West Semis

LA's two supposed biggest threats have been eliminated, so it should be a cake walk right? Ha!

Suns vs. Spurs - The 3rd best team record wise in the west faces off against the "7th" seed who upset the Mavs. Can it really be called an upset though? Now the "low" seeded Spurs will again start on the road and rekindle the friendship with the boys from the desert, the Phoenix Suns. If there is a team besides the newly booted Mavs that has suffered against the boys from the Alamo it the Suns. Three of the last four times that Suns have been dismissed has been at the hands of the Spurs, including one during the last title run that could have easily gone the other way hadn't it had a controversial finish. Nash and A'mare are back with a brand new group of supporting players and I'm sure would love to send the Spurs packing. The boring but highly effective Spurs seem to have hit their season peak finally and look again like legit contenders and will not surprise anyone if they reach the west finals again. This should be a great series and will more than likely go the distance and although I don't like to bet against Timmy, I have a feeling Suns get their due this time around and will finish off the Spurs in 7 games.

Lakers vs. Jazz - Man, I was looking forward the Tattoos getting slapped by the Lakers again, too bad they didn't keep their end of the deal and failed to advance. I do hope both Coach Karl and Nene recover and really feel Karl's absence was key in them exiting early. The no excuses Jazz get a date with the defending champs and will have to face them without key members AK47 and center Memo Okur, two huge losses, on top of that their best player Deron Williams seems to be banged up too, which is a shame as I would have loved to have seen this series with both squads healthy. This still will not be an easy series, they are still coached by Jerry Sloan who will demand everyone that steps on the floor for him give 120% and make sure the champs have bruises the next series. The Lakers cannot get lackadaisical and expect the Jazz to just roll over and die, they have to exploit mismatches and take advantage of the Jazz being short handed. If Bynum continues his annual injuries, it will be a closer series as LA's bench just cannot get going and be productive consistently. With Bynum doing minimal damage the Lakers should win in 6 games, if the Lakes have to rely on the bench more due to his absence, it may just go the distance.