Playoff Predictions

I usally have pretty strong vibes as to which teams are playing well and which players match up well against each other, but this year is different. It's not that I don't get hunches or that I don't know the players. It's because the final four teams are so evenly matched that you could flip a coin and predict the winners just as accurately as the "experts".

The Lakers are a very good team with what should have been the co-MVP of the league this year, Kobe Bryant. Pau Gasol adds an inside/outside threat that will be hard for any team to overcome and coach Phil Jackson has been there so many times that his players just naturally feel confident. At the same time, Denver has a superstar of its own and is playing inspired team-oriented basketball at just the right time. Again, coach George Karl has seen it all and knows how to create a game plan that will get the ball in the right hands on offense and neutralize the Lakers' assets on defense.

After last night's dramatic buzzer-beater by LeBron, I changed my opinion of who is the best player on the planet. It used to be Kobe, but it's now a tie. I've been looking for a reason to make that change because frankly, I just don't like Kobe. He whines too much. LeBron can dominate a game from both ends of the court. Žydrūnas Ilgauskas is not only underrated, he is in fact one of the top centers in the league. What makes this series hard to predict is that Orlando's center, Dwight Howard, is the best center in the league. Forwards Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu make the Magic's front court possibly the best in the NBA. If point guard Jameer Nelson had not torn the labrum in his right shoulder in February, I would be all over the Orlando bandwagon, but unfortunately, they are stuck with former Rockets Rafer Alston and Tyron Lue and much-traveled journeyman Anthony Johnson to man the point guard position. The Rockets got rid of Alston and Lue for a reason.

So here is the formal prediction: Cleveland will beat Los Angeles for the NBA Championship. How can I be so sure? Because my coin (a pristine 2008 Alaska commemorative quarter) came up heads, heads and tails, in that order.