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We’re in the preseason here, too, and we’re trying out different Mavs bloggers and features to entertain you during the season. Right now Zac and I are trying to figure out what our regular after-game analysis will look like. Until the season starts, it feels like you’ll want no more than five observations/opinions/ramblings from the night before. That might not allow me to get all my notes in (examples: “Dirk going more to the up-and-under move after his baseline spin … McHale’s influence?” or “Bob Sturm and Drew Gooden … separated at birth?), but that’s okay. Let’s call it Five on Five, because I can’t think of anything else right now.

1. Seeing Matt Carroll start last night was a bit of a shock, mainly because I had just finished reading John Hollinger’s take on him as I was perusing his 2010 player predictions: “If Carroll wasn’t the worst player in the league last season, he was certainly on the short list.” And if this was an audition for someone other team looking to add a sharpshooter who can’t defend, can’t rebound, and has no handle, mission accomplished. Although Carroll did get frisky with Matt Barnes at one point. What’s the over-under on Barnes dropping Carroll if it came to blows? Six seconds? Four?

2. Speaking of guys who are what we thought they were, Quinton Ross is as advertised: outstanding perimeter defender who can’t shoot. He threw up at least three ridiculous wide-open shots that had not a prayer of going in. But he has incredible lateral movement and can stay in front of quick wings, something no one on this team can do. In one sequence in the second quarter, Ross made tremendous play to get in front of Vince Carter, who was trying to drive to the right baseline. This frustrated Carter, who, Jerry Stackhouse-like, decided he wasn’t going to give up without a fight. So he allowed Ross to funnel him to the lane, where Carter was double-teamed, which led to two more passes late in the shot clock, and Mickael Pietrus ended up having to take a 25-foot heave at the buzzer. This is why Ross was such a nice pickup: late in close games, don’t be surprised if you see Ross on the other team’s best player, trying to prevent what happens so often to the Mavs: one guy beating them in crunch time (see: Denver, JSmith). This is Ross’s value.

3. Kris Humphries is freaking hot.

4. Everybody talks about how smart Orlando was this off-season. Really? Okay, signing Brandon Bass for $18 million was very smart. The Mavs are going to miss him. Trust me. He works hard, he’s a great teammate, and he is a warrior in crunch time. (The team’s recurring flaw in its approach is that it overpays for people who aren’t stars — the list is too long; see the Internet for details — and tries to get too cute by squeezing “value” out of people they underrate, like Nash, Raja Bell, Bass). But that move aside for Orlando — what’s so great about letting one of the game’s great glue guys walk (Hedo) so you can acquire the ghost of Michael Finley (Vince Carter, now hoisting threes at an arena near you) and an athletic center who will get 15 minutes a game and no looks from your three-point-happy team (Gortat)? I know they’re trying to replicate the Hakeem-Rockets model (a dominant big man, surrounded by three-point shooters), but Dwight Howard, beastly as he is, isn’t the low-post offensive force that Hakeem was. That team will live and die by the three, and haven’t we all seen how that turns out?

5. For one night anyway, the knock on Drew Gooden (space cadet, forgets assignments, frustrates coaches and teammates) seemed not applicable. Late in the game, he showed on a high screen, making Carter go around him so that Ross could catch up, another possession that ended in an Orlando miss. (BTW: Skin pointed this out on TV. He’s a good. Second only in game analysis to my daughter Madcat, who noted “Dirk looks like a hippie German,” and “Why do women want to become sportscasters? Unless it’s to marry an athlete. I would do that.”) And Gooden’s low-post offense, always solid, seemed a revelation on this team. Damp, consider yourself a crunch-time cheerleader, please. Thank you.

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Ah, yes. The time has come. The wonderful first few weeks of June where every Thursday, Sunday, Tuesday, until we have a team win 4 times, we have NBA Finals basketball.

It certainly wasn’t the match-up everyone expected. The Lakers are the people’s choice, but the surprise guest is the Orlando Magic. When they lost their point guard (against the Mavericks, you may recall) Jameer Nelson, many thought that they went from a dark-horse to a team with no real chance. But, they scrambled, and have received huge efforts from various points, and between “Skip to my Lou” and the under-valued Hedo Turkoglu they have figured this thing out a bit.

To knock out the Cleveland Cavaliers in 6 games is impressive enough. Now, can they continue this run and grab their first O’Brien trophy with a shocking win over the L.A. Lakers?

