Cavaliers and Lakers: No Comparison

There's no comparison between the Lakers and the Cavs, but the Nuggets, Rockets, and Mavericks, well, that’s a different story.

During halftime of the Lakers first round opener with the Jazz, former Laker great, Magic Johnson, brought up the fact that his Lakers used to follow the results of the Celtics' playoff wins and try to match or better them.

So, if the Celtics blew out an opponent by 20 points, the Lakers would have to blow out their opponent by 20 points. If the Celtics swept a series, the Lakers had to sweep a series.

His point was that Lakers knew they would meet the Celtics in the NBA Finals, and they had to do whatever they could to make sure the Celtics didn’t have a clear psychological advantage over them.

But this is a different NBA.

The East and West don’t necessarily match up. In fact, over the past two years, the eighth seed in the West would have been as high as the fourth seed if they had played in the East.

So, there can be no comparison between the Cavaliers 102-84 beat down of the lowly Detroit Pistons and the Lakers 113-100 win over feisty Utah.

Even if the Cavaliers sweep their series with the Pistons but the Lakers fail to sweep the Jazz, any comparison would be meaningless.

If the Jazz had to play the Pistons, they would go through the Pistons like a Mack truck through a picket fence. The Jazz are much too physical for a team like Detroit.

The only advantage Cleveland might have over the Lakers with a sweep is a physical one. They would get a couple of days more rest.

With the Cavaliers’ two closest rivals, Boston and Orlando, losing their home openers by two points each, Cleveland may enjoy more than a couple of days rest over their Western Conference opponents.

However, it is possible to make comparisons with three of the Lakers’ Western conference rivals—the Denver Nuggets, the Houston Rockets, and the Dallas Mavericks.

All three won their first round openers. The Rockets and Mavericks won on the road. The Rockets blasted the Portland Trailblazers by 27 points, 108-81, in Portland’s Rose Garden, where the Lakers have lost eight in a row.

The Mavericks, one of the most improved teams over the last couple weeks of the season, won in San Antonio, 105-97. The second seed, Denver, which had not won a home playoff game since 2006, really put it to the Hornets, 113-84.

The Lakers have to be impressed by the size of the Nuggets’ victory over the Hornets, a team that would match up well against Utah. The Rockets victory may be even more impressive, since the Lakers have such a horrible time playing in the Rose Garden.

Should either of these teams wind up playing the Lakers, they would come into the series with a sizable psychological edge. That could possibly top the edge the Lakers would get from having home court advantage.

So, while many may compare the Lakers with the Cavaliers, the better comparison is with the Lakers’ opponents in the Western Conference.

If a team like Denver, Houston, or Dallas gets hot, knocking down three point shots and getting dribble penetration on that spotty Laker defense, the Cavaliers could have a different opponent in the NBA Finals than the one everybody has been predicting.

Carpe Diem