King James Hoping to Spoil Boston Three Party

by Bodog Sportsbook | May 5 2008

After taking seven games to put away the 37 game winning Atlanta Hawks, it doesn’t get any easier for the Boston Celtics as the road to the Eastern Conference finals goes through King James.



In all fairness, it wasn’t so much that the Celtics were playing poorly as much as the Atlanta Hawks were playing extremely well at home. Atlanta is young team with plenty of promise.  They have arguably the best rookie in Al Horford, Josh Smith is an electrifying athlete and a work in progress.With leaders like Mike Bibby and Joe Johnson, the Hawks were a dangerous team and can challenge anyone when they are playing well. That said, seven games Boston? C’mon.

King James Hoping To Spoil Boston Three Party

Next up for Boston is LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. After cleaning up the trash in Washington, King James will be looking to spoil the Boston Three Party as these two teams go head-to-head in the second round. These two teams split the regular season series with each team taking two wins at home. However, it is noteworthy that LeBron James did not play in one the Boston victories and Kevin Garnett did not play in one of the Cleveland victories, both due to injury. Only one game between these two teams featured the current Cavaliers lineup after the major midseason trades. Basically, you can throw their previous meetings out the window. Since their last meeting in February, the Cavaliers are a different team now and so is Boston. The only thing you can count on is that this series is going to be off the chains. So Locksmith, after being completely off on the Boston Atlanta series and saying Cleveland would handle the Wizards in seven games as opposed to six, what is your take on this series?

Locksmith: I don’t know that anyone believed that Atlanta would win more than one game against Boston, but I guess that’s why they play the games. And as far of the Wizards, that series might have gone seven games if Soulja Boy Stevenson didn’t open his mouth and piss off King James.

This series is going to be a physical and scrappy series. Home court advantage will be huge, both teams are extremely difficult to beat at home, but the first team to crack at home will likely lose this series. I’m calling an upset. I think Boston will crack at home. I look at Boston and I see a team with three superstar players who have sacrificed their offensive production for the greater good of the team. The result of that is when the game is on the line, it’s pretty much rock, paper and scissors to see who takes the shot. Give the Celtics credit; they have been able to make that work for them all season. But this is the playoffs, also known as LeBron’s playground. As good as Boston’s team defense is, they are not great individual defenders, Atlanta showed that and LeBron James could expose that. Call me crazy, but I think Cleveland wins this series in seven games and LeBron goes legend.

That’s the Locksmith’s pick. Who do you like? Get all your NBA basketball odds with the Bodog Sportsbook or bet on the games as you watch them on TV with Bodog Live basketball betting.