I would certainly not pick them, but after that display, they should be treated with a great amount of respect. This is a dangerous team with a very impressive young stud in Dwight Howard, who has gone from a prospect who dominates the dunk competition to a guy who now deserves a spot in the “Top 5 players in the NBA” discussion.

Freeze! Before we go on, who is now in my Top 5 players in the NBA? Lebron, Kobe, Wade, Howard, and I believe I will fill out the Top 5 with Chris Paul. Which, might have actually been the starting line-up for the Redeem Team last year, right? Anyway, with only Kobe at 30 years old or older, the future of the NBA seems in good hands…

Ok, back to the Finals – the Lakers have home court and the Lakers have the best player (although not by a ton). Dwight Howard did something in the last series that I wasn’t sure he could do which was to appear to be an offensive threat late in the game because of his poor FT shooting. The theory is that you just foul him like “Hack-a-Shaq” and then they stop going to him for another excruciating high-leverage moment where he tosses up two bricks. But, Howard has hit some key Free Throws in the conference finals, actually knocking down 70%, after 54% in the series before, and 59% in the regular season. If he hits 70% in this series, that will present Phil Jackson with an remarkable decision to make; whether he can continue to single-cover or give up open 3-pointers.

One thing we cannot forget is that in the last series, Orlando beat Cleveland largely due to the fact that Lebron had no significant help for large chunks of the series, while Howard could often just sit back and watch Hedo and Rashard Lewis. He obviously has more help than Lebron, and that became evident over the course of two weeks.

But in this series, the differences seem less obvious. Kobe v Howard. Gasol v Turkoglu. Odom v Lewis. Kobe, Gasol, Odom vs. Howard, Turkoglu, Lewis. Then, Fisher, Ariza, Bynum vs. Alston, Pietrus, Lee. Also, of course, it is Phil Jackson vs. Stan Van Gundy.

From all of these standpoints – Best player, Big 3, supporting cast, and coach – I think I like the Lakers better. Then, you factor in home court advantage, comfort on the main stage, and closer, I would have to take the Lakers in 6.

But, enought about me….Let’s me offer you what I have been reading, so you don’t have to cruise all over the internet to find some good NBA Finals reading material:

Basketball Prospectus Breaks It Down …

Having demonstrated the kind of force he can be on offense, Howard now faces the challenge of showing he can sustain that level of finishing ability. The Lakers are as help-conscious as any team in the league, so opportunities for Howard to play one-on-one should be relatively rare. That means Howard must continue to make the right decisions and get the ball to the Magic’s shooters without turning it over. At his best, Bynum has the athletic ability to stay with Howard, but even when healthy he had five fouls in 12 minutes in the Lakers’ Dec. 20 loss at Orlando, a game in which Howard shot 15 free throws. At this point, Bynum is clearly nowhere near 100 percent, continuing to be up and down in his level of play.

Howard can physically overwhelm Gasol with his strength when the Lakers go small, an advantage mitigated by help defense. The bigger concern for the Lakers with a Gasol/Howard match-up will be having their All-Star big man get into foul trouble and be unable to contribute at the other end.

Besides Howard, the most important Magic player in the regular-season series was Nelson, who torched the pick-and-roll defense that is the Lakers’ Achilles heel to the tune of 27.5 points and 78.4 percent True Shooting (!) in two games. On Sunday, the Orlando Sentinel reported that Nelson could potentially play in the NBA Finals as his shoulder rehabilitation has progressed well–but only if Nelson passes what GM Otis Smith described as “a litany of tests.” Even if Nelson is able to play, it’s tough to see him being a big contributor four months after he last saw the court.

Orlando has managed to replace Nelson by committee. Alston is the focal point, but Anthony Johnson deserves credit for picking up his level of play (considered a weakness as the backup to Nelson before his injury, Johnson has been rock-solid in the playoffs) and Hedo Turkoglu has helped by picking up additional ballhandling duties and even playing the point for lengthy stretches in the playoffs. This will be the trio’s biggest test yet, because the Lakers’ defense practically demands teams attack them at the point. Neither Alston nor Johnson is a strong pick-and-roll option at this point of their careers, so Turkoglu at the point could emerge as the best option for Van Gundy, allowing him to keep both Lee and Pietrus on the floor. Alston has been a reliable floor general in the postseason, but he will have to demonstrate again his ability to knock down open threes. Surely the Lakers, like Cleveland before them, will find Alston the least dangerous shooting option for the Magic.

