matt weighs in

The NBA Finals start tonight (just about to tip off, in fact) with most people picking the Los Angeles Lakers to beat the Orlando Magic in 5 or 6 games. I can’t disagree. I’ll take the Lakers in 6. The Black Mamba, Kobe Bryant, wants his 4th ring so bad, it appears he’s actually willing to fake enjoying a talk with his teammates to make them feel good (Kobe Doin’ Work) as the season went on.

My predicting mind isn’t that great, as I picked Cleveland and Denver to make the Finals. For the Lakers to beat the Nuggets in 6 and destroy them on their home floor to close it out, really says something about their focus in these playoffs. The Magic shocked me with their play against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Not so impressed with their defense on Lebron James, whose play might have been in the top five playoff performances of all time (Wade, Shaq, MJ, Magic, Russell, West to name a few in the mix).

Nike Lebron needed just one more guy to play consistently, whether it was Big Z, West or Williams, and Cleveland wins in five or six. The other guys only needed to hit open shots and play some defense and they didn’t. They probably should have tried to let Dwight Howard beat them and cover the other guys when they continued to hit three after three after three after three. They didn’t, Mike Brown didn’t call it and here we are with Orlando in the Finals – Disney World vs. Disney Land.

I don’t think the Magic will continue to pull rabbits from their *sses from beyond the arc in the Finals, as I tweeted earlier today. At least not at the clip they have so far in the playoffs. The Lakers should be able to try to play Superman, Dwight Howard, one-on-one with Bynum and stay close to Orlando’s shooters. The Lakers have size, they have athleticism, they have veteran wile, they have home court.

And they have Kobe Bryant. I think he is going to burst if he doesn’t win the title this year, and that will drive him. He wants to leave those Shaq-led teams on the side of the road, as good as they were with him, once and for all. In 2004 and 2008, his team wasn’t the best – Detroit and Boston, respectively, were better and showed it on the court by winning. Not this year. Kobe is the best player. He has the best team. He has home court. And he will win his 4th ring, cementing in the NBA a great legacy he so deeply desires as a top-12 player of all-time.