| Lakers vs Jazz Series Preview |
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| Written by Ryan.W | |
| Saturday, 03 May 2008 | |
 First off lets take a second to acknowledge Kobe Bryant for finally winning the NBA’s MVP award, if Kobe hadn’t won the award this season or any season after for that matter he would have gone down in NBA history as the best player never to win the award, but finally the NBA felt it was time to give him the award instead of players like Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki who continue to be terrible playoff performers and underachievers. Much props to this season’s Most Valuable Player, Kobe Bryant!
With that aside, get ready for a more competitive and entertaining series match up with the Utah Jazz taking on the Los Angeles Lakers. One thing is for sure, the Lakers will have their work cut out for them this time around. I can guarantee that Carlos Boozer, Deron Williams and the Jazz will not just lie down and “quit” as Carmelo Anthony said, no….no, the Lakers will have to put in work if they want to advance.The most intriguing head to head match up in this series will be Pau Gasol battling Carlos Boozer in the paint. Boozer is one of the few players in the NBA without many flaws, not as good as a Tim Duncan, but he is just getting into his prime as an automatic double-double and a consistent offensive threat every single time he touches the basketball. Pau Gasol on the other hand has very similar skills to Boozer as they are both very good rebounders and both have the ability to score at will inside the paint with sweet post moves and an automatic jumper from 10 to 15 feet, not to mention great court vision. The biggest advantage that Utah has over the Lakers in this series will be point guard Deron Williams, Derek Fisher is a great floor general and has more playoff experience than the youngster, but Williams has Chris Paul like skills and causes problems for any opponents. This kid has only been in the NBA for 3 years now, but you would swear he was a veteran. Williams is the perfect point guard with seemingly unlimited skills, he can score from both inside the paint and behind the arc, he can dish the basketball as good as anyone in the league and has become a true leader taking and making big shots when needed. So the Jazz has the edge in the point guard position, but the Lakers will always have the advantage when MVP Kobe Bryant is on the floor and playing the way he has this season getting his teammates involved and scoring when his team needs it. Deron Williams may cause some miss matches for the Lakers, but the Jazz have no one that can come close to containing number 24. I would expect Kobe to average about 35 to 40 points a game in this series or he might become a distributor as the Jazz will be throwing everything at him but the kitchen sink so there will be a lot of open shooters on the perimeter and with the way that Jordan Farmar, Sasha Vujacic and Vladimir Radmanovic have been hitting their shots, the Jazz will be in trouble. There are two players in this series that will need to play well to get their team to the next round, Andrei Kirilenko for the Jazz and Lamar Odom for the Lakers. Kirilenko has always been a headache for the Lakers and who can hurt you in a number of different ways. With all the attention Boozer and Williams will be getting Kirilenko will be able to roam free on the perimeter and in the paint. Same goes for LO, the Jazz will have trouble guarding the big guy as both AK and LO’s games are damn near identical and can cause match up problems every game in this series. I believe that the Lakers will win this series in 5 or 6 games, most likely 6 games since the Jazz are very tough at home, but the Lakers are playing very well with no real weaknesses and with Kobe Bryant winning the MVP award, he will be flying high with all the confidence in the world which is a scary thing, especially for the Jazz.         Set as favorite Bookmark Comments
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MVP and CHAMPION!
written by kobefan05 , May 04, 2008
Kobe Bryant will bring Lakers to win another championship this year Go MVP!!
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