By: Stefano Tinucci Tozzi
The 2010 edition of the NBA Playoffs are well underway and we already have some of the answers the regular season did not give us. The Dallas Mavericks are still not a legitimate title contender, the Denver Nuggets greatly missed coach 
George Karl – he was sidelined with cancer – but beyond that they still lack that key ingredient to progress to the next level and all-star Carmelo Anthony is beginning to raise serious doubts as to whether he can truly be the best player on a championship winning team, the Oklahoma City Thunder looks to be the real deal and with such a young and talented core and with enough cap space to add a max free agent this off-season look for this team to challenge the established NBA hierarchy in the not too distant future, and down in Miami this post-season made it abundantly clear that team President Pat Riley must come through on his grandiose vision and the pressure on him to build a contender for next season is palpable and justifiably so.
(1) Cleveland Cavaliers v. (4) Boston Celtics or as it’s being known as LeBron’s Elbow v. the Elderly 3. Through three games in this series not much has been found out except that both teams look very vulnerable; as was evidenced through two games in Cleveland when the Cavaliers were lucky to escape with a win in Game 1 and in Game 2 when point guard Rajon Rondo ran circles around Cleveland’s defense all night en route to leading his Celtics to a 104-86 triumph which gave Boston home-court advantage in the series. As the scene shifted to Boston so did the script in Game 3 the “injured” LeBron James was masterful in posting a near triple-double fit only for a king. His 38-point, 7-assist, and 8-rebound effort allowed Cleveland to hand the Boston Celtics their most lopsided home playoff defeat in their storied history. Where the series goes from here is hard to determine but Cleveland even with all their flaws seem to just have a little too much for a Boston squad that appears to have little beyond the magnificent Rondo and power forward Kevin Garnett who himself is not what he once was. Prediction: Cavaliers in 7
My predictions would pit Cleveland vs. Orlando in the East in a re-match of last year’s Eastern Conference Finals and though both rosters are changed from last season I don’t expect a different result. Here, I see the Orlando Magic representing the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals. In the West the Suns would face the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers and while I do like a lot of the things this new Suns teams have shown I just think they are outgunned by a loaded Lakers squad so I see them vanquishing a worthy foe in the Phoenix Suns to advance to the Finals to complete a re-match of last year’s NBA Finals. And in this replay of last year’s Finals I do see a different outcome; while it would not shock me to see the Lakers repeat I feel as though they’ve been missing just about 10% of what they had last year all season and I think this is the stage where it will come back to bite them. On the other hand Orlando received heavy criticism for overhauling a roster which reached the Finals last season and it has taken a while for all the parts to jell but now at the time when it matters most – granted, they’ve played playoff neophyte Charlotte and the hugely disappointing Hawks but they sure have looked impressive – they seem to have hit their stride and their yearlong sacrifice will be rewarded when Commissioner David Stern hands the Larry O’Brien Trophy over to your 2009-2010 NBA Champions the Orlando Magic.