2012-13 NBA preview

 Lakers House, Staples Center from NBA 2K13

So tonight we kick of the 2012-13 NBA season with a couple of pretty interesting games on TNT. First the Celtics travel to South Beach to take on the defending champions, Miami Heat followed by the Dallas Mavericks being hosted by my Los Angeles Lakers. I’ll be looking into the favorites for this season, surprises and other things to expect during the basketball year.

This is one of those seasons where I don’t expect many contenders for the title. There are maybe 3 teams who I give a legit shot at the O’Brien trophy. Miami, LA, OKC are top contenders (according to my sports book the Heat are the favs at only +120, while LA and the Thunder are at +200); two other teams that could be interesting to watch are the Celtics and the Spurs. Beyond that I can’t see anyone even coming close to these 3 big ones.

My main focus will be those 3 teams starting with the defending champs. It’s no secret I hate the Heat with passion but there is no denying they are a great team, not for nothing the won it all last year. The core of the team, LeBron, Wade and Bosh, remains intact and they’ve added some interesting pieces, mainly Rashad Lewis and Ray Allen. While these 2 won’t put up All Star numbers they will be of great help off the bench, one of their few weaknesses last season, and will help keep the Big 3 rested and in top form for when they are required to perform. LeBron is the greatest physical specimen in the league, I still doubt his mental toughness but last year he proved he has enough of what it takes to be a champion.

The Oklahoma Thunder had a coming out party in the playoff series vs the Spurs last year; they are true contenders and will be great this year. The topic of recent conversation regarding them was the departure of James Harden, the thing was Harden (who has the greatest NBA beard ever) wanted more money in a shorter period of time and the Thunder would not give it to him, so they set up a deal this past weekend with the Houston Rockets that sent Harden, Cole Aldrich, Daequan Cook and Lazar Hayward to H-Town for Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb, two 1^st round draft picks and a 2^nd rounder. All in all it was a good deal for both sides; the Thunder didn’t really lose THAT much, got a solid player in K-Mart and a gamble on Lamb, plus the draft picks; also Harden got his extension with a 6 million upgrade as to what OKC offered him. This being said I don’t think this changes the Thunder’s chances at a title, neither does Vegas; Westbrook and Durant are spectacular, Ibaka is a monster on D and they will be in serious contention for the title but will wind up coming up a bit shot.

Now on to the Lakers. Did any team have a better offseason? Ever? They only lost often injured and yet to fulfill his potential Andrew Bynum in the deal that got them Dwight Howard. Any smart NBA follower will tell you this is a steal, and it is! While Howard is a diva, you know you’ll get 15-15 night in and night out and a huge post presence that few teams have. Then you get Steve Nash who is not nearly what he was 5 years ago but will be a huge upgrade to any PG the Lakers have had in recent memory, he will be great for the pick and roll and will create a ton of shots for Kobe. The impact of Nash is beyond description, the amount of energy Kobe expends to fight for a shot is astonishing and Steve will be of huge help with this. So all in all you get a hall of famer PG, a future HOFer Center in addition to Kobe, Gasol and Metta World Peace, can’t get much better in a 5 month span. Will the Lakers win it all? Will everything work to perfection in year one? Not sure on both questions, we could have a case of what happened to Miami in year one of the Big 3. Still LA should win the West with ease.

As I said before, these are the only 3 teams I give a chance to win the title. That is not to say that there won’t be other fun teams & surprises. For one, the Portland Trailblazers will be a really entertaining team night in and night out; they won’t win more than 40 games but all 82 will be real enjoyable. Denver is another one of those fast paced, don’t care about defense teams who always provides some fun TV time. Chicago will be fun to watch, and depending if D-Rose returns could be a contender for the title; I see an interesting scenario where the Bulls are 6 or 7^th in the East and Rose comes back around March and they make a serious run at the Heat. Also the Houston Rockets will be pretty solid.

Who will take the main individual awards this year?

• MVP: Kevin Durant; barring a long setback due to injury he will be a monster in 12-13


• Scoring champ: KD will take this one for the 3^rd straight year


• Defensive player of the year: Dwight Howard, closely challenged by Serge Ibaka


• Rookie of the year: Anthony Davis of the New Orleans Hornets

As you can see the main awards will be distributed between Lakers and Thunder, thus my prediction of them having great years.

Now the million dollar question, who will reach the NBA Finals and win it all? I’m going with pretty much everyone else’s prediction: Los Angeles Lakers vs Miami Heat. The winner? Logic says it will be the Heat but I’m going with my Lakers –actually saw a NBA 2K13 simulation of the whole season and it predicted the same outcome with LA winning the Finals in 7 games (for the article click here)

Who is your team? Who do you expect to win it all?

Mr Khakbaz out!

Go Lakers!

