Well that game was a little anti-climatic. I was expecting Kobe to hurl up a 3-pointer that would rattle around the rim and eventually fall as the buzzer sounded. DJ Mbenga and Sun Yue would embrace on the bench-- maybe even share a kiss-- and Farmar and Shannon Brown would jump around like little girls, high fiving, as if they were friends and not competitors. That would've been cool, but this will do.

The Lakers are off to something like their 30th championship series in the 62 years of NBA existence--pretty wild, right? While I really really want to jump on the bandwagon, like ESPN and TNT, and just hand the trophy to Kobe, I, unsurprisingly, am a little incredulous (mark that as the sentence with the most commas in the history of grammar). It's not so much the two losses in the regular season that scare me--Jameer Nelson was the leading scorer in both of those games averaging 27.5 ppg--, nor is it the fact that our big men are far too soft to guard Superman. It's the vibe I get watching this Magic team. They have that "team of destiny" feel to them. Their game revolves around the 3-pointer yet they rarely go cold, and someone always steps up and makes them when they count. The bottom line is that this team just finds ways to win. A lot of this is a testament to Stan Van Gundy. The dude has gotten so much crap this year, yet now as his team heads to the finals no one gives him any credit. Let's not forget that in the course of the year he had to manage THREE big-time scorers, his starting point guard got injured for the year, and the Diesel called out his credentials. Fat Stan took the flack, didn't make a fuss, and continued coaching--and coaching well. The more I hear him talk in press conferences and in the huddle, the more I'm impressed with him.

Don't trivialize the fact that the Magic beat last year's champs and the team with the best regular season record to get to where they are--this is an unorthodox, but well-coached Magic team. I'm thinking this series will go 6 or 7.

Now for the Blue Crew. With about 30 games left until Manbone returns, it's time to start thinking about how Torre will adjust the line-up when he comes back. Entering play on Sunday, Juan-for-5 (name credit goes to Sean F.) is putting up ridiculous numbers (.394 Avg., .467 OBP, and leading the league in runs, steals, and hits since taking over for Manny 21 games ago). Joe Torre is calling him the "feel good story of the year" now, but in 29 games Pierre's presence is gonna give Torre all sorts of headaches. Assuming Juan's still productive and hot-hitting on July 2nd, you can't take him out of the line-up. If Manny came back today, my vote would go to giving Ethier the boot, and moving Pierre back to center, and Kemp to right. Ethier's been struggling and I wouldn't be too concerned about a defensive let-down. The other option is a trade. We have a big enough lead on the rest of the division that it might be a smart idea to deal Pierre while his value is high and play out the rest of Manny's suspension with a make-shift outfield. I'm sure we could wrangle some much needed help in the bullpen and a back-end starter for Juanito.

Not sunburnt anymore,

DB