GAME 7

After 82 regular season games and four best of seven playoff series the NBA champion will be decided in the final game of 2009-10 season.

The NBA season was very unpredictable. The Western conference had the dominant teams all season long. The Lakers, Spurs, Nuggets, and Suns all could been the top seed at some point during the regular season. The Eastern conference had the big three coming into the season - Orlando, Boston and Cleveland. They were joined by Atlanta and Boston disappeared from contention around the all-star break. Near the end of the season Boston apparently came together as a team and made their playoff run, and the Lakers proved their championship caliber by running through all Western contenders.

The six games leading up tomorrow's night death match has been just as unpredictable as the season. Game one was dominated by the Lakers, game two was the Ray Allen show, game three was the anti-Ray Allen show, game four was the Celtics bench dominating, game five was Paul Pierce show and then game six was total Lakers domination. There has been no MVP that has risen to the top or no overiding theme other than there has been no them.

So what does this game 7 mean to the NBA? It means everything...instead of a best four of seven, the NBA gets it's one shining moment like all the other sports where one game final decides the champion.

So what happens tomorrow night? The Lakers and the crowd is pumped up, but if Ray Allen or Paul Pierce can hit some early baskets to quiet the crowd they stand a chance. Without Kendrick Perkins for game 7 due to a knee injury sustained in game 6, the Lakers need to take advantage of that with Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol. The MVP though, will be Kobe Bryant. He lives for these situations and you better believe he has another 30 point game in him.

Lakers NBA Champions!

NBA Finals - It's The Usual

The NBA Finals start this week and it shouldn't be a shock as to which teams are playing - Lakers vs. Celtics. This will be the 12th time the teams meet in the finals. It shouldn't be a shock either because the same teams to appear in the finals year after year. The NBA, unlike other major sports seems to thrive on dynasties.

The 1960's were dominated by the Celtics who won 10 of 11 championships, the 1980s the Magic Johnson led Lakers and the Larry Bird led Celtics again controlled the Larry O'Brien trophy. The 1990's were dominated by the Chicago Bulls led by none other than his airness Michael Jordan. If Jordan was retired, the Rockets took back to back championships and then in 2000's it was the David Robinson/Tim Duncan San Antonio Spurs who won four trophies.

So why can the NBA be dominated by one team. The simple answer is that one dynamic player can control the game. Everything that these dynasties had in common was the superstar. Whether it was Magic, Bird or Jordan - the one player could score, defend and bring home the championship.

The other thing these teams had in common were a great second fiddle - Worthy, McChale or Pippen. These players were able to bail their teams out if the star wasn't playing well and was the tie that bound the team together.

Unfortunately, some of today's biggest stars haven't been able to carry their teams to titles recently. DeWayne Wade managed the feat in 2006 and Kobe Bryant has carried the Lakers for the three seasons, so can he do it again.

Here is my two cents, breaking down the 2010 finals

Guard
Celtics have the best young PG in the game in Rajon Rondo, with the best pure shooter Ray Allan. The Lakers will counter with the the clutch shooting of Derek Fisher and the best player in the NBA, Kobe Bryant.
Edge - Lakers. When you have the best player, you get the edge.

Forward
The C's have Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. While the Lakers have Paul Gasol and Ron Artest. Pierce the leader of the Celtics, will be covered by Artest. Artest has become the defensive stopper that the Lakers envisioned and he'll be put to the test in this series. Pau Gasol is able to get his points and rebounds no matter what the scenario, while Garnett has turned into a reliable role player for the Celtics.
Edge - Lakers. Gasol and Artest are too much for Pierce and Garnett to handle.

Center
The Celtics have the defensive power of Kendric Perkins playing the post. He has really come into his own during the post-season, but he will be challenged by Andrew Bynum. As long as Bynum's knee holds up this will be an interesting match up.
Edge - Celtics. With Bynum's injury bug, Perkins gets the edge.

My prediction - Lakers in 6 games, with Pau Gasol winning the MVP.

Here are the list of the most common NBA Finals match-ups (courtesy Wikipedia)
* 11 times: Boston Celtics (9) vs. Minneapolis/Los Angeles Lakers (2)
* 6 times: Minneapolis/Los Angeles Lakers (5) vs. Syracuse Nationals/Philadelphia 76ers (1)
* 5 times: Minneapolis/Los Angeles Lakers (3) vs. New York Knicks (2)
* 4 times: Boston Celtics (3) vs. St. Louis/Atlanta Hawks (1) (Such a meeting is now impossible due to current conference alignment.)
* 3 times: Detroit Pistons (2) vs. Los Angeles Lakers (1)
* 2 times: Seattle SuperSonics (1) vs. Washington Bullets/Wizards (1)
* 2 times: Boston Celtics (2) vs. Houston Rockets (0)
* 2 times: Chicago Bulls (2) vs. Utah Jazz (0)