John Hollinger …

• Dwight Howard will regress to the mean from the line. Howard shot 59.4 percent from the stripe during the regular season. He’s a 60.1 percent shooter for his career and made 61.1 percent of his attempts during the first two rounds of the playoffs. Any direction you come at it, he’s basically a 60 percent free-throw shooter.

But in the upset of Cleveland, he shot 70.1 percent, making 47 of 67 from the stripe. That was huge in particular during Game 4, which the Magic won in overtime in part because Howard made 7 of 9 free-throw shots. But such a phenomenon is unlikely to continue in the Finals.

We have a tendency to look at short hot streaks from the line and think a player has improved, when often it’s just because of random chance. Take Shaquille O’Neal, for instance. About 20 different times during his career, he has had stretches when he has shot free throws somewhat competently, and people have written stories along the lines of “Shaq’s making his free throws! This changes everything!”

In retrospect, it’s easy to see those were just random variations. The same applies to Howard. I don’t think he suddenly improved his free-throw shooting before the conference finals. And if so, we can expect him to regress to his usual charity-stripe performance during the Finals.

• Orlando can’t count on free-throw “defense.” Holding Cleveland down in other ways was a great sign of the Magic’s defensive ability. Holding Cleveland to 70.6 percent from the line, however, was pure luck. The Cavs missed 53 free throws in six games. Had they maintained their usual 75.7 percent accuracy, they would have scored nine more points in the series and probably could have swung the outcome of Game 1 or Game 4 in their favor. The Lakers shot 77 percent from the line during the regular season, and presumably, the Magic can’t count on L.A. to suddenly shoot 5 percentage points worse than its norm during the Finals.

Quick note from Magic public relations ace Joel Glass: Orlando will become the first team in NBA history to win three straight series against 60-win teams if it can vanquish the Lakers in the Finals.

In fact, the Magic are already on pretty solid historical footing in that regard. They’re one of only seven teams to beat two 60-win teams in a postseason, the most recent being the 2006 Miami Heat. They’re also the second to beat two 60-win teams before the Finals. The other team to do so was the 1995 Houston Rockets, the team that swept Orlando in its only other trip to the Finals.

Pietrus will stop wearing his Kobe shoes …

You probably wouldn’t want to be in Magic SG Mickael Pietrus’ shoes. He’ll have to help defend Lakers star Kobe Bryant.

Fact is, Pietrus doesn’t want to be in Kobe’s shoes.

Pietrus said he has worn a pair of basketball shoes that Bryant endorses during games but will not do so for his NBA Finals match-up against the Lakers.

“I have some at my house, but I’m going to play with Michael Jordan shoes,” Pietrus said.

Pietrus, who helped defend Cleveland star LeBron James in the East finals, cautions anyone who thinks he can stop Kobe cold.

“The only thing I can do is try to minimize his touches in the fourth quarter,” Pietrus said. “He’s a tremendous player and those guys you can not stop them. So maybe I can say, ‘Hey, stop, Kobe! Yo! Stop!’ Maybe that’s the only way I can stop him. ‘Stop for a minute!’”

Pietrus, who has starred coming off the bench this postseason, said he admires Bryant’s killer instinct and tried to emulate that character trait when he first came into the league

Mike Bianchi on Shaq and Tiger …

The Magic have been dissed by Shaquille O’Neal yet again.

Remember my column last week when I wrote what a travesty it was that Shaq attended the Magic-Cavs at Amway Arena with courtside seats he was able to acquire through the Magic?

Well how does the Big Ingrate repay the Magic for setting him up with such prime seats last week?

He comes out yesterday on Twitter and tweets: “thats right i am saying it today and today only, i want kobe bryant to get number 4, spread da word.”

Yes, it’s a free country and an individual has a right to root for whatever team he wants in the NBA Finals. But if your Shaq and you’ve just hit up the Magic for courtside seats, don’t you at least have the common decency not to rub the organization’s nose in it? Of course, what should we expect of a Magic hater who has referred to Magic center Dwight Howard as an “impostor” and Magic coach Stan Van Gundy as a “bum” and a “master of panic.”

At least Tiger Woods, another famous athlete who lives in Orlando and has ties to L.A., was diplomatic enough to say he’s conflicted about who he’s rooting for.

