WHAT DO YOU SAY, WHEN YOU'RE STARING AT THAT WHITE BLOGSPACE, AND THE WORDS AIN'T COMING EASY? You say, if Jeff Foster had a mustache he'd be a really tall Freddie Mercury.

I can't see either of these teams beating the Lakers. The Pistons have the better chance because of the basketball equivalent of a puncher's chance: a killer defense. Because the Lakers have close to a killer defense themselves and all they need is one of the associate Lakers to make a few threes at the right moment and it's this sudden ten point avalanche and--that's it. The game is done, with like two minutes left in the third quarter.

The Pacers....I mean, who's going to play Shaq on the Pacers? Ron Ron? Al Harrington? There's nobody.

And the Lakers looked like they were on all cylinders last night. They survived the Spurs; now they know exactly how to play to win the title. And they're not going to forget again--somebody's going to have to outplay them and it's not going to be the Minnesota Timberwolves. After last night, I think the Wolves could just as easily get swept as lose in six. The Pacers or Pistons could possibly outplay the Lakers for a couple games, but not for four games.

As of today, I am thinking: Lakers over Wolves in five. Pistons over Pacers in six. Then Lakers over Pistons in six games that will not have the goofy banter of Kenny, Charles and Ernie afterwards, which would take some of the sting out of the fourth Lakers title in six years. But there will be no banter, no Charles yammering about how glad he is to get back to the golf course; no; we will see Jim Gray asking Kobe loaded questions about how tough the season has been and did he think they'd make it this far? Jim Gray; that nauseating jockrider. As if we're supposed to feel bad for Kobe, the wunderkind who--regardless of what he did or didn't do--brought alllll his current troubles on himself. When the moment comes--don't even try, Jim.

When did Ben Wallace develop offensive skills? Back to the game and the world's weirdest Queen revival.