Today In Sport

I know this has taken a while to get up here but here it is.  The 2009 NBA Playoffs have been run and won and quite easily in the end by the Los Angeles Lakers but not without some stumbles and hurdles along the way.  Kobe Bryant may not have won the league MVP award but he did show he can play when it counts.

There were some great series in the first round of the playoffs including the Boston v Chicago and Miami v Atlanta series’ that went to seven games.  Chicago showed with a few additions they might be able to return to the glory years of the 90’s but also they showed the frailties that exist in Boston without Garnett.

Two former powerhouses suffered embarassing first round defeats.  The Spurs and Detroit both showed that maybe their time has passed for now.  LeBron James treated Detroit like his own personal punching bag as he took control of every game.  As for San Antonio, you know you are going bad when you get beat by Dallas in a playoff series.

Speaking of Dallas, they not only embarrassed themselves on the court in the second round but also off it.  During the series with Denver, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban thought it would be a good idea to go off his nut and tell Kenyon Martin’s mother that her son was a punk (or worse if you believe some reports).

Kenyon said he would take care of it and he and his team did.  They brushed aside Dallas 4-1 like so many teams have done before.  They really need to do something in Dallas because everytime they get anywhere near being successful, they choke.  They need a Heimlich Manouver performed on that whole organization.

The Houston Rockets even without T-Mac and a fully fit Yao Ming almost derailed the Lakers steam train in a series that was more up and down than a rollercoaster at Disneyland.  Nearly every game was taken control of by one team or the other early and all the games had fairly decent final margins.

The Rockets were able to control Bryant’s influence on the other members of his team enough to cause confusion at times.  Just when the Lakers looked like taking control of the series, The Rockets would snatch it back from them.  But in the end Los Angeles just had a few too many horses and finished off a plucky Houston outfit in Game 7.

Cleveland continued on their merry way as they swept past Atlanta easily.  The Orlando Magic with their hot shooting and the inside presence of Dwight Howard out lasted a tiring Boston Celtics in another 7 game series.  The Celts just couldn’t produce another big effort to get past the fast finishing Magic.

So on to the Conference finals and the Lakers taking on the Nuggets and the Magic taking on the all-conquering Cavaliers.  The first three games of the LA/Denver series were tight and exciting but the last three were pretty much blowouts.  Denver struggled to close out games consistently and with players being inconsistent from game to game they couldn’t combat the Bryant led Lakers who would consistently get good performances from Gasol, Fisher and Odom.  The Lakers won in 6 games.

Over in the East, the Magic were trying to maintain the rage and bring to a halt a rampaging Cavaliers outfit.  The Magic continued to shoot the lights out and managed to steal game 1 in Cleveland and almost pulled off the double after game 2 finished with Cleveland one point up.

Orlando went home and made good on their advantage only just scraping by in game 4 but going back to Cleveland 3-1 up.  LeBron James had been playing like a superhero the entire playoffs and nothing about him had changed.  What had changed was the influence of his supporting cast.  Apparently Orlando had figured out it was impossible t stop James, so they decided to stop everyone else, and it worked.

Cleveland busted out for a win in game 5 but the inevitable finally happened in game 6 and the once mighty Cavaliers became another victim swept up by Hurricane Orlando.  This also put paid to the NBA’s dream matchup of Kobe v LeBron.  Oh well, you can’t always get what you want.

What it did do was make Los Angeles the instant favourite in the championship series.  It was clear from the outset that LA were ready for anything that Orlando could dish out and they easily took game 1.  The Magic were a lot better in game 2 but still couldn’t quite get the win.

The series moved to Orlando which gave the Magic a big lift and they won game 3.  If not for some errant free throws by Dwight Howard and a couple of clutch 3’s by Derek Fisher they might have tied up the series in game 4 but alas LA went up 3-1 and the smell of death was around Orlando.

Orlando came out firing in game 5 and for a moment might have breathed life back into the series but the Lakers soon snuffed out any challenge to their dominance and easily finished off a team that had played the best they could for so long but just couldn’t keep it up when it mattered most.

Kobe won another title but his first without Shaq and he proved he could be The Man if he had the supporting cast around him.  He performed every single night, even with his dodgy finger and proved all the doubters wrong.  Coach Phil Jackson won his 10th title and continued his journey into immortality.

The Los Angeles Lakers organization won its 15th title and closed the gap again on Boston.  It was a fairly predictable finish to what was a pretty bland season.  Sure it had its moments but overall 2009 won’t be remembered in 20 years when people talk about the great seasons past.