“I’m really torn about the NBA finals,” Woods wrote on his website. “I grew up a die-hard Los Angeles Lakers fan, but have season tickets to Orlando Magic games. Hopefully, it will be a great series.”

There you have the difference between Tiger and Shaq.

One is class.

The other is just crass.

Phil and Kobe have legacy items on the line …

Fate and circumstance have brought them together, with basketball as both their bond and salve, helping to repair a relationship that once seemed entirely broken, but could now take them to a place they both must go, and could not have gone alone.

It was only four years ago Phil Jackson had deemed his young star Kobe Bryant “uncoachable,” a parting shot at the end of what seemed to be a distinguished career, but which ultimately left both men with a challenge they could not walk away from.

As these NBA Finals begin tonight, the Lakers having returned to the same stage they nervously blinked on a year ago, Jackson and Bryant each have something else at stake.

For Jackson, who had never lost in his first nine trips to the Finals, but has since lost twice, it is both another chance to pass Red Auerbach in the NBA’s annals, and an opportunity to affirm he can do what he’d previously said was impossible: To coach Bryant, as he had Michael Jordan, to the pinnacle of the sport and his own immense abilities.

For Bryant, who won three titles alongside Shaquille O’Neal in his 20s but has never raised the trophy alone, it is a chance to rebut two of the only enduring footnotes at what has otherwise been a brilliant career: That he cannot win without O’Neal, and that he does not trust his teammates enough to make them all champions.

The issues loom so large, both men prefer not to acknowledge them.

Whatever place they hold in their hearts, or their spirit, is left sheltered and secret.

“Only they know that,” Lakers assistant coach Brian Shaw said. “I don’t think you’ll ever hear either one of them say that, but I think all the people around them want Kobe to win one without Shaq and want Phil to break Red Auerbach’s record.

“You don’t get to this position and say, `Nah, I don’t really care about it.”‘

Kobe battles the clock …

When Kobe Bryant worked out for the Lakers as a high school graduate in 1996, he stunned them with his leaping ability and raw basketball talent that few 17-year-olds had ever possessed. Lakers luminary Jerry West, the team’s executive vice president at the time, said it was the greatest workout he had ever witnessed.

Thirteen years and 1,118 NBA games later, Bryant is still one of the best basketball players in the world, but there’s a lingering question planted in the backdrop as the Lakers begin the NBA Finals tonight against the Orlando Magic: How much longer can their 11-time All-Star produce eye-catching statistics before age and gravity tap him on the shoulder?

The Lakers and their failure to win a championship since 2002 is only one reason their fan base might be feeling a bit edgy. There’s also a sense of urgency because the window for Bryant’s career is only a handful of years from sliding shut.

Think of Bryant, who will be 31 in August, as a Ferrari with a well-tested odometer. Consider that he has already played 340 more NBA games than Michael Jordan when the Chicago Bulls’ star was the same age, a 44% increase that can be traced to several long Lakers playoff runs early in Bryant’s career and his entrance into the NBA immediately after high school. (Jordan waited until after his junior year at the University of North Carolina.)

Bryant continues to post numbers that any fresh-faced 23-year-old would giddily embrace, but, as TV analyst Mark Jackson observed on a recent play where Bryant scored on a routine layup instead of dunking the ball with authority: “Father Time is undefeated.”

Bryant joked earlier in the season that he hit old-man status by turning 30, and, indeed, most basketball players are fortunate to still be in the league by their early 30s.

Sticking with his long-standing aura of invincibility, Bryant declined to open up on how his age might drive him in helping the Lakers win their 15th NBA championship.

“I’m not worried about it,” he said flatly. “The urgency is there just because it’s there.”

NY Times story on the building of the Magic …

Both franchises had to overcome extended Shaq hangovers to get here. It just took the Magic a little longer.

O’Neal’s defection left Penny Hardaway as the face of the Magic. The burden proved too heavy. Hardaway led a player revolt against Coach Brian Hill, but he couldn’t lead the Magic to a playoff series victory. He forced a sign-and-trade to Phoenix in 1999.

Orlando started over, gathering cheap role players and expiring contracts to make a free-agent splash in the summer of 2000. Tim Duncan said no, but Grant Hill and Tracy McGrady said yes, and Orlando had a new set of All-Stars to carry its championship dreams.

