Image via Wikipedia- 2010 NBA Western Conference Final
The No. 1 Los Angeles Lakers shot the lights out against the No. 5 Utah Jazz and the No. 3 Phoenix Suns overwhelmed the No. 7 San Antonio Spurs in the half court in the Western Conference semifinals while Dwight Howard's 22-of-27 shooting led the No. 2 Orlando Magic easily past the No. 3 Atlanta Hawks and the No. 4 Boston Celtics crushed the No. 1 Cleveland Cavaliers in six games in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
The Lakers were supposed to challenge the Chicago Bulls' NBA-best 72-win season. Instead L.A. stumbled down the stretch to finish with the third-best NBA record. Meanwhile the Suns were supposed to be fighting for a playoff berth. Instead Phoenix went 23-6 after the All-Star Break to secure a high seed in the Western Conference.
The last time the Suns played the Lakers, L.A. won 102-96 at Phoenix on March 12. Their first three meetings in 2009-10 regular season came before New Year's with the Lakers winning the first two by an average of 19.5 points in L.A and the Suns winning in Phoenix in late December by 15 points.
With three of their meetings coming early in the regular season, expect a feeling out process in the first couple of games. Video can only do so much; it's much harder diagnosing the Suns "Pick and Roll Offense" and the Lakers "Triangle Offense" just by watching film.
In their previous encounters this season, Bryant averaged 27.5 points a game and Andrew Bynum averaged a shade under 18 points and 10 rebounds a game while Steve Nash averaged 14 points and 9 assists a game with Amare Stoudemire adding 20 points a game. The Suns' bench averaged better than 40 points a game this season with the Lakers with 60 in their first game and only 18 in their last. If the Suns bench shows up big like they did against San Antonio, L.A. could be in for a world of hurt.
- 2010 NBA Eastern Conference Finals
The No. 2 Orlando Magic weren't supposed to be as good as they were last year. It was supposed to be the year that LeBron James in his seventh NBA season (just as Michael Jordan) would win his first NBA Finals trophy.
The Magic, who had a week off before playing Atlanta, have not played for five days this time around as Boston eliminated Cleveland in six games on Thursday. Typically the pace slows down in the postseason, but for Boston and Cleveland defense triggered offense as the winning team scored more than 100 points in four of the six games.
Boston will likely have to return to gritting it out if they're going to beat Orlando who won the season series 3-1 including twice on the Celtics' home court.
In what's expected to be a defensive-minded playoff series, Orlando shot 32-of-90 on 3-point field goals while Boston was 23-of-78 in regular-season battles. The Magic's Vince Carter led the way averaging 20 points a game to outduel the Celtics sharpshooter Ray Allen's 17 a game. Howard added 12 points, 14.5 rebounds and 3 blocks a game for Orlando while Boston's Kevin Garnett was held to pedestrian numbers as well- 10.5 points and 8.5 rebounds a game.
Aside from 3-pointers, the key to the series will be how effective Howard is against the Celtics' big men. With Howard struggling with Boston's Kendrick Perkins before, it could all come down to Howard keeping his poise, remaining productive and hitting his free throws for Orlando to return to the NBA Finals.
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