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yeah the suns put up quite a fight. looks like the road to the finals will be treacherous.

The Finals are still in June, right?

exactly. this year and the year after that.

There's no way we're losing 28 games...

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Tudo bem!

barring an injury or two of course...

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Tudo bem!

sure it was suckramento. and yes we didn't play too well. but look at the balance in the box score. 11-1

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/boxscore;_y ... 2008112313

well i am sure someone claiming bones would have resurrected this thread if the lakers were losing. but the facts are 21-3.
admittedly its not pretty but scoreboard. boston still playing better ball. lakers need some tough guys in the paint. too many easy points for oppositions.

Amn to the LaDiablo, thier interior defense blows chunks. Winning games 116-114 is fine in the regular season, but won't fly in the playoffs.

That said, they sure look like the 2nd best team in the league. And they definitely have to be the deepest team in the league.

well clearly early predictions need to be amended. this team has lost their collective ways and are getting beat up every night all of the sudden. how bad will christmas day be? lets just say i expect the green grinch.

South Fla represent Magic and Heat takin' care of biz....

Cujo

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"Pain is the fuel that fans the flames of my pyre. A battle plan is only as good as the general carrying it out on the field. This is my war son, and I have the biggest bombs and the smallest conscience"...

ok nice win over NO, at least they looked like the lakers for the first time in a while. have a little better feeling about christmas day. go lakers

The only thing standing between Boston and a repeat is injury. They are going to pick up some old veterans off the couch again, already Mutombo is talking about coming after the All-Star break and they will probably find a guard if one of the young guys doesn't step in and steal some minutes.

Cleveland is playing hot now but they are still essentially the same team that has been one more player away for a while now, and no, Mo Williams is not that player.

Even though the East is better, I don't see Boston having any tougher run than they did last year with three long series before the Finals.

Conversely, I think the West is roughly as crowded as last year, if not a little more so. The Lakers won't have any cupcakes on their run to the Finals and let's not forget that San Antonio has a habit of taking the West (and the Championship) every other year. People were ready to count the Spurs out, so they got healthy and won 10/12. If Utah can get its act together I think they can get in the mix and New Orleans is a better team than they were last year even if they don't wind up with as many wins. I have given up on the phrase "if Houston is healthy ..." but they are also strong. I don't see this kind of depth in the East, you've got about four decent teams (Orlando, Detroit) and that's it, everyone else is pretty thin.

But the bottom line is that even though the Lakers made a big statement winning a regular season game on their own floor, Boston will still beat L.A. head to head. We have not seen the Lakers transcend their regular season play in the playoffs in the Kobe era. The two times they have reached the Finals with him as their main player, the other team has thrown the kitchen sink at him, taken him off his game and his teammates have not responded. This is in part because he does not want to share the ball, as evidenced by the lack of touches for Shaq facing a rare single team in the Detroit series and by the fact that Kobe's FGA were still sky high facing two and three defenders. Boston played a box and one against Kobe ... they put the box on Kobe and the one on everyone else!

No but seriously, long-winded reply above but I say Boston over San Antonio in six games.

yeah boston sure dusted themselves off after christmas and beat the heck out of the warriors... oh wait the warriors notched their fifth? win.
boston isn't even sure to come out of the east with cleveland, detroit and orlando being legitimate contenders
boston is one old man injury away from obscurity and thats a fact jack

There is no question Boston is still the favorite to lift the trophy again, but barring injury the Lakers are still in the hunt.

Luckily I'm a Lakers fan or I would have lost a lot of money on Christmas. Surely I would have taken the Celtics +2 if I hadn't been born an Angelino. Who in there right mind wouldn't take an underdog team that had 19 wins in a row !

We proved the odds makers geniuses on Thursday and started the Celtics first real silde of the season.

Wilt... the Celtics had the toughest run to the finals possible last season, going seven games in every series. It cannot get tougher than playing 21 easters conference playoff games. I really believe Cleveland has a better chance of upset, don't rule them out for best record in the east either.

With that said, it must be agreed that the Eastern Conference is catching up to the west rapidly, if it hasn't surpassed it already. Orlando can prove a tough adversary for anyone.

The Lakers will have a tough road in a very congested west but I really don't see any team stretching them to more than 6 games if the Lakers can maintain home-court and avoid an injury to a major contributor.

my bias takes precedence in my prediction to take Lakers in 7 over Boston.

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Tudo bem!

I cried myself to sleep both of those nights...

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Tudo bem!