as a lakers fan, im worried about this match up. mainly because chauncey billups has always hurt the lakers, and even though the lakers handled the rest of that team in the first round of the playoffs rather easily last year.. billups makes denver a completely different ball club, and iverson made them too predictable last year. its obvious when the lakers try and their post players play their parts to the best of their ability that they could literally dominate denver down low, but i've only seen both bynum and gasol have solid games together about 2 games this post season. i know kobe is going to be anxious for the matchup between him and carmelo, considering the conversations on espn about anthony being more of an offensive threat than kobe.. and i know kobe haters will disagree with what im going to say, but kobe's defense on carmelo will shut up all that talk and he'll outshine the kid in 85% of this series.. just like last year. anyone remember? he completely shut down carmelo most of the time. but still.. the thing that worries me is that chauncey fuckin billups.. because he could change everything i said around. he can makes plays to get anthony open and undefended shots.. he can get denver's post players involved (still wont help on the boards or the overall post prescense though) and he can and will be an offensive threat himself.. plus, lets not forget, he's as clutch if not more clutch than kobe. and with the intensity of this birdman and their shooters off the bench.. they probably have the lakers beaten in that area.. even though i love the fact that no matter what the lakers will have either bynum, odom, or ariza comin off the bench or sometimes even 2 of them.
but, dont expect the lakers or kobe to play the way they've played the last 2 series. your going to see the same lakers squad that won the number one seed in the west come out and instantly have that killer instinct. they didnt get home court advantage up 'til the finals for no reason.. and they wont drop neither of these first 2 games in LA. the series will open up 2-0 LA with this game one tonight being won rather easily by los angelos because of too much time off for denver. thats right, dont worry about if the lakers are tired.. its rust and a week off that REALLY hurts a teams momentum, and lets face it.. denver's team has been living off their momentum. which is why they will rekindle that going back to denver in game 3.. and probably win by a double digit victory in that one as well as game 4, sending the series to a tie at 2-2. then, going back to LA for game 5 will be the best game of this entire series. there will be back and forth scoring and lead changes all the way up until the fourth quarter.. ending with a game winning shot by denver (even though you never know with kobe) because i think denver will be the first to steal a home game from LA, taking the lead in the series 3-2 going back to denver. espn will make a huge story out of the lakers facing elimination in denver and how they wont be able to match the intensity and denvers momentum.. and then kobe will come out and score 40-50 points in a game 6 victory sending it back to los angelos for game 7 where the lakers will win rather comfortably and head on into the finals to face a cleveland team thats been resting since they won the orlando series 4-2.
i betcha.
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Originally Posted by Nick.
