Thanks to those wonderful things called holidays, a wonderful weekend of de facto playoff football and an Intern who is unwilling to write, RTP hasn’t been able to get around to proclaiming the Los Angeles Lakers the NBA Champions yet. Of course, this is quite premature as it’s not even January, but after downing the Celtics on Christmas Day in a Finals revenge game, I did say that the winner should be anointed Champs. Of course, I’m not discounting the greatness of LeBron and the Cavs, but if history replays itself, the Celts would edge them in a seven-game series come spring time.
The Celtics didn’t help their illusion of immortality either by going out and losing a below-average Golden State team later on too. How do you go from winning 19 consecutive games to losing two in a row? Does that sound like tough foes to you? Okay, that might be a bit of an over-reaction, but it just goes to show that Boston is, in fact, mortal.
As for the Lakers, they will have some tough competition to make it out of the West, but would you really argue against them getting to the Finals at this point? New Orleans is still chugging along but don’t can’t beat LA, Houston and the Spurs may be mighty foes, but have injury concerns and Denver has faded fast. It’s looking like the matchup of the century will be in the East finals this spring when Cleveland and Boston faceoff; assuming the Celtics aren’t upended by the Hawks along the way.