vs 
This season has been a tremendous roller-coaster for San Antonio, who was the team to beat in the West for most of the season, but now there are a lot of doubts about their ability to beat the #7 seed on the first round of the playoffs. In fact, there's a lot of people calling this series a potential 7-games series, with the Lakers having even a nice chance for the upset! Tony Parker got injured and when he returned, he was never the same. Manu Ginobili has been erratic all season with injuries and some bad play. Boris Diaw is injured, while Stephen Jackson was waived on the last week of the regular season. All of this isn't normal for a team like the Spurs, who is known for being the best organized franchise in the league.
On the other end, if the Spurs had a roller-coaster season, what can we say about the Lakers's season? They got to the playoffs without Kobe Bryant. They made a late push and won their last two games against the Spurs and the Rockets, two playoff teams. This new look Lakers is more post-oriented naturally without Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard. It will be interesting to check what kind of pace will the Lakers try to set on this series. Their last game of the regular season against the Rockets (#1 in pace factor) was a typical half court game, in which the Lakers didn't score a single fast break point. This should tell us something about how the Lakers will try to play on the postseason.
San Antonio's offense has declined since Tony Parker got injured by averaging an ugly 100.9 offensive rating over their last 10 games, below the league average! Both Parker and Ginobili will be the key on this series, as with them at 90%, the Lakers won't stand a chance, as we have seen all season long that the Lakers are too slow footed to battle against dynamic guards, especially on transitions. Dwight Howard is playing better and better as the season goes on with a bigger defensive range, while he won't have an easy matchup on offense against Tim Duncan. Foul trouble might be a problem for both teams. It will also be important to check Howard's FT% throughout the series, as he will certainly suffer a hack-a-Howard on this series.
With two good frontcourt units in action, it will be the guards play, who will decide the fate of this series and until facts prove me otherwise, I believe San Antonio has too much quality and depth for the Kobeless Lakers and this will be difference in here.
Prediction: San Antonio in 5/6 games
No comments:
Post a Comment