And Then There Were Two...

Cleveland -

Lebron James isn't an basketball player in the NBA. He's just a walking video game character. The guy does everything and more, and his team just can't win. This is the first time in a long, long time that a team loses, and for the most part, you cannot blame him for not taking the series into his own hands. It's arguable in the sixth and final game that he failed to show any effort, because there were 4-5 posessions in a row where we didn't even see Lebron touch the ball.

I asked myself a number of times, why he isn't asking for the ball. At some point, you expect a player like LBJ simply just say, give me the ball, I'm going to take over. I kept expecting him to go Detroit Pistons on them and drop some incredible number in the fourth quarter and bring them back.

But at the end of the day, he needs help. General Manager Ferry knows that. Lebron doesn't need to say it and he won't. But Mo Williams failed to show up in the final series, well at least his talk did; but nothing else. With Ben Wallace considering leaving the game and Zeke not getting any quicker, the Cavs need to make some type of move to bring in somebody downlow. Anderson Varejao simply isn't going to do it. (Please, please bring back Carlos Boozer somehow.) Simply put, the Cavs need to do something, or Lebron will. Like buy more New York Yankee hats in different colors.

Denver -

We saw some pretty - for the sake of NBA marketing - amazing stuff out there in three rounds from this team. But it just wasn't enough. Maybe a training camp and a full season with Chauncey will be the difference. I'd be surprised if Denver doesn't bring back Chris Andersen and Dahntay Jones, both instrumental to the team's chemistry, but a better defender might be needed, to solidify that team. Dahntay Jones is good, but isn't a starter, nor is J.R. Smith. Not on that Denver squad.

We saw Carmelo become the player we all expected him to be. A little late, but better in his first Western Conference Finals than never, or on another team. He may be upset that he didn't sign the same contract his friends Chris Bosh, Dwayne Wade and LBJ signed 3 years ago, allowing himself to become a free agent after next season, but his team is nearly perfect. Should be one of the more entertaining teams next year. Looking forward to see them come out strong in October.

Los Angeles -

Wow. We finally saw a complete game, quite possibly the first of the entire year. Perfect timing, right? Hollywood ending? We'll see. They definitely have a super difficult task ahead of them.

But going into the Finals with almost every player playing well will be good for them. As will the much needed rest. Hell, even Sasha Vujajic hit a shot in Game 6. But there's still a lot of questions going into the Finals. Can players like Ariza and Lamar Odom be consistent? Will we see an Andrew Bynum sighting? And not for just a couple minutes. The Lakers will need him for the whole series.

Orlando -

A lot of people are forgetting one thing about this team. They are doing this without their starting point guard. If Jameer Nelson was playing in these playoffs, they wouldn't have struggled against Philadelphia, and my goodness, would Cleveland had problems. They couldn't even stop Skip (Alston).

Now there's talk of Jameer being re-evaluated for the Finals, which personally, I think would be a bad idea. It could potentially ruin the fluid offense they have going now. But maybe Jameer could fit back into the team seamlessly. Time and time again these past two months, Stan Van Gundy has surprised us in good ways, so it could work.

But the system this team has is unbelievable. You don't see anybody on that team looking for their own shots; starters or bench players. The offense is just about players swinging the ball until there's an open jumpshot.

Haven't stopped loving these playoffs. And as bummed as David Stern and many other people are that we don't have the "Dream NBA Finals," we are going to be in for some amazing basketball.

And come on, when was the last time you saw a Nike marketing campaign fail miserably?

NBA Finals, let's go.