But Hill was almost always injured and McGrady was poor as a solo act, and the Magic still couldn’t get out of the first round of the playoffs. In 2004, Orlando swapped McGrady for another slightly defective star, Houston’s Steve Francis.

The Francis era lasted less than two years and featured two 36-win seasons and three coaching changes. This would qualify as the low point, but there was a large trampoline at the bottom of the chasm: Orlando won the 2004 lottery and drafted Dwight Howard, a 6-foot-11-inch, 240-pound high school star.

Now Howard is the one destroying basket stanchions, opposing centers and the hopes and dreams of would-be contenders.

Enjoy the Finals – it should be good times tonight on ABC.

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Four Days ago, I wrote that the NBA Playoffs have been amazing this spring. Since that was written, we have had four games, won by four different teams. These conference finals are enough to make you forget about most everything else.

And as we ponder the events of the last 7 glorious days of NBA basketball and look ahead to the next 7 that will determine who will be in the NBA Finals, here are some quick thoughts on each team that is still very much in the hunt:

DENVER NUGGETS

What you have to like:If you are the Nuggets, you have to love a few things about the way this series is headed. First, the idea that the physical nature of the game seems to be working against most of the Lakers. They may not be withering quite to the extent that New Orleans or Dallas did, but the fact seems to be that the Lakers do not appreciate this overly-physical mid-90’s Knicks/Heat basketball. But, if you think about it, the Nuggets likely could not win any other way. They have been in prime position to win all 4 games of this series, and although they have given home-court advantage back to the Lakers, there is a chance that this is a series where being at home doesn’t matter too much. The combination of Nene, Kenyon, and Birdman seem to be wearing down the Lakers. If this continues, the Nuggets have a great chance to represent the West. By the way, you also have to love that there are no extra days off for Kobe. Games Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday with travel each day in between the rest of the way will not replenish the energy supplies of a guy who is a) carrying his team and b) starting to look gassed.

What you have to hate:Carmelo Anthony has played a lot of games this year and is not used to that. While Kobe’s body expects 100+ games a year, Carmelo is usually doing whatever Carmelo does in the off-season by this time of year. Carmelo played a big role in the Olympics and then a full season. Now, he is in his 3rd round of the playoffs, and his last 3 games are not a positive trend. After a monster series against Dallas and an equally huge effort against LA in game 1, Carmelo has shot 19-58 (32%) in the last 3 games. You might say, “But, Bob, the Nuggets are winning those games.” True. But we have seen a distinct difference in the final 3 minutes in this series because the Lakers have Kobe. For the Nuggets to get out of this series, Carmelo is going to have to “out-Kobe” Kobe in the Staples Center during crunch time…again.

LOS ANGELES LAKERS

What you have to like: There are a few things to like if you are Phil Jackson and the Lakers – not the least of which is that it appears Pau Gasol has really grown up in these playoffs. It does seem that he is ready to go right at the Nuggets, no matter how many hard fouls are given. Gasol is joining Kobe in those two games in Denver, and that is surely a good thing. A bigger positive is that they had to win at least one game in Denver to get home court advantage back, and had that in the bag on Saturday. You can certainly make the case that in Game 4, the Lakers did not play with near the urgency, and that showed on the glass where they were embarrassed. The bottom line is that they have 2 games left at the Staples Center with a very determined Kobe Bryant at the helm. If they win them both, they are back in the NBA Finals, but I do wonder what they will have left when they get there.

What you have to hate: 2 words: Lamar Odom. Seriously. What does this guy do? Because he hasn’t helped the Lakers at all in this series aside from his legendary guarding of the inbounds play – which should not be undersold. Otherwise, as the anchor of the Lakers bench, he has failed badly. He averages 15 points a game over his career, and over 11 ppg this season. But, in this series, he is scoring just 7.5, and if anyone looks intimidated by the Nuggets front line, it is Odom. I don’t get what has happened to him, but this free-agent-to-be is not having a very good contract year. If he doesn’t step it up soon, the Lakers are going to get beat. They could also use some help from the perimeter, but Odom is the key.