NBA Conference Semifinals

>Well we're off with a bang in the first round of the NBA Playoffs. To say that we have had some incredible games is an understatement. Basically every series was competitive to some degree and without a doubt we've gotten some see-to-believe finishes.
16 teams started, we had some favorites get the early boot (Spurs I'm looking at you!), some teams no one gave 2 cents about moving on (Grizzlies), and some teams who may not have made it still fought to the end and provided us with some fun games (Pacers, Hornets). Well, with no further ado, let's go straight into the 2nd round preview.

Eastern Conference
#3 Boston Celtics vs #2 Miami Heat

This series is one that everyone wanted to see. I, for one, had picked the Heat to win their 1st round matchup with the 76ers in 5 games, which they did in that exact number of games and in convincing fashion. On the other hand we get the Celtics who I expected to lose against the Knicks in 6 games, and boy was i wrong and badly wrong, they just ran over the Knicks who made it interesting in the first two games but after that it was all Celts who swept to advance into the second round.
Without a doubt these are the two teams people are most interested in from the Eastern Conference -the Bulls are the 3rd one, and my pick to advance to the NBA Finals but that is for another time- and wanted to get this matchup. Boston brings to the table their 3-headed monster: Ray Allen -the best pure shooter in the history of the game, still is at the age of 35-, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, while Miami has it's on trio in the form of Chris Bosh, LeBron James and Dwayne Wade. Man to man I think the Heat's Big 3 are a bit better than those of Boston but in the playoffs I still side with experience and true team playing.
Role player-wise both teams have some interesting players. Rondo had a huge triple-double vs NY but has a tendency to disappear in big games and is always a question mark in my book. You've also got players like Delonte West (Lebron James' mom favorite player), Jeff Green and Big Baby. Anything Boston can do will hugely depend on what role players can do, every series you have these guys winning one or two games and that makes a difference.
Miami has some great players other than the Big 3: Big Z, James Jones, Mario Chalmers and Mike Bibby. I really expect Jones to be a huge factor in this series as Boston can be a little slow in transition defense and Jones will have some open looks from 3-point land.
I believe the Heat have the talent advantage while the Celtics have the experience edge. I really want LeBron to lose and take his talents on vacation, but I'm reluctantly going to pick the Heat to win in 6 games.
Pick: Miami Heat in 6 games.

#5 Atlanta Hawks vs #1 Chicago Bulls

In my last blog I predicted the Hawks to beat Orlando in 6 games which I got right. Also picked the Bulls to dispose in 5 games of the Pacers that was also right. I wrote that the winner of the Hawks-Magic series would not make it passed this second round against the Bulls and I'm keeping that prediction.
While the Bulls were pushed to the limit in the first 3 games by Indiana, and to be realistic they played pretty bad in the 1st 2 and still won; that is a testament of a great time, to be able to somehow win a game you did not deserve to win.

I'm not going into deep detail for this series as I expect the Bulls to take it pretty easily led by soon-to-be League MVP Derrick Rose, Luol Deng and Joakim Noah. This trio somewhat reminds me of the 90's Bulls that had Jordan (Rose plays his role, NOT SAYING ROSE IS AS GOOD AS JORDAN, but he plays his role), Deng is the Pippen of this team and Noah is like Rodman who was all over the place, fought every ball to the death, didn't have the best technique but his heart is bigger that anyone on the floor.
Pick: Chicago Bulls win this series in 5 games.

Western Conference
#8 Memphis Grizzlies vs #4 Oklahoma City Thunder

This is a series never in my wildest dreams expected to happen. Memphis had a date with the #1 seed San Antonio Spurs in the first round which I expected the Spurs to take easily but what happened on the court was a totally different story. The Spurs were outplayed, out matched, out hustled by the Grizzlies, who showed a ton of heart after that brutal loss in game 5 (the one with the Manu 3 (2) pointer, and the Gary Neal game tying 3 pointer as time expired to send it to overtime) to rebound and take it in game 6 in dominant fashion. The Thunder kicked the Nuggets out of contention in 5 games of what was a pretty fun series and gave us some entertaining games but in the end was dominated all the way by OKC.
For the second series in a row, Memphis will be the huge underdogs but without a doubt will go down fighting. I expect this to be a lot closer than what many people think, with the Zach "Blue Collar" Randolph led Grizzlies pushing Durant, Ibaka and Russell Westbrook to the limit.
Every game the Grizzlies win extends what has already been an improbable playoff run. Randolph has been superb and will need to continue to give Memphis a chance, he may have his way inside due to the lack of inside size for the Thunder. With all that being said, I think OKC has too much young talent, a great coach and lots of poise to make-up for the lack of experience.
Pick: Oklahoma Thunder in 7 games.

