Kobe Bryant: Not Going to be Denied of Fourth Title

The Los Angeles just made their 29th finals appearance in franchise history, which is the most by far of any team in the league. Boston has 19 appearances, probably 20 in a few days.

They are not going to be stopped this year, no matter who they face in the Finals. There is one reason. They have the best player in the league by far—Kobe Bryant.

Kobe has been dying to win a championship ever since the Shaq trade was made so he can prove he can win it being the main guy on the team.

Right now, he is in too good of a rhythm and his teammates have too much chemistry and confidence. They dominated the mighty Western conference by losing only three games in the playoffs so far.

I also don't think he is going to come this far and lose in the Finals after the difficult journey it took him to get here.

The Lakers will have to win a road game to win the championship because both the Celtics and Pistons have home court advantage over them. So far in the playoffs, it has looked impossible to win on the road. However, the Lakers have been by far the best road playoff team this year.

They have a record of 4-3 on the road. They won the two games they played in Denver against the Nuggets. Then they won Game 6 Energy Solutions Arena in Utah, where it is very difficult to win a game.

Finally, they won the controversial Game 4 in San Antonio, pretty much ending the champs' season and bid for their first repeat and fifth title in ten years.

I think they will face the Celtics. I don't see them losing both Game 6 in Detroit and Game 7 at home, especially with Billups not 100 percent.

The matchup with Boston is pretty good for the Lakers. Fisher and Farmar will have the edge over Rando and Cassell, while Kobe will completely own Ray Allen.

The Lakers are going to defend Pierce with a combination of Radmanovic, Odom, Sasha and defensive specialist off the bench Ariza. Ariza could be the key to the series as he has the best chance to slow down Pierce. He is 6-8, long, athletic and quick. Odom and Gasol will guard KG with Turiaf also defending him off the bench.

Whoever KG is not guarding will have a complete mismatch. If Garnett is guarding Odom, Gasol will own Perkins inside and outside and if KG is guarding Pau, Odom will have a complete quickness edge on Perkins and should have a huge series driving past him and getting to the basket at will.

The Lakers bench is also much better than Boston's. Farmar, Sasha, Walton, Turiaf, and Ariza are all good bench players who provide a lot of energy for the Lakers.

The Celtics bench has been below average as they have Posey, Cassell, and P.J. Brown as their main bench players. Posey has been average, while Cassell has looked finished. Brown has been very solid off the bench, playing good defense and rebounding well.

Finally, the coaching matchup is not even close. Phil Jackson is the greatest coach of all time. Doc Rivers is a below average coach.

PJ has been here 10 times already, winning nine rings. On the other hand, this is the first time Rivers has had his team advance past the first round of the playoffs.

Phil will make better and quicker adjustments, while Rivers has shown he is weak at making a game plan against their opponent and then adjusting when needed to.

Overall, the Lakers have the edge in the point guard position, the shooting guard position by far, the center, the bench, and the coaching matchups.

The Celtics also can't guard both Odom and Gasol effectively and have no one close to good enough to contain Kobe. The Lakers are good enough to win in Boston. They will have to do that once to win the title because they are NOT going to lose in LA.

Finally, if it ends up going 6-7 games, who do you trust more as your leader to win it all for your team—Kobe or Garnett?

It's not even close. Kobe is not going to come this far and lose. He is way too good, determined, and hungry to wait another year to win his first title as the main leader of the team.

My prediction is that the Lakers are going to win in five, ending the Celtics in LA. They will win one of the first two games in Boston and then sweep the Celtics at home.