ORLANDO MAGIC

What you have to like:This one is pretty obvious. If it wasn’t for from of the biggest shots in recent NBA history going in, the Orlando Magic could and should be ahead 3 games to 0 against a team that one week ago most of the NBA thought may not lose a game before the NBA Finals. The Magic have received big efforts at different times from all 3 of its “star” players; Dwight Howard, Rashard Lewis, and Hedo Turkoglu. Honestly, all 3 are pretty new to this stage for different reasons, but the big shots that Lewis hit and the all-around play of Turkoglu is off the charts. As a team, they have done a fabulous job of making LeBron work and at times made him feel like he was out there by himself. Mission accomplished on that front as the Cavs look pretty clueless on offense right now. Even with the LeBron miracle, the Magic have beaten the Cavs in 10 of the last 14. And, they don’t seem to be taken with being on the same court as Cleveland.

What you have to hate: That Lebron has scored 125 in the first 3 games of this series, and he doesn’t appear about to slow down. Beating the man on the mission twice is a nice trick, but it don’t mean a thing unless you beat him 4 times. Other than that? How much can you really hate if you are the Magic? You have a chance to go up 3-1 tonight. I would caution Stan Van Gundy to stop obsessing about the calls that LeBron is getting. That can take your team’s focus to the refs as opposed to locking down the Cavs supporting cast. The reality that is being revealed is that the Cavs may have the better player, but the Magic may have the better team.

CLEVELAND CAVALIERS

What you have to like: Well, I suppose the easy answer is that the most unstoppable force in the universe right now is wearing your jersey. He seems pretty determined himself, and the Cavaliers are a win tonight away from being back in the driver’s seat in this series. They did not win 66 games by accident, and the fact is that this team has not seen adversity very much so a 2-1 deficit is traumatic to Cleveland right now, but it isn’t that big of a deal really if they take care of their business moving forward.

What you have to hate:That besides Delonte West, LeBron is not being helped much. Mo Williams and Zydrunas Ilgauskas both have scoring declines in these playoffs and there are times where LeBron looks like he is playing by himself. The bench looks positively helpless, and Daniel Gibson ($3.7M), Wally Szczerbiak ($13M), and Big Ben Wallace ($14.5M) are combining for 7 points per game in the playoffs while making nearly $31 million. You also have to hate that it appears that when it is time to stop Hedo, the Cavs defense is having a hard time closing him down without surrendering a wide-open 3 from Lewis or another teammate.

Before the series began, I had the Cavs in 5 and the Lakers in 7. If I had it to choose all over again, I think I will still take the two favorites, but at this point, all 4 teams have a great reason to believe they will be playing into mid June. If you would have told me 3 months ago that the conference finals would include Denver and Orlando, you would have had a hard time selling me on the excitement level. But, this has delivered in a huge way.

Can’t wait for tonight.

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There have been years when the NBA Playoffs were not very good.

This would not be one of them.

The last 3 nights have provided some of the best NBA Playoff basketball that we have seen in recent years, and I hope you are watching. The Nuggets vs. Lakers in the West have played 2 instant classics in the first two contests of that series, and the largely anonymous Orlando Magic gave Cleveland its first loss of the post-season on Wednesday in Game 1 of the Eastern Finals.

After 2 rounds of weeding out the weaklings, we are now officially ready to rumble.

Western Finals:

This one is clearly the main event in my world, and I would guess anyone who is obsessed with Mavericks basketball. These are the two teams you are chasing and if you have followed the Mavs for 10 minutes, you know these are the two teams the Mavs have no answers for. They are athletic, they are tough to guard, and they have put their rosters together in such a way that there is no quick fix for the Mavs to get in their range. The Mavs seem to need about 2 or 3 pieces to add to their roster to get into a position to be able to match up with the Lakers or Nuggets.

But in watching them play each other, the basketball is absolutely riveting. Let me list a few things that have drawn my full attention:

* Watching Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol square off against the Nuggets front line. This is interesting because Gasol gets compared quite a bit to Dirk. They have somewhat similar games and it seems that the Lakers are far more equipped to tangle with the Nuggets, but Denver is definitely trying to play as physical as possible. An isolation camera on Kenyon Martin last night showed that he is seriously out there trying to goon it up (there, does that not hurt so much?) and the refs are not protecting Gasol any more than they protected Dirk. Kenyon throws his hips and elbows into the post men of LA on many occasions, and Nene brings the noise as well. One guy who has been somewhat silent in the first few games in Los Angeles is the Birdman. His athleticism is not near the mismatch. The other silent big man in this series seems to be Andrew Bynum who when he is hurt he is made out to be one of the most unstoppable forces in the NBA by media types. But now, with him back, he sits on the bench and watches at key moments of the game. The battle of the front line is a very competitive battle, but nothing like….

