It is the final four in the NBA playoffs. San Antonio, Utah, Cleveland and Detroit remains from the 16 ballclubs when the playoffs started. Who would bring home the Larry O’Brien trophy?
Among the four teams San Antonio has the best chance of winning it all. They have the talent, depth and experience to become champions. Tim Duncan is playing the best basketball in his career in the playoffs. He scores when his team needs it and more importantly is his defense is really excellent. Then you add Tony Parker who improved his perimeter game over the last two seasons, combined with his athletic ability to slash to basket, Parker is one player hard to stop. While Manu Ginobili has accepted the role of sixth man is really great for the team. He scores when Parker and Duncan don’t click, which makes him the very important to the team. Add the veterans of the team Horry, Finley, and Barry this is a formidable team.
Utah is a great basketball team run by a great basketball coach. After making the playoffs for the first time in three years, they went all the way to western conference finals. It just shows how resilient the team is. Led by Big man Carlos Boozer and guard Deron Williams, they prove to be a potent one-two punch. And with the outside sniping of another big man Mehmet Okur and defensive wizardry of Andrei Kirilenko, the Jazz could give the Spurs a run for their money.
Cleveland which is built around a superstar and a host of role player is making the eastern conference finals for the first in 15 years. Experts say that they don’t stand against a cohesive Detroit unit, but don’t count out King James and the Cavaliers. Lebron James has the ability to dominate games and take Cleveland to the promise land, plus the role players that are more capable of providing support to James, this series promises to be one for the ages.
Detroit is in the eastern conference finals for the fourth straight year. Talk about consistency huh. After the lose Ben Wallace to free agency in the off season, they replaced him when they acquired Chris Webber in the middle of the regular season. Webber who is a great passer and an average defender is the complete opposite of big Ben. But the Pistons have been much more effective since acquiring him. Because of his passing ability Detroit’s offence is more fluid than before and to compensate Webber’s average defense Detroit employs a very good zone defense which they used to perfection in the Chicago series. With that add the Pistons regular rotation who is very consistent in the playoffs, Rasheed, Tayshaun, Rip, and Chauncey, these guys could carry the Pistons all the way to the NBA finals.
Who will advance? And who will take the crown? We will know the answer in the coming weeks.
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