What the NBA Playoffs Will Bring Us For the Next Two Months

After one week, the NBA Playoffs are in full-swing, so naturally, the fan base of the league just increased about 200 percent.

The regular season is just too long, and considering that we have only eliminated 16 teams and still have over two months of basketball left, the fans just tuning in didn’t miss much.

For those of you that are indeed just starting to pay attention, there isn’t much you missed.

LeBron and Kobe are really good, the Lakers and Cavaliers look to be the favorites, and the Western Conference is ridiculously good.

Perhaps the biggest change from last year is the shift of power between the Lakers and Cavaliers. Last season, all of the pressure was on Kobe and his posse to get it done; however, after the Lakers looked shaky down the stretch, everyone has collectively turned to LeBron and put the pressure on him.

Now in his seventh season, 'King' James will need nothing less than an NBA Championship to keep par with Michael Jordan, who won his first title in his seventh year as well. If LeBron is unable to capitalize this year with a supporting cast considered more than sufficient, he will get considerable heat about him not performing in the playoffs.

On the other side of the NBA, the Lakers are still not a team to be taken lightly. Though they stumbled down the stretch, Los Angeles held a vice-grip on the Western Conference the entire season, and now with Andrew Bynum back (getting him back from injury right before the playoffs seems like an annual occurrence), it seems to be the best team on paper. 

Add that to the best closer in Kobe and the best coach with Phil Jackson, and you have a team not likely to slip up.

With the Lakers and Cavs getting so much hype, people seem to be forgetting about the reigning Eastern Conference champions, the Orlando Magic.

The Magic might have started the season a little slow, but they kicked into high gear when it mattered the most. Orlando is 23-5 since the All-Star break and looks just as formidable as last season.

If it gets to the Cavs and Magic in the Eastern Conference Finals, fans will be in for a treat. After Dwight Howard dominated in the paint last season to help Orlando get its first birth into the NBA Finals, the Cavs upgraded down-low by trading for Shaquille O’Neal.

As if it weren’t enough that Shaq and Howard are two of the biggest guys in the NBA, the battle between the two might be more heated than usual because of some intense dialogue about who the 'real Superman' is that occurred during the season.

Aside from those three teams, the remainder of contenders lie in the jumble of Western Conference teams that are in seeds two through seven.

To say that the seven seed has just as much of a chance to win the conference as the two or three is usually ridiculous, but this year is the exception. All eight teams from the West have won 50 games and they all have been pretty evenly matched.

Denver spent much of the season as the two seed, but ever since its coach, George Karl was diagnosed with cancer, the Nuggets have had trouble playing to their potential.

Meanwhile, the Dallas Mavericks and Utah Jazz are both playing well because of the depth both possess.

The Mavs are probably the favorite to meet LA in the conference finals because of the additions of Caron Butler and Brendan Haywood at the trade deadline. However, they are in a vicious battle with San Antonio right now that could honestly go either way.

Finally, let’s not forget Phoenix, who is the three seed. The Suns have gone through quite the transformation this season. To think that less than two months ago people were criticizing them for not trading Amare Stoudemire and prepare for the future is astounding now.

While it is true that there is more depth in the Western Conference than the East, there are really only three teams that are in true title contention.

The Lakers, Cavaliers, and Magic all possess the tools to beat anyone and the playoff experience to make sure they don’t make careless mistakes in the heat of the moment.

There is no doubt that NBA Commissioner David Stern would love to see a Kobe versus LeBron finals, and in a month and a half, he just might have it.