wildyams

Unfortunately the Queens are going fishing, so it's gonna be the Lakers and the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Western Conference Finals starting Friday up in Minneapolis. The series schedule will be as follows:

In Minnesota:
Game 1- Friday @ 6pm PST
Game 2- Sunday @ 5pm PST

In Los Angeles:
Game 3- Tuesday @ 6pm PST
Game 4- Thursday @ 6pm PST

Games 5,6,7 (Sat, Mon, Wed), Times TBA

I was wrong about my predictions for the last series, but I think I've got a much better chance about being right about some for this series. First off, the Lakers will definitely win this series unless there are some rather drastic injuries to key players. Minnesota is a good team, but they are nowhere as good as the Spurs were. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that the Lakers will in fact sweep this series, closing it out a week from tomorrow on May 27th. The reason I think this is because for the first Western Conference playoff series in years, the Lakers are playing an opponent that doesn't really have anyone to guard Shaq, nor do they have anyone that will be even a mild challenge for Shaq to guard. Traditionally when the Lakers have played teams with no answer to Shaq, the Lakers dominate like nobody's business, and this should be no different. In addition the Timberwolves are hurting at the point guard position, which has really been the achilles heel of the Lakers. Sam Cassell, the TWolves starting point guard, has a bad back and a hip flexor injury, and the backup pointguard for the Wolves, Troy Hudson (who destroyed LA in the playoffs last year), is out for the playoffs with his own injury. That has Kevin Garnett, the league MVP and power forward for the Wolves, playing backup point guard when Sam Cassell takes a break or leaves with foul trouble. The Timberwolves are a very talented team, with 4 players who have been All Stars who are all either in their prime or just barely past it. However, they don't rebound or play defense anywhere near as good as the Spurs did, they lack the playoff experience that the Lakers have, and don't have any kind of a post game to speak of (which is crucial in the playoffs). I think LA has such a dominating edge in this series that I will really be disappointed if LA loses any games at all.