LAKERS TAKE GAME 1!

Let me crow here a bit.

The Lakers were as good as I thought they would be. But the Magic were worse than I thought they would be.

Kobe Bryant scored 40 points, and added 8 rebounds and 8 assists (who I predicted would explode against Pietrus and Lee). So much for Kobe getting old and slow. 

Pau Gasol had 16 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks. So much Gasol being soft and easily dominated by Howard, who definitely wasn't Superman tonight (like I predicted).

My prediction was Lakers over Magic, 100-88. Final score was Lakers over Magic, 100-75. I think I earned my money this week.

A FINALS PREDICTION!

Sorry for the absence again. It's been hectic here at my day job. 

But, first of all, let me tell all of you that I have won my two conference finals bets. Yes, I've won 2 bags of peanuts (literally! Growers Hot and Spicy Flavor) for guessing that the Lakers and the Magic were going to end up facing each other. 

So here's my game 1 prediction:

Lakers over Magic, 100-88. Kobe is going to explode as the Magic try to get used to the Finals hoopla.

Michael Pietrus will be marginally more effective guarding him than Hedo Turkoglu will be and Courtney Lee will be lost in this first game. 

Howard won't be Superman because Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum are better equipped to stop him and they'll also make Howard work harder on the defensive end of the floor. 

Rafer Alston won't make people forget Jameer Nelson but he'll certainly be better than Derek Fisher. In the end, the Black Mamba and his cohorts will prevail over the Magic but they will also lose some of their mystique, as the Magic discover that, yes, they do belong here in the Finals.

SEMIFINAL ROUND PREDICTIONS!

It's been a busy week, so I'm gonna make this quick. Sorry for those who want a more in-depth post. I'll get to it as soon as I can.

EAST

Cavs vs. Hawks. Prediction: Cavs 4-1. Cavs are just too strong. Unlike the Heat, the Cavs have Mo Williams, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Delonte West and Anderson Varejao to complement LBJ.

Celtics vs. Magic. Prediction: Magic 4-3. The Magic proved to be mentally frail but so did the Celtics. Dwight Howard is going to be the difference in this series.

WEST

Lakers vs. Rockets. Prediction: Rockets 4-3. This is the new Bulls-Celtics classic series. Im going to go out on a limb here and predict that Yao, Artest, Battier, Scola, Brooks and Landry are going to be too much for Kobe. Especially after Artest got motivated with the Kobe elbow.

Nuggets vs Mavs. Prediction: Nuggets 4-2. Okay, okay. After an entire season of underestimating the Nuggets, I'll finally get on their bandwagon. Billups has been phenomenal and deserves a mini-MVP award.