Obviously, it will be Lakers v. Cavaliers, with Cavaliers winning in 6.

I like that prediction. With Garnett down and out in Beantown, the Cav's are clearly the fav's in the East. The West will be a bear to get through with so many evenly matched teams. Whoever comes out on top will have probably played 5-8 more games than the East winner.

The Spurs are done w/o Manu Flopobili and w/ Duncan's creaky knees, the Hornets are constipated, Utah can't win shit on the road but could still take the Lakers to 6 or 7. Denver is intriguing, especially w/ Billups at the helm, but I just don't give a George Karl team any chance. Their defense will sag and they'll start to turn on each other, eating their own wounded.

Portland is the dangerous dark horse, but they're playing another dark horse, Houston, in the 1st round. I predict a Vanilla Gorilla Pryzbilla vs. Tru Warrior Artest bloodbath, Pryz the winner after an illegal sub-in by Shane "Assault and" Battier and a Wu-Tang elbow from Yao. I put the over/under on stitches needed for that series at 29.

Sad thing is, a trophy isn't going to keep LeBron in Clevland, just going to make his endorsement $$$ more in the next town. He'll say it was mission accomplished.