NBA Finals Prediction

If you guys were around with me last season, I picked the underdog Cavs to beat the Spurs in a thrilling 7 game series. Well it turned out to be a Spurs sweep and one of the worst NBA Finals in history. Now I have the pleasure of picking Lakers/Celtics.

The keys for the Lakers

• Kobe…..
• Lamar Odom has to show up on the road. He is a strong rebounder all of the time, but his shooting from the free throw line and from anywhere else on the floor is awful at times. When Phil Jackson lets his bench play with Odom handling the ball, then he has to stop turning the ball over and making poor decisions, as he did in the Spurs series.
• Luke Walton has to learn how to score from 2 feet away. Walton misses more shots from point blank range than any other player for the Lake Show.
• Pau Gasol needs to step his game up as well. Turnaround jump shots and baby hooks aren’t the way to go. If he can’t take it strong to the hoop at 7′ tall then Kendrick Perkins will eat him up.
• Don’t let the Celtics get the offensive rebounds. If you look at the Cleveland series, the Celtics were quite frazzled at times with the strong rebounding from the Cavs. I think the Lakers are much better with Odom and Gasol out there, and it would eliminate not only the 2nd chance points, but the easy baskets Garnett usually gets because of them.
• Stop Paul Pierce. Too obvious right?
• Win game 1. Phil Jackson has never lost a series when up 1-0.

Celtics

• Ray Allen, go to the basket. It’s good that Ray Allen has found his shooting touch again after his dismal start to the Cavaliers and Pistons series. When he had that slump he would take it to the hole and would find himself getting the fouls (and he is a great free throw shooter) or getting the mid-air pass to Perkins underneath the basket. When Allen drives it’s been successful and Boston should continue that.
• Rajon Rondo should never ever pass the ball. Someone should tell Rondo passing form point A to point B shouldn’t be a lofted kind of pass that takes 5 seconds to get there.
• Kevin Garnett has to destroy Lamar Odom. When Odom is in the paint, he is a good player. When someone like the defensive player of the year comes around and can hit shots from anywhere, Odom is just about useless.
• Beat up the Lakers bench. When Kobe is resting, no matter what the point spread is, the Celtics should just attack them right away. It’s a generally young and inexperienced 2nd unit out there so Boston should try and take advantage of that.
• Oops, I forgot, stop Kobe Bryant.
• Paul Pierce needs to….be Paul Pierce.
• Win on the road.

Wings Win the Cup!

Detroit really was living on the edge again in the 3rd period. It looked like it was all over when Marc Andre-Fleury put up a blooper worthy own goal, by knocking the puck into his own net to give the Wings a 3-1 lead.

Sergei Gonchar got a late goal with 1:28 to go to cut it to 3-2, but Detroit hung on literally at the last shot of the game, that was saved by Chris Osgood with a second to go to see Lord Stanley go to Detroit for the 11th time.

It took 6 games, but it was a thrilling Stanley Cup series between these two sides, and Pittsburgh came so close to pulling off another late game goal to force OT. The Wings however were the better team, they had more experience, and they won 2 in a row at Mellon Arena, which is a phenomenal feat.

Henrik Zetterberg is your Conn Smythe Trophy winner, and here are the highlights if you missed the game. Oh yes, this is Sportscentre, the Canadian version after the jump.