* The Battle of Kobe v. Carmelo. Wow. This is worth the price of admission. Both guys are stuck on “unstoppable” right now. We expect it out of Kobe. Surely, a few months short of his 31st birthday, Kobe realizes that he does not have an infinite amount of time left to win that elusive “Shaq-free” ring that he requires to cement his legacy. He has done it all – sort of – but you know that he knows that we know that he needs to win one without Shaq scoring 30 points and 17 rebounds in the NBA Finals of 2000-2002. Kobe looks determined and desperate. Meanwhile, Carmelo has officially broken out. Why? Is it because Iverson has been sent away? Is it because of the 2008 Olympics? Is it getting rid of the braids? Is it just the proper maturation process of a 24 year old superstar? Regardless of the reasons, Carmelo has flipped a switch in these playoffs where now he will not be denied, either. Watching him last night decide to take the game over reminded me of his 2003 NCAA Final Four performance for Syracuse. Being unstoppable combined with knowing you are unstoppable is a wonderful thing to watch. The only issue with Denver is whether he is too passive in demanding the ball at crunch time at certain times. If he doesn’t demand the ball, it seems there are too many Nuggets who think they are the man, and forget who really is the man. Kobe versus Carmelo is flat-out wonderful. And, we have yet to play a game in Denver, but I would imagine the good fans of Denver may reference various details of Kobe’s summer in Colorado in 2003 , no? This should be wonderful this weekend.

* Chauncey Billups and Derek Fisher both making key plays at key moments.Both key veteran players who know their way around the playoffs are absolute keys to their teams based on the 128 career playoff games Billups has played and the 166 career playoff games Fisher has played. 294 playoff games for those two players alone. Add 165 more for Kobe. I would suggest these three guards have seen a few different scenarios in a hostile road arena. In other words, waving your arms why they shoot free throws will probably not rattle them.

* The coaching chess game. Phil versus George Karl. While we are counting games, a quick look at NBA.com shows that Phil Jackson has coached 1764 games through last night, Karl 1729. But here is the shocking difference. They have both lost 86 playoff games in their respective careers. Karl is 71-86 in the playoffs. Phil? 202-86. It is possible that Phil’s wisdom in coaching teams that have always contained either Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant has certainly helped. Can you imagine that? He has never NOT had either Jordan or Kobe in his entire coaching career.

Anyway, with the series now tied up at 1-1, this will really get interesting in Denver. I still think the Lakers emerge, but it will take 7 games.

Eastern Finals:

I don’t have much here, because I honestly have not cared too much about the Eastern Conference playoffs in general, but now that we are down to the Lebron show, it is captivating as well. I think most of us have anticipated a Kobe-Lebron final since Christmas, but now what once seemed like a sure thing is now a bit more tenuous. But Lebron’s attempt to take over the full claim on being the game’s best player is not tenuous at all.

His ability to take over the game from the opening tip through the final buzzer is certainly enough to make people throw out Jordan-type comparisons. I cringe at this for a guy who is 24, but the similarities are pretty obvious. Maybe the difference is that Jordan did not find great success until he was joined by a great coach and a clear #2 in Scottie Pippen. Lebron seems to lack both of those, as his coach seems pretty ordinary and his mates all seem easily replaceable. Nevertheless, his greatness carries them along with great ease most nights.

But then, here comes Orlando – the unwanted guest at the dinner table – in Game 1, riding the high of their Game 7 win in Boston, still nailing all sorts of 3 point bombs to take home court advantage away. Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkaglu? Really? And why am I not seeing much from Dwight Howard at crunch time, because he is undoubtedly their best player, right? Well, his free throw issue is keeping him from being a force in the paint at crunch time. But, here is free-agent-to-be Hedo playing PG and making plays and Lewis knocking down huge shots.

I still expect Cleveland advances easily, but the drama of the 4th Quarter of Game 1 was wonderful, and certainly on par with everything the West is throwing out there.

I know some of you are still in Mavs depression, but, trust me, the quality of basketball we are seeing right now from the biggest stars in the game mean that we have as many as 18 more games to go in the NBA season, and if you love the game you might not want to miss any of them. Or at least the 4th Quarters of any of them.

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