Saturday, March 13, 2004

How The West Will Be Won

The Western Conference playoof schedule is starting to shape up, and it looks like The Timberwolves have, at least, a legitimate shot at winning the whole show. Here is how that would work:

Sacto Plays Denver
We Play Houston
Spurs Play Dallas
Lakers play Grizz

Sacramento is going to beat denver, let's not make bones about that. That team is just too deep for a team lead by a 19 year old to beat. I will go so far as to say the series will be won 4-1.
T Wolves will beat Rockets. I know they lead the season series 2-1 right now, but throw that all out. WE played them on the second of back to backs, on sunday, on every single occasion when we don't play well. Really, not from a fan perspective, we match up very well against them, and should win the series, especially since it is 7 game, we'll say 4-3 for the less optimistic.
Dallas is going to beat the spurs. You saw it here first folks. Dallas does what the Spurs hate: Run. Run Run Run. It's sad that no one else figured this out with regularity, but Dallas sure has. They will outscore the leagues best defense. 4-2 series.
The Lakers will beat the grizzlies, and no one will be suprised. We have all read the articles saying no one wants to play the GRizzlies, but that's a load of BS. Look at the other teams. Who would you rather be playing? Thought so. Pau is great, Hubie is remarkable, Jason number 3 of 50 is passable. It's not a good enough team to match up with the lakers, who are hitting the late season stride they are famous for. Pau will struggle when Shaq and Malone clog the lane. Kobe will be undefensed. It's silly to think anything but 4-2 or better.
That leaves these match-ups:
Dallas @ Minnesota
Los Angeles @ Sac Town

Unlike the spurs, the T Wolves play both ends very well. For every weapon Dallas can throw, we can throw one back. WE can also go the distance against a team that has kept us out of the second round for years. Dirk gives us trouble, but Twan' plays for every team that plays against dallas. Keep shooting those threes big fella, T Wolves win it in 7

LA can beat sacto, anytime they want. It's the sad fact of the NBA,a nd I wish it weren't true. I don't care about Brad playing well, Peja shootign the lights out, Webber being back. The Lakers have an answer for them, and always have. THe series goes 7 though, and Lakers win.

That leaves the big dance. Luckily, with both teams going 7, the factors almost even out. The difference? Kobe's shoulder. He won't take himself out of the game, so he will do what he did last night : throw it up and miss. And Hassel will make him do just that. Shaq-fu is who he is, and he will dominate. WE have the bodies to foul him though, and that's huge. Payton has shown he has too much of an attitude against a former teammate to take over a game. Sam is inside his head. Malone is good for one win, but not the extra one they need. T Wolves in 6.

There you have it, check back this summer to see how close we came.

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