Easy Button

When L.A. got Ron Artest I almost called David Stern to tell him to cancel the season. The Lakers had gotten a guy who's been a 20-point scorer, but more importantly a fantastic defender - who can lock-down guard 2's, 3's, 4's & possibly some PGs and smaller 5's - to take the burden of defending the superstar off of Kobe Bryant. Adding him to a championship roster seemed almost like overkill.

What were the odds that the Lakers' 2010 Finals opponent would have a player - Rajan Rondo - that neither can sufficiently guard? Bryant - who gets right in players' jocks defensively - has been playing 8-10 feet off of him. True, they'd prefer Rondo to take jumpshots as opposed to Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, or Ray Allen, but certainly part of it is that Kobe doesn't want Rondo to blow right by him.

What a difference between the traditional pick and roll and Boston's with Rondo, who often is coming off the pick and in a split second is laying it up at the rim. When he improves his "j" a little more he will be totally unguardable, possibly like Nate "Tiny" Archibald in his classic 35 point/10 assist per game season.

So now as for tonight's game 7...I'm certain that the Lakers will not be able to press the Easy Button at Staples as they did during game 6. What I would love to see is a close game in the middle of the third quarter, because my sense is that with any sense of doubt about the outcome, we will see Kobe - the Finals MVP, win, lose, or draw - in extended "old Kobe" mode. That could produce a record-setting game 7 point total - and in any case, some very entertaining play from one of the all-time greats.