NBA Finals Preview: The Beginning of The End

We're back. I hope everyone had a lazy, BBQ filled weekend without too many annoying friends you didn't want to see or heartburn. Now, it's time for basketball again after what seems like weeks. The couple games every day that are played during the first 3 rounds really become a habit, then suddenly no games for 4 days and I feel like Pookie in New Jack City. "It just keeps calling me". I probably need some new hobbies.

Anyway, tonight finally brings game 1 of the NBA Finals or the beginning of the end for most haters out there. Championship rings have this strange aura about them, able to erase years of bad reputations. LeBron's already half way there since he's morphed into Mr. Clutch this postseason. What about the other guys who will be playing?

Point Guard:
Mike Bibby vs. Jason Kidd

8 years ago, if you would've taken a poll asking which marquee PG would still be leading their teams to finals in 2011, it may have been split between these two guys. Bibby was a young up and comer who had proven to be a clutch shooter with the Kings and Jason was already 30. No matter, Kidd is no longer the speedy passer he was, but is now a wily vet, 3-point shooting floor general and Mike Bibby is filling the requisite 5th player role. They might as well play 4 on 5.
Advantage: Mavs

Shooting Guard:
Dwyane Wade vs. Deshawn Stevenson/Jet Terry
I swear I have to say to myself "Dwhy-ane" every time I write that name. What's the deal, Mrs. Reverend Wade? I know you had a drug problem but damn. Deshawn starts for whatever reason, but Terry is probably Dallas's 2nd best scorer.
Advantage: Dwhy-ane and the Heat.

Small Forward:
LeBron vs. Shawn Marion
Damn, Dallas has a late 90's early 2000s all star team. Me and my brothers used to create teams on NBA Live 98 or whatever it was. If Dallas still had Steve Nash, this Mavs team could have definitely been one of them. I heard the Matrix has a reality show coming out after the season. I'd rather eat nails then watch that.
Advantage: Heat

Power Forward:
Chris Bosh vs. Dirk Nowitzki
Yeah, I guess I should take back all the RuPaul insults, Bosh has been money this spring. But he'll be facing off against the other player who everyone will be watching this series. Many people view this as Dirk's last stand (I'm not totally sure of that) but the way he's been playing, he looks to be on a mission.
Advantage: Mavs

Center:
Joel Anthony vs. Tyson Chandler
Tyson's gone from underrated to almost over-rated this playoffs. He does a serviceable job out there though and is 100 times better than Joel. The sarcastic MVP chants from the Miami crowd are actually pretty funny, though.
Advantage: Mavs

Bench:
This is probably the clearest advantage for Dallas outside of the point guard match-up. Dallas' biggest strength this playoffs has been it's bench. Nicholas brother NBA Live all-star Peja and Terry lead the attack. My guess is Spoelstra will keep at least 2 of the big 3 out there at all times so as not to get too exposed (and that's what he's been doing most of these playoffs anyway) although Haslem and Mike Miller have been a spark lately.
Advantage: Mavs

Coach:
Spoelstra vs. Rick Carlisle
A chimp could roll the ball out on the floor and coach this Miami squad on offense, but you have to give Spo' some credit for getting the Heat to play defense like they do. Carlisle has much more experience though so he has an edge like Derek Jeter.
Advantage: Mavs

Unbelievably, that leaves the Heat with only 2 clear cut advantages here. Shouldn't conventional sports wisdom tell us that the team concept will win out over those 2 guys? Well, throw your grampy's basketball book out the window, Bron and Wade are finishing what Jordan and then Kobe and Shaq started. It's a superstar league and Miami has twice as many of those as Dallas. To paraphrase a recently passed Gil Scott Heron, "The Revolution Will Be Televised". I'm part of the hater brigade this year (weird to be on the hater side after rooting for the Lakers the past 3 seasons) so I hope that I'm wrong like I have been all playoffs (plus Dallas has been so great as an underdog this playoffs I can't pick against them), but I think the end is near for the hater. Long live the king.

