NBA Regular Season Matters Again

If you are a hardcore NBA fan, times are good for you right now.

Kobe and LeBron are dominating.

There are three legitimately dominant teams, along with a Spurs team that makes up for its lack of talent with savvy and a strong discipline on defense and team ball.

Those are all nice. But the big picture involves them all and more. The regular season matters again.

Remember the days when the Shaq and Kobe-led Lakers would just mail it in during the season only to turn the switch when the playoffs came. Oh sure, it finally caught up with them when they met the Pistons in the Finals, but the team was so much more talented than everyone else and homecourt never really mattered.

Now there is competition amidst the dominance in the NBA.

Here is what's going to happen. The Lakers will win the west and win more than 60 games. The Celts and Cavs will fight for top spot in the East and it will be a big storyline for the second half of the season as a homecourt advantage could be the tipping point in a playoff matchup between them. Meanwhile, both the Cavs and Celts will win 60 games also.

Appreciate this for what it is. Three teams with 60 win seasons. This is the NBA, the game. Not the business.

This is the opposite of all those teams that tank their seasons for the top pick in the draft.

This is the Celtics and Lakers, a matchup tonight between two teams who will leave everything out there on the court tonight.

This isn't Kobe's Lakers vs. Shaq's Heat or Suns, where people watch just to see how they greet each other during tip-off.

This is 61 points by Kobe followed by the second highest-point triple double two nights later by LeBron.

This isn't the Jailblazers of old or the Jail Pacers of a few years ago, in which too many egos polluted a team and left a significant residual effect on the league.

No the league will never be perfect. There are still enough players that care only about making money and having a good time ('sup to ya Ricky Davis-I see ya).

But its been as pure as it has been in a long time. And it's spreading to even the most unlikely boundaries (I see ya Darius Miles).

The NBA-Now Being Amazing!