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Featured Sport News

Celtics or Cavaliers?

Author: Sir David Smith
Date: 19/04/2009

Two months, 16 teams and one trophy. The NBA play-offs began over the weekend and the question is which team will be crowned 2009 champions?

After the 82-game regular season the slate has been wiped clean and every team left standing harbours hopes of getting their hands on the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy.

The two runaway favourites with sportsbooks are the defending champion Boston Celtics and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

However, much of Boston's hopes could rest on the fitness or otherwise of Kevin Garnett.

The influential power forward has been sidelined since mid-February with a knee strain and the club's medical staff have already suggested he will miss the opening rounds of the play-offs at the very least.

Boston are expected to brush aside the Chicago Bulls in their first round match-up, but their longer-term ambitions surely rest on the fitness of the 12-time NBA All Star.

That leaves the Cavaliers who arrive at the play-offs on the back of one of the best regular seasons ever.

LeBron James has led from the front with a superb season and the Cavs' chances appear to hinge on whether the season's most valuable player elect can carry them through a potential Eastern Conference Final against Boston.

The 24-year-old forward is now regarded as the best player in the NBA and when the results are announced at the end of the play-offs, he is expected to be named the youngest MVP since Michael Jordan won the award in 1987-88.

On the other side of the draw, in the Western Conference, lurk the Los Angeles Lakers led by Kobe Bryant.

Many observers are predicting a Lakers-Cavs final as coach Phil Jackson's side are said to be without peer in the Western Conference.

Led by the prolific Bryant and with a starting line-up including the likes of rising star Andrew Bynum and giant Spaniard Pau Gasol at power forward, they are a formidable unit.

The only likely challengers to their second successive conference title are likely to be semi-final opponents the Houston Rockets.

In powerful defencemen Ron Artest and Shane Battier they have the ability to keep LA's stars quiet, while Yao Ming in the middle in a handful for any opposition defence.

Of the rest of the challengers, Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference have been identified as potential dark horses as in Dwight Howard they are able to boast arguable the best all-round player in the league.

Superstar Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat are also dangerous opposition and on their day are capable of winning against any other side.

In the Western Conference, the Dallas Mavericks could cause an upset as they arrive in the play-offs on the back of a late season charge so certainly have momentum on their side.

However, the smart money suggests that the Los Angeles will face either Cleveland or Boston in the best-of-seven NBA Finals series when it begins in June.

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