NBA Conference Finals, Humiliating Update . . .

Detroit-Boston are in the middle of game 5 as I type, and the San Antonio-Los Angeles series completed game 4 last night.

I got some things right, and some things wrong with my picks.

In the East, I expected Detroit to steal one in Boston, and they did, and I expected Boston to steal both games in Detroit, and they didn't. Just before halftime looks like my prediction of a 3-2 Boston lead at this point is looking pretty good (but that would mean I was wrong about Detroit winning tonight).

My revised picks for the rest of this series is as follows, homecourt matters. Boston will continue to play well in the second half tonight and win, Detroit will gut out a tough victory in Detroit on Friday, and Boston will manage to win another game seven at home Sunday, but mainly because Chauncy Billups isn't at 100%. David Stern's prayers will be answered, and instead of another ratings killing Detroit-San Antonio finals he gets his dream match-up of Boston-Los Angeles.

In the West, I did better. I picked the victor in each game (though the how was a bit mixed up, did call a 2 point victory in game 4 though, and was only off by 2 points on final total, Kobe didn't go for 50 though), and I expect Los Angeles to wrap up the series tomorrow, just like they're supposed to. The Lakers deserved to lose last night, they mishandled the last 56 seconds and Fisher's foul on Barry could have easily been called, but the Spurs have shown class and maturity by not blaming the refs, and clearly stating that they agreed that no call was the right call in that situation. Ought to keep San Antonio area sports talk guys busy ranting for weeks, if not years, to come.

There's at least five moments in every Laker game where I feel compelled to yell at the screen and admonish Gasol to go up and grab the ball with both hands on rebounds. The Lakers managed to dominate the offensive boards, even with Gasol's weak-sauce technique, but he's going to get eaten up alive on the boards by Garnett or Perkins against Boston. The Odom v Garnett show should be pretty amazing, as will the Pierce v Kobe show. Lakers still have the deeper bench, younger legs, and more potent offense, and they've improved defensively throughout the playoffs, so the team that got blown out twice by Boston in the regular season isn't the team that Boston will be facing in the Finals. Ought to be a good show, but first both teams got to get there, and the Spurs aren't dead yet, if they can win at Staples on Thursday, the young Lakers might start getting a bit nervous, and Detroit won't give up easily, even with a limited Billups, but Lakers-Celtics is still the most likely scenario.

Things That Are Inevitable

First inevitable thing, the Lakers will beat the Spurs tonight at Staples Center.

Second inevitable thing, right next door at Nokia Theater, David Archuleta will beat David Cook in the American Idol Finale.

Third inevitable thing, the Downtown LA traffic nightmare to compare all subsequent traffic nightmares is happening right now with both those events happening at the same place at the same time combined with those events starting at the peak of evening rush hour.

Great planning folks!

UPDATE: D'oh!

I was only 1-2 on these predictions. LA Lakers won, even after trailing 65-45 with 5:39 left in the 3rd quarter. They outscored San Antonio 44-20 in the final 17:39 of the game. Kobe had 4 points before that point, finished the game with 27. San Antonio wasted a great effort by Tim Duncan who had 30 points and 18 boards.

Your newest American Idol is David Cook, didn't see that one coming, figured the little singing monchhichi (soooo soft and cud di leeee) would win it for sure.

And as far as the traffic, wasn't that bad, guess anyone going to the events took the day off, and everyone else knew to avoid the area. Sort of like the gridlock fears during the 84 Olympics that never materialized. Businesses had flexible schedules, and trucks were banned during rush hour, instead of a nightmare, it was the easiest commutes of the last 30 years.

Glad I was right about the Lakers, don't care that I was wrong about the rest.

NBA Basketball is FAAAAAAANTASTIC!

Game three of the finals was brutal. They just missed besting (worsting?) the Finals record for crappy scoring. If a 75-72 game could be even less exciting than it sounds, this one was it.

Yes, San Antonio played great defense and Cleveland did a great job on the offensive boards, but this isn't fun to watch (unless you're a San Antonio fanatic already). This game was at 67-57 with about 6:18 left and San Antonio didn't score again until there was 1:32 left in the game. It got close, but Cleveland never seemed like they'd take over, or San Antonio would relinquish the lead. Whether or not the predicted sweep is fulfilled Thursday is irrelevant, this series won't be going back to San Antonio.

I agree with Bob Fitzgerald (hat tip TrueHoop), redo the conferences (into 3 two division conferences instead how it is now), play a more regionally compact schedule in the regular season, and seed the teams by record, not by conference (I'd add reseeding each round of the playoffs to his recommendations, but beyond that he's got some good suggestions, and I won't even point to a previous post where I suggested something similar a few weeks ago . . .)