Western Conference Finals Preview

That other series is starting tonight, in what seems like kind of a letdown compared to the star-studded Eastern Conference Finals. Yeah, the WCF has it's share of all-star and former all-star players: Dirk (that's him up there looking like Detective Holder from "The Killing"), Durant, Westbrook, and the rest of the former star players on the Mavs. But there's a reason that Miami vs Chicago game 1 was the highest rated basketball game in THE HISTORY OF CABLE TELEVISION (and not just because the Celebrity Apprentice was a rerun). The Heat have the hate factor, I'd guess that more people watching that game were rooting against the Heat than for the Bulls, and at least 3 more dynamic stars than the Thunder or Mavs can offer. Still, true hoops fans have a lot to appreciate here in the deceptively quick and powerful Durant, and Nowitzki's seemingly impossible shots that he hits so easily.

The Thunder are coming off the most unexpectedly exciting series of the Playoffs, a strange series that despite going 7 games and featuring 4 overtimes, also saw each game have a double digit lead. Dallas, meanwhile, has been sitting on their asses waiting since Mother's day after their equally unexpected beating of the champs. The usual school of thought here is that the team that has an unusually long rest period in between series can be rusty and fall out of sync. On the other hand, the extra rest should benefit the old guys in Dallas, while the intense 7 game series shouldn't bother the youngsters in OKC. Let's look at some match ups.

Point Guard:
Jason Kidd vs. Russell Westbrook

Jason Kidd couldn't have been happier to see old man Fisher in the Lakers series, but Russell Westbrook is a whole nother story. He's about 100 speeds quicker than Kidd ever was, and he has the size to post up Jason, as well as defend Kidd when he tries to post up (as he so often tries to do against opposing PG's). If Kidd can keep up his 3 point shooting, this might not be as lopsided, but this match up should be dominated by the Thunder.

Shooting Guard:
Deshawn Stevenson vs. Thabo Sefolosha

Neither of these guys is as good as their back-ups but the guy with the name that nobody can remember or pronounce is a defensive specialist who may see some time against Dirk in spurts. This one is pretty much a wash, but I give a slight edge to the Thunder since Stevenson is pretty much useless. By the way, he needs to stop doing the Tony Yayo/John Cena thing after every basket. When you hit 2 shots a game, you have no right to celebrate, and the announcers always incorrectly say it means he can't feel his face because he's so hot (which is cool but wrong).

Small Forward:
Shawn Marion vs. Kevin Durant

Not even close. OKC by a hundred miles.

Power Forward:
Dirk Nowitzki vs. Serge Ibaka

These guys games are so completely different. Ibaka plays the more typical Power Forward game in the Oakley mode, while we all know how Dirk does. Who do you think wins this match up?


Center:
Tyson Chandler vs. Kendrick Perkins

Danny Ainge isn't looking so good these days as Perkins is still playing for a Finals berth, and his Celtics looked so overmatched by the Heat. Perk has added a lot of toughness to the young Thunder and can still get pretty damn nasty, while Tyson is probably the best center still playing in the playoffs. Edge to the Mavs here.

Bench:

Dallas's strong suit (besides Dirk) is their super subs (I don't think they actually have a nickname). They absolutely dominated the Lakers bench, but OKC has some decent reserves themselves in James Harden and Eric Maynor and a couple others. If Barea, Stojakovic and Terry can keep up the pace they were playing at a couple weeks ago though, this should be advantage Dallas.

Coach:

I didn't give Rick Carlisle much credit before the L.A. series but he almost outcoached the great Phil Jackson at some points. Scott Brooks was a scrappy, little white point guard who somehow forged a career in the NBA, and his toughness rubs off on his squad a little, it seems. I like Brooks as a coach a lot and give him the edge over the more experienced Carlisle.

How will the series pan out? Hell if I know. Even though I probably watch close to 40
hours of NBA basketball a week, I can't predict how anything will turn out this postseason. My instinct is to say Dallas should win being that they have more experience, have outplayed pretty much every team in the league so far this Spring, and Dirk is playing at a phenomenal level, but nothing is going as planned so far so I'll say Oklahoma City in 6.