Round 2: Who's left standing?

EASTERN CONFERENCE

(2) Boston Celtics vs (3) Orlando Magic
Series tied 2-2

When I look at the current roster breakdowns I really can't say that an already thin Boston squad, less Kevin Garnett and Leon Powe should have any chance. However, I don't know that Orlando has a fully healthy squad either, as both Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis were battling injury prior to entering the post-season. Given how rought the first round with the 76ers was, I highly doubt that either one is back 100%, and so, we have a series. It's not like both teams held home court either, they both split their homecourt showings so far in the series. However beat the Magic may feel though, the Celtics must feel even more so, as their stars are older and they had to go through a grueling 7 game series with Chicago in the first round, including a total of 7 overtimes played in addition to the 336 minutes of regulation gameplay.

Without Garnett, the Garden is no longer an impregnable fortress, the Celtics are but a shadow of themselves last season, their roster coming in from last season has gone from stellar to above-average to now sitting somewhere at slightly above-average. I personally don't think their chances really lie with Ray Allen finding his stroke, with Paul Pierce attacking the basket and getting to the line more, but really with how well Rajon Rondo plays, without Garnett, Rondo becomes all that much more important to making the Celtics run, losing the defensive presence of Garnett means that Rondo has to step it up on the offensive end, making up for those lost stops, because realistically, no combination of Mikki Moore, Glen Davis, and Brian Scalabrine can make up for that, tack onto that the loss on the offensive end and the loss of Leon Powe, and you need someone to step up. Maybe Eddie House does it every third game, maybe Ray Allen gets hot, but consistently you need someone to replace one of the legs of the tripod that is the Big 3, Rondo's the closest to that right now, hopefully the fit doesn't make the Celtics too wobbly.

I'd like to give the series straight away to Orlando, but for some reason, the Magic always have me kind of second-guessing myself whenever I want to pick them, or maybe I just second-guess myself a lot in general. Kelly Dwyer mentions how Hedo Turkoglu is playing significantly worse than he did in the regular season, and that is a cause for concern. Magic fans may be out to lynch me for this, but I honestly don't see Hedo as a long-term solution to the Magic franchise, and therefore, is expendable (via sign-and-trade maybe). However, that's just me speculating. Fortunately, Rashard Lewis is picking up the slack somewhat, averaging an additional 2.4 points, 0.7 rebounds, and 0.6 assists in an additional 2+ minutes of play. Additionally, rookie Courtney Lee has definitely looked to be a solid contributor. Something about the Magic not being able to close out games has definitely worried me some when it comes to this squad, however, I'm still confident that Dwight Howard's dominance will carry through. In light of Kendrick Perkins' injury, the Magic have the obvious advantage, in that, even if Perkins plays, he won't be 100% and therefore, no one can really contain Dwight. Hopefully Stan Van Gundy will use this to his advantage.

While I second-guess myself, I'm still going to go with my pick: Orlando in 6.

WESTERN CONFERENCE

(1) Los Angeles Lakers vs (5) Houston Rockets
Series Tied 2-2

Everyone thought the series was over when Yao Ming broke his foot. Lakers would take Game 4, thereby sweeping Rockets at the Toyota Center, and then handily exit the Rockets out of their first taste of the second round in a long, long time. That was what was supposed to happen. Obviously by the way I'm writing, it didn't. You've all heard about how Lakers just didn't show up in Game 4 and therefore the Rockets (namely Aaron Brooks) walked all over them. 34 points for Brooks, 23 for Battier, Lakers were just getting out-hustled out there. I mean, this is the Rockets surviving a 4-19 shooting night from Ron Artest.

Moving forward from there, I'm sure the Lakers have woken up, though they tend to take like every other game off in the playoffs, I fully expect them to handily wipe the floor with the Rockets in Game 5, which should make Game 6 interesting, because, do the Lakers get complacent again or do they keep playing with intensity? Talent has never really been a question for the Lakers, but desire has always been. Now we tack on to that the issues with Andrew Bynum's knee and Lamar Odom's back, the once invincible Lakers are starting to show more than just some minor kinks in their armor, everyone's starting to think, maybe the Lakers aren't quite as invincible as everyone thought in the regular season. Unfortunately for the Lakers, the Rockets are a team that matches up fairly well against them, in that they have multiple defensive options (Shane Battier and Ron Artest) to throw at Kobe, and their no-fouling defensive rotations don't allow the Lakers to punish them by getting to the free throw line.

Rockets are now down their two top go-to options in Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming. They have an ever decreasing margin of error because they no longer have score-at-will players on the floor. However, given how team-oriented the Rockets' offense runs, it doesn't seem to bother them too much, however, I would be a little worried as a Rockets fan because you can't really bank on 34 and 23 point performances from Aaron Brooks and Shane Battier consistently. However, if the right people get hot at the right time, there's still a shot. Ron Artest has obviously been playing sub-par, but a good game from him at the right time, could be all the difference. One thing with losing Yao is that Lakers lose the running advantage they once had, however they gain a tremendous size advantage as Adelman has decided to start Carl Landry next to Luis Scola, and now the Rockets have no player over 6-9 (except maybe Chuck Hayes) in their rotation. However, the Rockets need to look to exploit the PG matchups as much as possible as Brooks and Lowry both run circles around Fisher.

The logical side of me says Lakers in 6, but I'm feeling gutsy today, Rockets in 7.

(2) Denver Nuggets vs (6) Dallas Mavericks
Nuggets lead series 3-1

I was really expecting this to be over yesterday, but I also am not tremendously surprised by the fact that this went to a 5th game. I don't really feel like talking about the whole Kenyon Martin and Mark Cuban thing as there's already a lot out there about it. To put it succinctly, Denver is the better team, but Dallas just willed themselves out of a sweep. I'm actually fairly surprised by how well Denver has been playing and in light of that, with game 5 going back to the Mile High City, Dallas doesn't really stand a chance. I don't have anything more to say about this. Denver in 5.