is anyone here actually looking forward to a lebron/kobe finals?

Exactly. The Magic have the best record against the top teams in the league. It's going to be tough on whomever they play.

There is one other thing that would be interesting if the Magic made it to the finals. The Rafer Alston shooting factor. There seems to be quite a few people who are fixated on fg% as the end all be all stat. Three of the five players on the Magic (Rafer, Hedo, and Pietrus) all shot 41.3% in the regular season. They take about 40% of the Magic's shots.

Somehow a guy like Hedo has a huge positive impact on the game despite poor shooting and Lee (who shoots 45%) is more of a role player.

 

agreed ....... but then their theory will be that stern "made" a denver/magic finals to stop people thinking its a conspiracy.

 

Considering I just bumped my own thread about a Kobe and Lebron-less finals I will weigh in.

I don't know about penis-envy as I would love to have either Kobe or Lebron on the Rox but in general I don't like it when the media basically predetermines a winner or a matchup and they have been hyping this like American Idol all season. There is a reason the games are played and I don't enjoy having the NBA, Vitamin Water, Nike and anyone else already declaring at the start of the playoffs that its going to be Cleveland and LA in the finals this year.

Also while Kobe and Lebron are great players there is a question mark about their teams. The Cavs feasted on inferior Eastern Conference teams while LA got exposed by us for being a soft team prone to collapses. These two teams still might end up being the best of the NBA but these aren't the 1986 Celtics or the 1987 Lakers.

As for Kobe and Lebron individually they are great but they can't get it done with out help. As to the tier I, tier II I'm not sure what your standard is since you didn't include Garnett, who has won as MVP's as Lebron and one more championship, or Tim Duncan or (worst of all on a Rockets board) Clyde.

 

the media is picking kobe and lebron because their teams are #1 in their respective conferences. cavs actually have the best record in the nba, and the lakers lapped the western conference.

its no different when they were picking he shaq/kobe lakers or duncan's spurs when they were the dominant teams

 

If your first tier includes Ewing, Clyde belongs in there too. I don't see how Ewing qualifies but Clyde does not.

 

Ok, makes sense. I misread your original post.

 

Several reasons. They're not a good home team. This would kill them especially when having to play three home games in a row. They're liable to drop two of those.

One of LA's major weaknesses, defending point guards, they are unable to exploit; I think Mo Williams would be able to have success there.

They have no unstoppable players, unlike Cleveland. Cleveland could really carve up the soft LA defense, while Orlando just jacks up 3s all day.

Who is going to guard Gasol? Rashard Lewis? I don't see it. LA can just play Odom and Ariza to negate any mismatch Lewis and Turkoglu may create.

For some reason I'm just not sold on Orlando's mental state. I could see them being easily rattled by LA, moreso than Cleveland. This isn't based on anything really though; I could be way off base here.

I haven't see any of the discussion on this so I didn't realize it was a minority opinion. I'm surprised by that.

 

Yes, I am.

I tried to root for the nuggets and the majic, but it's really hard for me to follow them. I think they are playing ugly bball; especially for the nuggets, very physical, too many fouls, games cannot go smoothly.

 

Dude, Mo Williams is an all star

 

This is probably Kobe's last shot to face Lebron as an elite player in a championship -- players go down quickly after thirty. I think these two need to have a duel for the final -- it would be good for basketball and fun to watch.

 

By default . . .

 

If it is about the tier-1 legends, why does it matter if the teams are lopsided? This is why I do not like the Kobe-LeBron hype. I wouldn't mind if they hype up the Cavaliers and the Lakers as the best teams in the league (which is questionable given how they are playing right now).

IIRC, the great Lakers-Celtics rivalry in the 80s was never hyped up as Magic against Bird (maybe a little bit in their rookie year). It was always the Lakers against the Celtics, the West against the East, the Showtime glamor against the hard nose working class.

I believe that it was Michael Jordan who changed the direction of how the NBA is portrayed: teams are individual superstars with a bunch of "supporting cast." The battles are between the stars. The role players are there just to "support" the stars (translation: help the STARS not the TEAM win). This kind of mentality leads to the stupid notion that it is McGrady's (and not his teams') failure for not getting past the first round.

I don't always like tinman's antics. But one thing I really appreciate about tinman is his glorification of the role players in our championship runs. The Horrys, the Cassells, the Elies, the Maxwells. Those guys are as much part of the championship memories as the superstars.

It was refreshing to see the Pistons win without a tier-1 superstar a few years ago. I always root for those teams. That was also why this year's Rockets-Lakers series ignited so many people to root for us.

 

Good point. But, I think another reason is that the rockets were playing beautiful basketball. Adelman's offense is a beauty. And, the rockets' defense is a beauty too. Different from the nuggets' physical defense, which results in too many fouls and games are interrupted frequently, the rockets' defense is more about defense skills.

 

Man, and man, you are just smart. ESPN will say King james, and James King in every another 5 second, make a sport channel to look like a kid channel. I am really sick of this stupid thing.

 

I understand. My point was, if you forgot about it, then it was not much of an epic matchup. I argue that team matchups are much more important than individual star matchups in terms of greatness of a series.

 

Lets go Magic!