Which Eastern Conference team has the best chance of beating the Lakers?

The Sun does rise in the east. Very confusing.

 

Nah not this season.

 

Orlando is playing the best basketball in the playoffs so far so I would go with the Magic.

 

Some people are forgetting few important things in this scenario , Orlando would have home court over L.A in the finals. Nelson is playing at an elite level this year in the playoffs , last year he missed playoffs besides few games in finals due to a nasty injury. Carter is a huge upgrade over rookie Courtney Lee from last year. Barnes who is starting SF is a better defender than Hedo Turk. Orlando w/o a doubt IMO has the deepest roster top to bottom this year .

 

I'm a Laker fan. Answer to this one is Cleveland, unequivocally. LA doesn't match up well with them and they have a horde of bench scrubs who will contribute more than ours. Shaq can still get our bigs into foul trouble. They will face every other team's dilemma of not being able to breathe on Le Bro.

Orlando is doing better this year because they're not acting like goofy chumps. LA isn't a 100% guarantee, but imo, of the Big 4, LA's least favorable matchup is Cleveland. Cleveland's least favorable is Orlando. Orlando's least favorable is LA. Boston's least favorable is probably the Cavs, even if Cleveland hasn't taken the task seriously until Gm 3.

 

Vince would be defended by Artest w/ Barnes on Kobe, most likely. At least for the most part of the series.

Howard is a killer, but Bynum and Gasol still crowd the paint. LA last year honed in on Shard to great success. Gasol defended Howard quite well man-to-man, but wasn't credited much for it because of the soft perception.

Problem w/ Jameer last year was that Van Gundy tried to reinsert him at the last minute while the team had become comfortable with Rafer. LA had that issue with Magic in 1981 coming back late into a tight PG rotation after Norm Nixon and Eddie Jordan gelled into his former role. The common link there is that both players were clearly superior to their backups, but their returns messed w/ cohesion and continuity.

 

I don't know how anyone thinks this Orlando team isn't better than last years.

Carter is a huge upgrade over Turkeyglue as a wing scorer/playmaker

Jameer is at full health

No Rafer

Plus you have solid additions like Ryan Anderson, Matt Barnes, Brandon Bass

 

+1

Exactly

 

Hawks

 

got a good point there but it just doesnt seem right... celtics having more better players than the fakers.

 

Gasol> KG(this year)
Robinson is MIA for the playoffs

To be honest it simpyl depends on who's hot coming in