And so it begins!!!

As I watched the Hornets-Spurs game last night, I had no idea whom I wanted to win.  The Hornets?  The Spurs?  It wasn't so much that I was rooting for my favorite of the two, but I was looking for the opponent that couldn't match up with the Lakers.  It was a great game, but in the end, I think I did want the Hornets to win.  With Tony Parker maturing and Tim Duncan his usually great stoic self, the veteran Spurs always somehow find a way to win unspectacularly.  I've always like the Spurs since the George Gervin days, but I will always choose my Lakers over the Spurs anyday...

It will be a great series if the Lakers can bring their A-game and sustain it for 48 minutes per game!  Fish and Farmar (who's having a horrendous playoff season) will have their hands full with Parker; Duncan will square off with Gasol, and that should balance things out there... Ginobli will give the Lakers fits, and the Spurs bench (Horry, Finley, Udoka, etc... hey, don't forget about Barry!) are better than the Lakers bench.  Kobe Bryant will do his thing as usual, but I think the deciding factor is going to be Lamar Odom!  If Lamar can bring it, the Lakers have a great chance of winning the series... but of course, it'll go either six or seven...

And as far as the Boston-Detroit series goes, I'd like to see Garnett, Pierce and Allen go to the championship series, but they seem tired.  I predict Detroit in six games...

Sure, everyone is probably hoping for LA-Boston (especially Mr. Stern), but there's nothing really wrong with LA-Detroit!  The ratings will be decent (in comparison to last year) and it will be exciting... Maybe the revenge factor will be part of the impetus for the Lakers to kick the Pistons' butt!

But first things first... the Lakers will have to defeat the Spurs!