Lakers the surprise, Celtics predictable

After the Boston Celtics picked Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen in the offseason to complete a super trio with Paul Pierce, Boston was expected to make it far into the NBA playoffs. The Lakers had a major melt-down with Kobe Bryant ready to bolt to somewhere, anywhere. No one expected LA to go very far.

    One regular season later, and one great trade by the Lakers, and LA should run over the best regular season team in the NBA finals. But not just any NBA finals, but the most watch, most anticipated NBA finals in years.

    The San Antonio Spurs have dominated the league for half a decade of boring fundamental basketball that included smaller and smaller television ratings for the playoff finals. But now it’s old school Boston vs. LA basketball with major stars and major personalities. The league couldn’t have asked for a better pair of teams to reignite the excitement around the leagues seven game series.

    During the period from 1980 to 1991 one or the other team was in the finals or both teams where in the finals except once. Magic Johnson and Larry Bird were the major characters leading both teams to greatness but there were a number of players that fans loved and watched as the teams fought one year after another.

    This is how it should be, LA vs. Boston, Garnett vs. Kobe, and the whole country waiting in anticipation for the start of the series. Can Boston wake up to play like they did during the regular season? Can Kobe finally get over the hump without Shaq? Is Phil Jackson really going to pull off another Championship win? We will all watch as this series unfolds.