Basketball Daily

The Western Conference Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets are now in the books.  Denver who surprised analysts and fans alike really gave L.A. a fight to the end.  What was most surprising is that Denver got blown out at home to send them packing, where finally the Lakers played with the dominance and determination we had come to expect from them.  The Lakers win the series on the road in 6 games.

The Eastern Conference Finals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Orlando Magic ended with the Magic’s center Dwight Howard putting on a clinic down low with 40 points.  To most this was a considered an upset because of Cleveland having the best record in the NBA, but those who follow the game had a strong feeling that Orlando was a better team and the Cavaliers could not match up with Orlando’s forwards.  The Magic win the series at home in 6 games.

The stage is set for a thrilling and exciting NBA Championship Finals with the two superstars on the opposing teams of Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard.  The series is in the 2-3-2 format with the home team Lakers having the advantage.  The series begins on Thursday, June 4th, with all games being nationally televised on ABC.

The Cleveland Cavaliers who were very disappointed with their game play the last few games came out fighting and put a beating on the visiting San Antonio Spurs.  Not surprisingly, Lebron James put the brunt of the scoring on his shoulders and carried his team to victory with the final score ending at 101-81.

The leading scorers for the Cavaliers were Lebron “The King” James with 38 points, Mo Williams with 22 points and Delonte West with 22 points.  The high man off the bench was Joe Smith with 7 points and he was actually the only player that scored from the 6 reserve players.  Cleveland remains a single game ahead of the Lakers for the best record in the NBA.  They improve their season long record to 62 wins and 15 losses.

Tiger Woods, one of the best golfers ever, appeared court-side in Florida when the Cleveland Cavaliers faced off against the Orlando Magic.  All I can say is WOW, the Magic completely demolished the Cavaliers like no one before.  At one time in the fourth quarter, Orlando was up by more than 40 points.  The Magic have really buckled down on defense and their carefree style offense is refreshing to see.  This is only the second time of the year that the Cavs have lost 2 straight games.  The final score ended at 116-87.

The three leading scorers for the Magic were Rashard Lewis with 22 points, Dwight Howard with 20 points and Hedu Turkoglu with 13 points.  All of starters ended up having double figures in points.  The high scorers off the bench was shared between Anthony Johnson and Tony Battie who both had 10 points each.  Orlando is now tied for second place in the Eastern Conference with the Boston Celtics.  It looks like it will be a fight to the end to see who can maintain that position.