NBA: THE FINAL (This article is available in English and Español)

This week the classical final of the NBA between Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics starts and it will do without a clear favourite, since both team have a strong squads and besides they arrives to the Final with some doubt in some players, whose good play is essential to their team.

On the one hand, the Massachusetts´s team arrives to this final, being the best team of the regular season, but with some doubts during the Playoff´period, since the team started very bad the first round against the Atlanta Hawks-Celtics needed to play 7 games to win the eliminatory – and it progressively played better against Cleveland Cavaliers-although it is also true that the Cavaliers did not play very well and it had a "King James"´s dependency again and of course Lebron is a super crack but he is not enough to win a Playoff´s round and he needs the support of other players (for example we did not have many news of Wally Szczerbiak in this series) - and specially against Detroit Pistons in the Conference´s Final , where we saw a good Boston Celtics-the truth is that I expected much more resistance from the competitive Pistons, but it did not play very well and now we can see the consequences, the coach, Flip Saunders was sacked-. Possibly the reason for the good level of the Celtics in the Conference´s final was the good job of the "Big Three" (Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce). It was the first series where we saw a good play of these 3 players, since in the series against Atlanta and specially against Cleveland Ray Allen played very bad with horrible numbers (9.3 points on average and he finished a game with 0 points –his first time in his last 830 Nba´s games-). But he improved and we returned to see the best Allen in some games against the Pistons, so we saw an incredible shooter, who assumes the responsibility in the important moments of the game. It is essential the good numbers of these 3 stars for the Celtics, because we believe that the other components of the squad are not too reliable, because on the one hand the coach Doc Rivers has a problem with the guards because Rajon Rondo is too erratic and his game is too crazy and unexpected and the other guards of the team, the veteran Sam Cassell-who has seen him and who sees him (he won 2 titles in his first 2 seasons as a Nba´s professional with Houston Rockets in 1994 and 1995) - (13 minutes and 4.7 points per game in this playoff) and Eddie House (5 minutes and 1.2 points on average per game in this playoff) have a very secondary role and their contribution is minimal in attack. Besides we can not expect many things of the rest of the team, because if we except the young Kendrick Perkins, who is improving his number during the playoff´s period (7.2 points and 6.8 rebounds per game during the playoff, which is quite good), the veteran PJ Brown- he has a good shot from 3-4 meters and he has an important intimidation´s role in the paint- and the correct James Posey, the rest (Leon Powe, Glen Davis, Tony Allen, Scalabrine, Gabe Pruitt, Scot Pollard) simply carry out the Glen "Doc" Rivers´s orders, but we can not expect great things from them. So if the Celtics wants to have any option to win the championship is essential that Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett continue with his good numbers (both are scoring 20 points per game) and that Ray Allen go up his numbers in order to score around 20 points per game, because if we do not see it, it will be very complicated that Boston win the title, even the incredible atmosphere of the TD Banknorth Garden of Boston.

About Los Angeles Lakers, we must say that it is a nice surprise to see this team in the NBA´s Final, since this team showed many doubts at the beginning of the season-even Kobe Bryant wanted to go to another team-and it also had the injury´s problem of the center Andrew Bynum. But Pau Gasol arrived to California and everything changed and Lakers became a winning team-indeed with Gasol, Lakers has an excellent record of 34-8 -and it became a strong candidate to win the championship. Like Boston Celtics, Lakers needs the good play of his particular "Big Three" (Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol), since most of the other team's players were too erratic and they virtually unable to compensate the absence of any member of the Big Three. If we study the numbers of the “Big Three”, we see that these 3 players are essential, since on the one hand Kobe Bryant-MVP of this season-is playing excellent during the playoff´s period and he is getting better numbers in this playoff than in Regular season(5,8 assists, 6,1 rebounds and 31 points per game with a percentage of 50% - sensational number specially if we see the rivals, the strong Utah Jazz and San Antonio Spurs-), on the other hand the secure Lamar Odom-15 points and 10 rebounds per game- and Pau Gasol-18 points with a percentage higher than 50%,9 rebounds and 4 assists per game in this playoff (anyway, although the Gasol´s numbers are good, it seems that the Spanish arrived tired to the last games against San Antonio Spurs and he did not play very well and besides he should change his attitude with the referee, because he protests too much. We will see if Gasol arrives to Final correctly and rested cause the team needs the best Gasol to win the title). In other words, these 3 players contribute 64 points per game (so, this “Big Three” has more importance than the Celtic´s"Big Three -57 points per game-), so it is crucial for Lakers the good game of this trio, because as we said previously the other players are unable to replace since on the one hand the guard Derek Fisher is a veteran player and he can not play too many minutes during a game, although of course when he is not tired, he is a very good player with a sensational 3 point´s shoot, the other team´s guard Jordan Farmar is very erratic and he is unreliable and besides he is playing with a worse level during the playoff´s period, so do not believe that Phil Jackson rely too much on him. Virtually we can say the same of both the Serbian Vlade Radmanovic and the Slovenian Sasha Vujacic -yes, both have good shoot but they have to win in strength and offensive regularity (Vujacic will have an important defensive role, he made an excellent job against Manu Ginóbili and now possibly it will defend Ray Allen) – and we can say the same of Luke Walton or the center Ronny Turiaf and the powerful Didier Ilunga-Mbenga-it will be ok if the games have more or less equality when these players return to the bench, although they sometimes surprise us and they bring many things as in some games against San Antonio Spurs, when these players changed completely the game,

So, we will see a final with too much equality and of course it will essential to have options to win to defend very hard and well the rival “Big Three”.

Cheers,

J&F