Basketball Predictions come true - Spurs win & so do others exactly as I said

So I'm feeling good right now. Spurs win and the only slight miss hit in my predictions ( if you read my earlier blog*) was that I thought Lakers /Utah series will go to 7 games.
Before I go back to Spurs here are my predictions for the conference finals:

Pistons/Celtics - Pistons in 6
Lakers/Spurs - Spurs in 7 OR Spurs in 5. Oh I know, Spurs in 5 is impossible you say. Here's my thought - If Spurs can win the game 1 of the series then it will be either a sweep (don't shoot me Laker fans - I'm just a messenger) or Spurs will win in 5. SHOCKED!

Finals: Spurs/Pistions - Spurs in 7

Gooing back to Lakers/Spurs, I know this is a shocker Moreover Spurs winning the game # 1 of the series is like the chances of being hit with a lightening - not only impossible but incomprehensible. If you are a Lakers fan then you may even consider this reprehsensible. I must mention though, not before long, I used to be one myself.

Ok I say that Spurs can win the series from Lakers based on two important thoughts
1. Spurs maintain/keep their momentum that they are carrying from game 7 with Hornets, while the Lakers play rusted from the rest
2. This is very important: David Stern & his henchmen sorry, I mean Referees, do not intervene on his behalf.

The story this year will be Spurs and Pistons - not waht Stern/League /Refs/ want but what should happen logically based on the team performances. I can't deny though that my Lakers/Spurs prediction is very very very tight. If you have seen lakers play the past few days, you know, they are playing like a team possessed so I know the peril I am getting into by making this bold prediction. Pistons/Celtics on the other hand I have no qualms about. Sure a good number of poeple will like Celtics to win and sure they have a home court advantage ( if the series goes to 7 games, it will only be because of this factor) but they have been struggling excatly as I thought and said before the play offs.

Of course, its well known and now even documented that Stern would like nothing better than a Celtics and Lakers final to revive old rivalry, bring back old days etc. BUT that is exactly that - OLD days.

Oh, I do understand Stern's dilemma and savvy though. As basketball czar, he has to make sure that all metro markets are well covered, all demographics specially white paying customer's wishes are well taken care of, keep promoting new players to keep the excitement going ( remember LeBron is the "King" - what a baloney of hype), keep fans interested in the game and teams and this is not an easy task, the downside of ruling like a czar however is that genuine plays and players get bumped off in the season and experienced fans can't help but feel that games are manipulated through Refs.

Still if you are a fan, you will not and you can't stop watching! Its an addiction, a fix, a need even though it may cause you to seethe when you watch the games.

What are the alternatives if you are a hard core NBA fan! Switch to another sport, Stop watching NBA! Move to Asia! Not happening! So we grumble, ooh aah in each game, curse the league and then go right back to watch the next game and start the grumble cycle all over again.

So like I said, if league can somehow keep people interested and yet not really influence the results of a game/series, that will be awesome and real exciting too.

Well any ways , going back to Spurs/Hornets game 7, I was almost shocked to see Spurs get some calls their way and even though I thought they should have got some more & obvious calls in their favor, it was true that Hornets didn't get some calls. Specially strange was the sequence when Manu tried to make it tough for Chris to take the last second shot. First of all it was a no call so it was bogus right off the bat but then after calling it a foul, the refs in their wisdom decided that the "foul" was committed after the buzzer went off. Really! That's not what the replay on the TNT showed, but hey, I'm not complaining, Spurs got that one and god knows they deserve that and many more calls just based on the fact they have been on the wrong end of the foul calls so many times, that it is tragically comic and poetic justice.

Lets get set to Pistons/Celtics now!