The first round of the playoffs is flying by faster than we all expected and two of last years top teams are now gone. After the Los Angels Lakers swept the Denver Nuggets and started their short vacation as they await the 2nd round, the other teams continued to battle. Two more teams are now prepared to move on and the Lakers opponents continue to battle. The Utah Jazz and Houston Rockets are going into game 6 in Salt Lake City, as the Jazz lead the series 3-2.

After Byron Scott was introduced yesterday as the 2007-2008 Coach of The Year, the New Orleans Hornets finished off their first round series defeating the Dallas Mavericks for the 4th time in 5 games. Of course, after Mark Cuban made sure to do whatever it took to bring in Jason Kidd and essentially give the Mavs the highest payroll in the league, the blame of the loss sat squarely on the shoulders of the coach. You know, that same coach that led this team to the best record in the NBA last season with 67 wins.

Unfortunately, Avery Johnson was fired less than one short day after the Dallas Mavericks got eliminated. The team felt that it was the right time to move on without the coach that chokes in the playoffs and this summer will be quite interesting for the Mavs. I can’t imagine the team going into next season with the same roster as a few moves will obviously have to be made. I’m almost positive that Jason Kidd is stuck there no matter what, but Dirk Nowitzki is definitely a trade-able asset if the team decides they are finally willing to get rid of him.

The other team in the West that has struggled so much is the Phoenix Suns. They have really had their problems this season and the Shaq trade right before the trade deadline definitely didn’t make things any better. As they faced the Spurs this year, they lost in five games and are now ready to enjoy their summer. Shaq came into Phoenix running his mouth talking about how “when I get angry, I win championships.” It seems that he either wasn’t angry enough or just isn’t good enough to win championships.

As a Lakers fan, I can’t help but watch Suns games and get so excited when I see the Spurs bust out the Hack-a-Shaq and take over a game by Shaq missing 11 free throws in game 5. It’s a thing of beauty, when not used against the Lakers!

Either way, with the 2nd round almost set (Utah wins game 6) the playoffs are moving along and getting more exciting daily. One coach has already been fired, one coach has been named coach of the year, one coach goes for his record 10th rings, one coach goes for 5 titles in 10 years, and one coach awaits his destiny after another disappointing season of runnin-n-gunnin (Mike D’Antoni).

Allow me to warn you ahead of time, prior to you reading this article, that this award is not 100% official, but just received from a strong source from NBA.com.

The 2007-2008 regular season has come to a close and the performances of every player have been closely analyzed and scrutinized by every coach, player, analyst, and fan in the world. The Most Valuable Player Award is one of the most sought after prizes in basketball, behind the NBA Championship of course, and is one thing that has been missing from Kobe Bryant’s resume.

No longer, the NBA has published the 2008 awards (see below for disclaimer) and Kobe Bryant is listed as the NBA Most Valuable Player. After an amazing season in which the MVP flipped between four candidates at any given time, including Kevin Garnett, Lebron James, Chris Paul, and Kobe Bryant, the Los Angeles Lakers superstar was able to claim the prize.

Take a look at the actual screen shot courtesy of the SportsTsar.

With season averages of 28.3 points, 5.4 assists, 6.3 rebounds, 1.84 steals, and shooting percentages of 45.9% from the field, 36.1% from beyond the arc, and 84% from the free throw line, Kobe Bryant has proven that he is pretty well rounded. Kobe’s stats are obviously not what secured the MVP award for him though as his past season had better statistics.

Kobe Bryant has been criticized for years, since the infamous Shaq trade in 2004, that he isn’t much of a team player and doesn’t make his teammates better. I suppose that theory is finally over as he has taken one of the youngest teams in the league to the Western Conference’s top seed going into the playoffs.

It has been amazing to watch his game develop this season as he has finally grown into the mature role of being a floor general. I have to believe that a lot of credit is due to Phil Jackson for bringing it out in him as well as Derek Fisher for coming back and being a co-captain to Bryant.

As the Lakers make their run in the 2008 NBA Playoffs, Kobe Bryant can sleep a bit more comfortable at night knowing that his hard work has finally been recognized by everyone that matters!

Congratulations and good luck in the playoffs!

Disclaimer: Of course, allow me to mention really quickly, that this would be quite incredible if it was 100% reliable. This is the award as presented by Robert Peterson, the Director of NBA.com and the Senior Manger of NBA.com. I’ve got to find this quite reliable, but I suppose we will have to wait a little while longer until the Commish presents it.

The first and only sweep in the first round of the 2008 playoffs proudly belongs to the Los Angeles Lakers. It is the 28th of April and the Lakers have just recorded their 7th straight victory over the Denver Nuggets in the 2007-2008 season.

