Another Cakewalk for the Lakers?

[J_Therapy]

And Doc Rivers has in fact stood by his words, Lizzake - "Our Starting Five has Never Lost a Series."

I'm kind of getting annoyed with Doc claiming his starters have never lost a series. Technically, yes this is true. But it is a weak argument. You can't keep making excuses everytime one member of the starting five gets injured. That's basketball. It's a team game and although the starters do the heavy lifting, the bench is a HUUGE key in deciding who wins a series and who doesn't. And the bench, did not deliver for the Celtics in Game 6 or 7.
If we go by Doc's rules, then the Laker's starting five has never lost a series when it is intact as well (with Bynum being out in 08).

But I digress.

I agree with the OP though. The Lakers have indeed had the easier route to the finals these past three years. Boston has been challenged time and time again and came through in 2008 and almost miraculously in 2010. They had a crack at beating the 4 top players in the NBA (Wade, Lebron, Dwight, and Kobe).

[Reyquila]

After 5 rings, nothing wrong on being on the decline, although he disguises it very well.

[Bankshot]

When it comes to the playoffs, there is no western conference. The past 3 years, there have been 4 teams each season competing on a completely different, championship caliber level. 

2008: Pistons, Celtics, Lakers, Cavs
2009: Orlando, Cleveland, Lakers, Boston except our injuries ruined us
2010: Cleveland, Orlando, Boston, Lakers

If you'll take a look at that list, you'll see that there are 5 teams. 4 of them are from the eastern conference. The lone championship contender from the west every year? The Los Angeles Lakers.

Yes, the "bottom half" of the western conference is better than the "bottom half" of the Eastern conference. We have some real crap teams in the east like the 76ers, Nets, and Knicks. The western conference only has Minnesota in its pantheon of suck. That's all regular season business.
 
Besides, if you're someone who does care about the regular season...

All in all, the quality of the conferences even out -- the East's abundance of championship contenders makes up for its collection of poor teams, while the West's dirth of contenders and terrible teams leaves them a homogeneous, mediocre-to-good conference.

When it comes to the playoffs, its a totally different ball game. The teams that matter are the great ones. The contenders. A contender will always win a series over a non-contender. That's why LA beat Phoenix this year. That's why Orlando destroyed Atlanta. There is no team, and there HAS BEEN no team in the west that could challenge the Lakers in a 7 game series these past 3 years. Only contenders beat contenders. Until there is another real, bona fide contender in the West, the Lakers will proceed unmolested to the finals every year until Kobe retires.

Ok, I agree with this and now I feel angry again at the Lakers cakewalk to the Finals.   Yes it it a cakewalk?  Did anyone really believe that OKC and the Suns really had a chance to knock of the Lakers?  I was hoping but wasn't holding my breath.

[GreenFaith1819]

And Doc Rivers has in fact stood by his words, Lizzake - "Our Starting Five has Never Lost a Series."

I'm kind of getting annoyed with Doc claiming his starters have never lost a series. Technically, yes this is true. But it is a weak argument. You can't keep making excuses everytime one member of the starting five gets injured. That's basketball. It's a team game and although the starters do the heavy lifting, the bench is a HUUGE key in deciding who wins a series and who doesn't. And the bench, did not deliver for the Celtics in Game 6 or 7.
If we go by Doc's rules, then the Laker's starting five has never lost a series when it is intact as well (with Bynum being out in 08).

But I digress.

I agree with the OP though. The Lakers have indeed had the easier route to the finals these past three years. Boston has been challenged time and time again and came through in 2008 and almost miraculously in 2010. They had a crack at beating the 4 top players in the NBA (Wade, Lebron, Dwight, and Kobe).

Welcome to CelticsBlog, J-Therapy.

Technically - we did Beat Kobe...6 for 24 in a clinching game 7? Yes, our Defense affected him somewhat.

I think that is the worst playoff performance by a "Superstar" in NBA History...I have chatted with some LA fans on SS and R and they mentioned Larry's performance in 1984 - evidently, he shot 6 for 18 with 20 pts and 12 boards...if my Math is correct, 6 for 18 is 33%? 6 for 24 is 25%?

I'll take the former....Kobe did have 15 boards, so he did help out, but still.....

Now Ron Artest? Kobe should buy that man a house.

As for your idea of Bynum (Or Ariza) helping LA win in 08? Would not have happened...Bynum was way too green to make much of any difference in that series. We had plenty of Bigs to throw at him (PJ Brown, Perk, Powe, etc).

No one was stopping The Boston Celtics in 2008.

And you said that our bench did not help out in game 6 or 7? Well, The Boston Celtics stunk as a Team in Game 6, but you are mistaken about game 7. A Man named Rasheed Wallace put The Celtics on his 35 year-old back and torched Gasol, especially in the first quarter.

And he abused Gasol in the Post. Gasol had 19 pts and 18 boards, but he shot a Kobe-ish 5 for 15 (33%).

Look - LA won - I'll give you that. I'm ready to move on from that.

I just wonder how it would've been if Perk played.