I'm not as excited as I thought I would be, but that still has me only slightly below euphoric heading into Game 1 tonight. A couple nights ago on ESPN they bypassed NFL Live to show extended clips Game 6 of the 1984 Finals interposed with interviews with players from the game. It was glorious. I haven't been to the gym all week and I feel really bad about it but there's no way I can go tonight. It's okay though because I intend on running to the train station in hopes of catching every possibly minute of pre-game I can. The series could be a total bust and I'll still be satisfied with all the old highlights and (hopefully) interviews with Bird and Magic. Here's a few scattered thoughts and then a quick breakdown of how I think things might play out.
I wonder if there are any betting lines on the appearances made by old players during the series. Here are a few prop bets I will totally blow my money on if I can find them on Bodog:
- Total number of times Magic Johnson and Larry Bird appear on camera in Game 1. I'd put a number on it but infinity isn't really a number.
- Over/unders for shots of all other old players in Game 1. I'll put the line at 2.5 for Robert Parish, 1.5 for James Worthy, and 0 for Kareem because he's a jerk. Actually I'd put it more at 4.5.
- 3 to 1 against Kevin McHale having the gall to show his face.
While I'm on the topic of prop bets, I would confidently bet Kobe doesn't make it through the first half of Game 3 without making some sort of contact with Jack Nicholson. Who am I kidding? This bet won't even last until tip-off.
I know the fans in LA supposedly get into it during the games, but it's hard to root for the Lakers when I really don't think the city cares that much. Celebrity support aside, LA just isn't much of a sports town. I despise Boston but you can never argue with the passion of the sports fans there. People must be completely losing it in Boston. I feel sorry for all of the girls working at the Hooters across the street from the TD Banknorth Garden right now.
May god have mercy on Sasha Vujacic if he has any sort of run-in with Kevin Garnett. KG will make that little punk piss his pants if he tries to pull anything. I'd totally bet on this too.
If the series goes seven games, everybody will be treating KG like a pitcher in the 8th inning of a no-hitter. Wound up doesn't even begin to describe how he will be feeling at the point. Touching him could have the same effect of setting off a nuclear explosion. He won't even be able to put together a complete sentence at that point.
Sam Cassell and Vladimir Radmonovic should be barred from entering the building. It amazes me that one of them will have a championship ring at the end of this.
I haven't been watching too much Sportscenter so it might have been mentioned already, but isn't it interesting that Phil Jackson is facing the Celtics in his attempt to break the tie with Red Auerbach for most NBA Championships? I'll call it right now that this becomes a significant storyline if it goes to Game 7 in Boston.
I clearly know nothing real about these things so I'll spare you my attempts at true insight and go into five key factors like they do before the game to simplify things for the tv audience.
1) The Lakers are better than the Celtics in almost every way. They're deeper, younger, better coached and they have the best player of the post-Jordan era. None of this will matter if they can't stop Kevin Garnett. The only thing working for them here is that Garnett is an extremely unselfish player. But if he decides to become the Celtics' go to guy this could end up very bad for Los Angeles. Who guards him? With the exception of the great work he did against Tim Duncan, Gasol is little more than a nuisance and Odom will simply get pushed around. They have to send a mix of double teams if they hope to stop him. But that only works out favorably for the Lakers if Rondo continues to struggle from the field.
2) Kobe Bryant will probably be on Auto-Black Mamba as soon as games hit the fourth quarter. The Celtics are an amazing defensive team but Kobe has that "there's no f'ing way you're going stop me" factor that causes perplexing things like winning Game 1 of the West Finals and grown men crying. As long as games are within ten points in the fourth and Kobe has the ball... Be afraid, Boston. Be very afraid.
3) Kobe will undoubtedly takes games over, but if there's one thing he should have learned from this season, it's that he needs help to go all the way. I'm not trying to say he should pass all the time. What I am saying is that the Lakers needs their role players (i.e. everybody else on the team) to contribute more than some people might think. They don't need everybody but they can't afford to have a bad night from more than one of their players. If Odom starts caving under the pressure (a distinct possibility) then Gasol has to pick up the slack and go 25 and 12. Somebody besides Sasha Vujacic has to be able to make open shots and fight for loose balls. *COUGH* Luke Walton!
4) Paul Pierce will inevitably have to go head-to-head with Kobe at some point is this series. I'm not saying he has to do what he did against LeBron, but he will have to at least challenge Kobe to keep his team in certain games. This is not to say that the Celtics want to get into a shootout. All I'm saying is that there will be times when Kobe Bryant imposes his will on the Celtics and they will have no choice but to try and match his scoring output. Paul Pierce has to be the guy to do that for the Celtics. He's their best pure scorer and a complete match up nightmare for the Lakers. Depending on the score in the series, I fully expect him to do this in Game 3, Game 4 or possibly both. Pierce is from Inglewood and he always steps up his game against the Lakers. Add that with the fact that he's finally reaping the rewards of his years of hard work and he could go bananas in LA.
5) Is the coaching match up really Phil Jackson vs. Doc Rivers? Wow. The only mismatch I can possibly compare this to is Mike Tyson vs. every guy he faced before Buster Douglas. Rivers is that helpless against Jackson. All he can do is go through the motions and hope he doesn't get his face smashed in too early. 4 to 1 odds against Doc Rivers crying on camera at some point in this series.
Prediction: Lakers in 6
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