Coming into this series, I predicted that the Lakers would win in 5, only because I didn’t want to seem like an overly confident Lakers fan and because when a team has two big names like Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson, not to even mention role players like Marcus Camby and Kenyon Martin.

With about five minutes left, JR Smith managed to bring the Nuggets back into the game. Even with the bench heroics of Smith, the Nuggets didn’t have enough fire power and Kobe Bryant led the Lakers to an amazing victory. Kobe really took over when it mattered most scoring nine points in a row in the 4th quarter and eventually leading the team to a 107-101 win over the 8th seeded Denver Nuggets.

The Lakers big name guys really performed well once again as Kobe Bryant finished with 31 points, 7 assists, and 6 rebounds while Pau Gasol finished with 21 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists. There was an unfortunate side to Kobe’s big performance as well though. The Lakers shot a cumulative 63% from the free throw line and Kobe only made 4 out of 10 attempts. Unfortunately, Kobe also had 6 turnovers. All in all, it was a wild and sloppy night for the Lakers, but as strong of a team as they are, the right guys stepped up at the right time and they came away with yet another win.

The next round will be explored in the coming days. Good luck to the rest of the teams out West for now!

Today is the 9th day of the playoffs and there are a few interesting games. The entire week has been crazy so far with so many unbelievable games thus far. Obviously, I have covered the Lakers series and am extremely proud of how they have performed and look forward to at least another month of covering them. The rest of the NBA has been extremely intense, allow me to break things down:

Western Conference:

Spurs vs Suns - Wow, is probably the best way to describe this series. Game 4 is today and gives the Spurs the unexpected opportunity to sweep the Suns. Before the trade deadline, the Suns and Spurs both made trades they felt would benefit their teams. The Spurs traded for Kurt Thomas as a means of competing with the two big 7′0″ the Lakers had, after the acquisition of Pau Gasol, and the Suns traded for Shaq to keep up with the Spurs and Lakers. The Suns came out of the gates strong and were on track to win both games 1 and 2. Somehow though, the Spurs managed to come back from double digit deficits in both games and came away with wins. The third game was in Phoenix and the result was no better for the Suns. The Spurs came in ready to work and dominated the entire game from beginning to end as they easily destroyed the Suns for their third win in three tries. Today will be a great measuring stick of the Shaq for Marion deal, was it worth it? First round sweep? Enjoy Phoenix

Hornets vs Mavericks - This has been another great series with all three games resulting in home team wins. The Hornets have a 2-0 lead in the series as the first two games were in New Orleans but the Mavs look to even things out tonight. Both of these teams will really give the Spurs a lot of trouble in the next round, can’t wait to see them all battle.

Eastern Conference:

Cavaliers vs Wizards - This series has had a lot of talk behind it, but hasn’t really lived up to the hype. Eveyrone expected the Wizards to make a big push at the Cavs and potentially take the series from them. Lebron james would have nothing of it and dominated the first two games for easy Cavs wins. The Wizards took game 3 in Washington with the help of Soulja Boy and the Cavs look for retaliation today. The game will truly ride on the shoulder of Stevenson and his beard. Will he guard Lebron? Will he make his shots? We shall see….

Pistons vs Sixers - Definitely the most unexpected series so far these playoffs. It’s been extremely intense and no one really gave the Sixers a chance coming in. Boy have they proved everyone wrong! The young Sixers walked into the Palace for game 1, won, lost game 2 in Detroit, and came back to Philly with a 1-1 tie ready to hold their home court. Of course no one gave them a chance on their home court either, but once again, they proved us wrong. Philly came out strong and won the game by 20 points to take a 2-1 series lead. Seriously speaking, if the Sixers win this series, will the Eastern Conference crown just go to the Celtics now considering Detroit is the only team loaded enough to beat them on that side of the bracket?

The schedule is amazing today and I hope you all enjoy the games. Keep the scores and analysis updates going all day.

During the pregame player introductions, Rocky, the Denver Nuggets mascot, made an attempt at “trash talking” (in a silent manner) the Los Angeles Lakers. As Derek Fisher was the first player to be introduced, Rocky, pulled up a chair in front of the Lakers bench, whipped out a newspaper, and pretended to read the classified section as if the Lakers weren’t of interest.

After Fisher was introduced, he approached Rocky and pet him in the head, he didn’t seem too happy about this and continued to read his paper. The rest of the team was introduced and as a retaliation move, the Lakers gathered around the mascot and did their “pregame celebratory dance” to get pumped up.

Not only was the mascot disgusted and made a fool of by this Lakers dance, but the Lakers also came away with a win and a 3-0 series lead over the Denver Nuggets. Interesting, perhaps the Nuggets should stay quiet because making noise and talking trash isn’t really working for them.