Disclaimer: predictions based on my gut – if you’re a Hollinger clone, you may want to stop reading now.


If there is a lesson to be learned from the 2010 playoffs, it’s that the position to position matchups are a better predictor than finely crunched numbers. 
In a potential Bos/LA final; in addition to Pau/Odom/Bynum having their toughest assignment yet in Perk/KG/Sheed; the Celt’s will have arguably the biggest mismatch of this entire post season at the point guard position.  If you saw DFish try to guard Russell Westbrook in the first round, you know what I’m talking about.

The way I see it, after Rajon leads us to a split of the first two in LA, Phil’s going to have no choice but to put Kobe on Rondo full time to limit his penetration.  Fisher & Farmar don’t stand a chance, and I can’t see Brown having much more success than Delonte West did. 

What that means for the Celtics is that Ray Allen needs to get 20 shots off if they’re going to switch a smaller man on him.  Heading back to Beantown for games 3-5, I see the Big 3 taking advantage of LA’s defensive tact of stopping Rondo by shooting close to 50% from the field; and the Celts taking 2 out of 3.  Then it’ll be back to LA, where the media will have since flip-flopped on us giving us little chance to win #18 on the road (because for some reason, the ‘experts’ have the shortest term memories of all time…). 

The stage will be set for us to break the faker will on their home floor and celebrate #18 in a mostly empty, silent Staples Center.  At which point, we’ll see the best all around PG in the game hoist the Finals MVP trophy while the balloons sit idle in the rafters.

UBUN2 !