#3 Dallas Mavericks vs #2 Los Angeles Lakers

It is no secret that I'm a huge Laker fan so you can predict who I want to win , but I'll try to be as objective as possible. Mavs won a hard fought 6 game series with the Blazers (I had it in 7 games), while the Lakers were given there moneys worth by the Hornets with also a 4-2 series win.
As always Dallas is a contender in the West but they are, as always, lacking the IT factor. The don't have that inside dominant position; Kidd (at 38) and Nowitzki are amazing talents but a two man team will come up short at some point, or for the last 5-7 years.
The Lakers will have a huge size advantage with Bynum and Gasol on the inside. My question is, will we get the Gasol from game 1 against NO or the on from the final games in the regular series? That will be a deciding factor on who this series goes. You know Kobe will do his part, Fisher and Blake will do their thing, Odom will get it done, but Bynum and Gasol could make this a 4 game sweep or push the series deep.
Lakers weren't impressive in the 1st round against New Orleans but I believe they will be much more dominant against Dallas as they match up so much better against them. CP3 gave the Lakers fits as they don't have anyone fast enough to defend him but the Mavs don't have a threat like that. Without a doubt LA must win game 1 to take control of the series and not be forced to win game 2. That being said...
My pick: Lakers in 5 games.

After a spectacular first round in the NBA Playoffs I hope we get more of the same great ball...

Who you got? Who's your favorite

Mr Khakbaz out!!!

NBA Playoffs Western Conference

The NBA season is finally over and it's time for the playoffs. For any NBA fan this is the best time of the year as we are down to the best teams of the year get to show their skills against the other best teams in games that actually mean something. I'll take a look at each Western Conference playoff series, the teams, players, injuries and what I expect the outcome to be. (to check out my my Eastern Conference blog click here)

#1 San Antonio Spurs vs #8 Memphis Grizzlies 

In my opinion the Spurs have been, by far, the best team in the NBA this season; that being said they aren't the favorite to move on to the NBA Finals, mostly because the have to go through the Lakers to get there and they aren't 100% healthy. Still I see them as favorite to take this series against the Grizzlies who have been a nice surprise this season; heck they are the 8th seed and are 10 games over .500 so they aren't a bad team yet they don't have that one great player that can take over a game. I expect the Spurs to take it in 5. And really hope they move on deep into the playoffs, more into that in a bit.

#2 Los Angeles Lakers vs. Now Orleans Hornets

If you have read other blog entries you know I'm a Lakers fan so there is not much secret who my favorite will be in this series. Right about now I'm pretty scared as to how far the Lakers can go in the playoffs, it all depends on Andrew Bynum's knee; when the Lakeshow had their amazing run after the All-Star break Bynum was playing to his full potential and better than at any point in his young -albeit injury-filled- career and the Lakers were leaps and bound ahead of everyone else. While LA's doctors said Drew's injury was only a bone bruise I'm not sure about that as he has had a history of right knee issues;that being said, if Bynum can be effective the Lakers are the top title contenders. New Orleans is a solid, discrete team lead by Chris Paul and David West, their problem this series is their lack size to take on the Lakers, who even without Andrew are far bigger than the Hornets.
I really want the Spurs and Lakers to go deep into the playoffs for 2 reasons: first, this could be one of those epic historic series that people will talk about for years to come; and second, I would have the chance to go up to SA and watch a couple of games live. I'm not a fan of the LA crowd as it's mostly composed of Hollywood starts who are there more to get on camera than because they care about the team, on the other hand the San Antonio crowd is amazing, every game they play seems like a playoff game (you can check out my to blog on the Miami Heat - San Antonio game or the Los Angeles Lakers - San Antonio Spurs where I get more into depth on that topic.)
I'm taking the Lakers in a 4 game sweep.

#3 Dallas Mavericks vs #6 Portland Trailblazers

This is a pretty interesting series, I enjoy watching both teams as they play some pretty exciting ball. The Mavs are led by Dirk Nowitzki while the Blazers rely on a team of young players led by LaMarcus Aldrige along with Brandon Roy who was a superstar in the making that could never live up to full potential due to bad knees. While both teams are entertaining I don't see them making it deep into the playoffs due to a lack of depth. This series is kind of a toss-up since they are pretty evenly matched up and both teams play really good at home, therefore I expect the Mavs to take this in 7.

#4 Oklahoma City Thunder vs #5 Denver Nuggets 

This is, by far, my favorite matchup of the 1st Round in the West. While I root for the Lakers the Thunder are a favorite of mine to watch, they are a young team that has grown a lot the last couple of years and still have a ton of potential to grow more; you've got Kevin Durant, who doesn't get enough praise and publicity for the great player he is, along with Serge Ibaka, Russell Westbrook, Kendrik Perkins, Thabo Sefolosha and a bunch of great young talent, they are a great team that will only get better. On the other hand we have the Denver Nuggets who have been, in my opinion, a big surprise after the Carmelo trade; I know they got some great players in return but I did not expect them to fit in George Karl's system so fast. Both teams are quick, score a lot, shoot well, have an average defense and have great crowds that always make the games that much hotter. This series is really hard to pick but I'm taking the Thunder in 6, this pick is based on my desire for OKC to advance and nothing more.

Who are your favorite teams to win it all in 2011???

For now...

Mr Khakbaz out!!!