Kobe Bryant, Lakers Wait for Spurs-Hornets Series Winner: How Will West Be Won?

The playoffs have proven to be everything we expected and more in the Western Conference.

With the surging Lakers, the young Hornets and the defending champion Spurs, the second round has been a period of excitement in the Western Conference Playoffs. 

Starting  with the Lakers-Jazz series, the second round erupted.

It was a tight series with the Jazz taking advantage of their absolutely amazing home crowd. They pushed the series to six games. They played their game plan every game, but were unable to handle the Lakers when it came down to it. 

The Jazz front line could simply not handle the length of Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol. They were unable to get a consistent offensive effort out of anyone but Deron Williams. 

The Lakers came out the victor of the series. Despite the bench's poor play on the road, the Lakers were able to defeat the Jazz at Salt Lake City to clinch the series. 

Kobe made his presence felt in this series, even against the solid defense of Andrei Kirilenko and Paul Milsap.  Lamar Odom had a very nice series— carrying the team at times with his rebounding and using his speed against the Jazz's front-court defenders. 

Radmonivic awakened in this series giving the team the effort they have been needing from him.  The Lakers should feel confident after beating a very tough Jazz team. 

That leads us to the other series in the West.

The San Antonio-New Orleans series has been the ultimate battle of youth and experience. While skeptics say the Spurs play a boring game, this has been a series for the ages. 

With extremely entertaining games, each team has dominated the other on their respective home courts.  It has all came down to a game seven match up that very well could be the most exciting game of the playoffs. 

Whichever team is the victor of that series we will have one hell of a Western Conference Finals to enjoy.  With Kobe and his Lakers waiting for a battle tested winner, we can truly start to see how the West is getting more and more competitive