. The road to the NBA championship goes through Kobe Bryant and his band of Lakers. Even though Pau Gasol is Robin to Kobe's Batman, this is Bryant's team in all of its glory. I think that Kobe Bryant is going to want to step up his game for the playoffs and the NBA Finals, because he doesn't want younger players to beat up on his own skill set for the game he loves. Players like Blake Griffin, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Lebron James, and Dwight Howard are ready to take over from Bryant. The all-star game MVP Kobe Bryant proved he wasn't ready to be dethroned to the newest NBA players and its generation of young athletes. At 32, Bryant showed his will and his determination for the love of the game of basketball. He decided on February 20 in Los Angeles that he would shine on the second biggest stage of all: the All-Star Game. Now that he has an All-Star MVP trophy, (4th overall, tied with Bob Petit) he now has to capture his sixth title and third in a row. I don't think anything can stop Kobe Bryant from pursuing what could be his sixth championship ring. I like to see the San Antonio Spurs and the Boston Celtics try and annihilate Kobe's Lakers from the playoffs. More importantly, the Miami Heat are also a good threat. They will be interesting to watch with a scoring trio led by Lebron James and Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh filling in for the third wheel. The Orlando Magic will be another good team to watch out for. Dwight Howard is a beast to handle. There is no containing Howard's post-game, you can only hope to contain him. Watch for Oklahoma City where Kevin Durant is eager to put another playoff-resume filled with hopes and dreams in the spot light. This year's playoffs may not be K.D.'s time, but he can show the world he will shine come crunch time.

NBA Finals Prediction

The two teams I would like to see in the NBA Finals is the Boston Celtics and the San Antonio Spurs. Why? These two basketball squads have the ability to play well in the half-court offense and they can make sure that no stars are made on either squad. Sure, the Spurs have a formidable superstar in Tim Duncan, but he is willing to let his ego step aside for the greater good of his team. Even with the backcourt duo of Tony Parker and Manu Ginobli at work, there is no stopping the penetration and speed of Parker and Ginobli's slashing and dashing to the hoop. I think that with the help of role players like Gary Neal and Tiago Splitter and Antonio McDyess and George Hill, the Spurs have also have a formidable rotation with guys who are willing to play a role in the Spurs' formula for winning ball games. Notice that there are no egos when you play for the San Antonio Spurs. With DeJuan Blair as the San Antonio Spurs' starting center, his energy and hustle makes the Spurs work for those rebounds and blocked shots. The Boston Celtics have a flurry of players added to their roster in the offseason that have made them a better, if not seasoned basketball team. Shaquille O'Neal, Jermaine O'Neal, Delonte West, and Von Wafer have been added to this squad. I think with the additions of these players in the off-season makes Boston a contender for the L.A. Lakers' NBA title. I believe that the continuity of Boston's starters in Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Kendrick Perkins, Ray Allen, and Rajon Rondo and the bench production of Glen Davis, Marquis Daniels, and Nate Robinson will definitely help keep the Celtics on top of the basketball world. I would like the Celtics and Spurs make it a seven-game series in the NBA Finals, if both Boston and San Antonio survive to make it there. My prediction if the Celtics and Spurs are in the NBA Finals? It's going to be close. Spurs in seven.

Basketball Thoughts #6

I think the Orlando Magic are in for a rude awakening. They got Gilbert Arenas from Washington. He isn't helping the Magic at all. Arenas doesn't contribute to the Magic offense, as the Orlando team goes through Dwight Howard in the middle. They are running short of big men, like Brandon Bass who is 6 foot, 8 inches and Hedo Turkoglu, who is 6 foot, 10 inches. Ryan Anderson, who comes off the bench, is also 6 foot, 10 inches tall, but he doesn't provide much of an defensive presence. If anything, Boston and San Antonio have the depth to give the LA Lakers a run for their money. Their defense-first schemes are bound to give championship-caliber squads like the Lakers and the Miami Heat fits. Teams that have star players do succeed in the long run, but their egos clash with the culture and politics of the organization. Lebron James and Dwyane Wade have found a way to communicate with each other on the same team, but they do not really have the depth to play defense effectively underneath their own basket. James and Wade make outstanding defensive plays, but they do not exactly have the role players to help them play half-court basketball. They struggle offensively in the half-court offense. I don't see them as team-concept players, I see them as individual star players. That is what the Miami Heat are made of: star players. As do the Lakers too. The Lakers play well, when Kobe Bryant doesn't let his stubbornness get in the way of winning basketball games. When the Lakers slump, Kobe whines and complains. He doesn't see the way the Lakers win ball games in the past. He needs to see winning basketball games as a formula, not a streak. Kobe Bryant needs to reflect on what he sees he is doing that is not effectively helping his team win a basketball game. What was perfect for Bryant in Game 7 of last year's 2010 NBA Finals was that he contributed to the game of winning basketball. He played terrific defense as a team player, he made open shots when he had them, and he trusted his teammates' judgments to make open shots when they had them. In total, the Lakers do not gamble precariously on winning games, it is only Kobe Bryant who makes such decisions. And when Kobe's stubbornness gets in the way of losing basketball games, hell for the Lakers breaks loose.