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The NBA postseason has arrived, the byproduct of a grueling 82 game regular season whose sole purpose is to establish seeding in the race to the Larry O'Brien trophy. That positioning is important because it gives the higher seeded teams the privilege of starting their second season from the comforts of their home courts, but in some cases that is not always an advantage. The more dominant teams will usually materialize in ...

When the Los Angeles Lakers meet the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round of the 2010 NBA Playoffs, two of the league's brightest stars will claim center stage in what will surely be one of the most watched series' in the opening round. Kobe Bryant has established himself as one of the greatest players to ever grace the NBA hardwood, and his career has been validated by four NBA championships and numerous other accolades. Bryant stands ...

Reaching the postseason was an extraordinary feat for the Chicago Bulls; expecting them to compete with the Cleveland Cavaliers once the games begin is entirely something else. If the NBA switched their format to seed all of the league's playoff teams No. 1 through No. 16, the Bulls would be No. 16 and the Cavaliers would remain No. 1, and the disparity in talent is comparable to that level. Few observers are ...

The Cleveland Cavaliers will finish this NBA regular season in the same manner as 2009, but I'm sure the Cleveland faithful are expecting a different postseason ending than the one they experienced last year. The Cavaliers' conquest in the 2009 Eastern Conference Finals was a forgettable ending to what was one of the better regular seasons in Cavaliers' history, and that defeat helped set the stage for this year. Cleveland learned their ...

The Los Angeles Lakers are preparing to embark on a journey in hopes of defending their NBA championship of 2009, but they enter the postseason under different circumstances from last year. The Lakers still finished as the best regular season team in the Western Conference for the third straight year, but many observers feel Los Angeles is nowhere near their previous championship level of play. The Lakers have battled injuries, inconsistency, poor ...

Sometimes it's hard for me to view the Los Angeles Lakers with an objective eye because my internal loyalties will always lie with the purple and gold. But based on this season, my subjectivity has been lost in a sea of reality. Try as I may, there is no way to reconcile the obvious flaws which are inherent with this year's version of the Lakers, and the prospects of Los Angeles ...

There is a lot of speculation concerning the future of Golden State Warriors guard Monta Ellis, and most observers feel that once the 2010-2011 NBA season starts, Ellis will have found a home on another team's roster. There is no guarantee the Warriors will move Ellis, but if the opportunity does present itself, which direction should Golden State take: Look to rebuild their team with veteran help or through the draft? If the Warriors ...

The fact that the Los Angeles Lakers lost a home game to the Portland Trail Blazers minus the second half services of Brandon Roy is bad enough, but the manner in which they ended the game has to be concerning for Laker fans. Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher, the two most decorated members of the Lakers' roster, missed three out of four free throws in the final seconds, and with the ...

The Charlotte Bobcats ushered in a new chapter in their history by clinching their first playoff berth, but will the young team be content to rest on the laurels of their achievement, or will they strive for greater things? Conventional wisdom says the Bobcats will likely be satisfied with making the postseason and succumbing in the first round, but coach Larry Brown brings a different element to the equation. Brown has been ...

At some point during the NBA playoffs it's going to become clearly evident that your favorite team is not going to win the championship, unless that team happens to be the Los Angeles Lakers, Cleveland Cavaliers, or Orlando Magic. The NBA postseason is based on the premise that anything can happen, and every team has an equal opportunity to succeed in the course of a seven game series, but recent history ...