The Los Angeles Lakers claimed their spot in the Western Conference Finals last week on friday night at Energy Solutions Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah. The series between the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Lakers was a rather intense one and provided for plenty of excitement. Throughout the series there were many issues that came up for both sides, particularly that of the officiating at the two different stadiums.

The Lakers locked up their seat as they got their 2nd win of the season in Utah and provided the Jazz with only their 6th loss all season at home. I give Utah a lot of credit for their efforts and applaud their fans for pulling them through, even though they are the most disgusting fans in the NBA.

Tonight, I’m almost positive all Lakers fans will be tuning in to see the Hornets take on the Spurs in the other western conference second round matchup to find out who the Lakers will be facing Wednesday night. Allow me to break down both teams and show which one the Lakers would/should prefer to see in the next round.

New Orleans Hornets

The Hornets run their offense through Chris Paul. Paul is a very talented point guard who knows how to properly play with the guys on his team and has really created a special bond with Tyson Chandler. It seems to me that the only truly indefensible play the Hornets have is the alley oop pass to Chandler as he almost always brings it down with authority. With the lazy defense of Pau Gasol I expect to see lots of strong play from Chandler and some easy baskets for the Hornets in the paint.

The Lakers defense has been mediocre to good but never great throughout the playoffs. They have played with intensity at given times and shut down the Denver Nuggets but the Utah Jazz had their way with the Lakers and New Orleans is led by a superior passer. Here is where the problem arises for the Hornets.

Although the Hornets offense is strong, their defense is slightly below average. With the Lakers having the most efficient offense of the playoffs averaging 112 points so far, I expect the Hornets to be run over in a similar manner. The Hornets’ Tyson Chandler is a solid player but Pau Gasol is much larger and should have his way inside, if he gets aggresive. If we play two bigs at once, such as Pau Gasol and Ronny Turiaf, who will guard who. New Orleans doesn’t have the right combination of bigs to guard the paint and I expect Turiaf, Odom, Radmanovic, and even Gasol to have plenty of offensive rebounds and dunks.

This series will really be a showing of Lamar Odom and Kobe Bryant as well as some portions of Pau Gasol. The beautiful thing about this series is that neither team really has a great defensive player to put on the opposite teams stars. Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, and even Lamar Odom should be able to work freely. This is where the Lakers get the slight advantage as bench players like Sasha Vujacic and Ronny Turiaf are great defenders that can really drive Chris Paul and Tyson Chandler crazy.

San Antonio Spurs

The Spurs are one of the only teams that was accurately assembled to compete for a title. The key to their championships in the past was the domination of Tony Parker, Manu Ginobli, and Tim Duncan. The Lakers, who were labaled as the immediate favorite to win the title after the acquiring of Pau Gasol, had now created solid matchups on defense agains the Spurs, but the Spurs were lacking at one position to guard the Lakers. So what did the GM of the decade RC Buford do? Buford traded for Kurt Thomas, got an excellent defender that can guard Andrew Bynum while Tim Duncan covers Pau Gasol and then resigned Brent Barry essentially allowing the Spurs to pick up Thomas for nothing.

As Andrew Bynum injured his knee and has missed the entire season, the Spurs gained a slight advantage. Instead of playing Kurt Thomas at the same time as Tim Duncan, they can now use him off the bench and let him play D on Pau Gasol whil Duncan gets his rests. The point guard match up between Tony Parker and Derek Fisher will be intense as we all know the Lakers pick and roll defense is one of their biggest downfalls. Kobe Bryant has had the luxury of going to work in the last two series will now struggle with Bruce Bowen on him. Lamar Odom will probably be the key to the offense as he will have the only advantage. A 6’10″ guy that can drive, shoot, pass, and rebound is something the Spurs don’t have. Let’s exploit that match up.

Conclusion

The San Antonio Spurs are much better equiped to compete with the Los Angeles Lakers and really cause problems for them on both ends of the court. The defense of the Spurs will be very strong and difficult to penetrate as they have the perfect mix of players to defend the Lakers starters.

The New Orleans Hornets have plenty of holes in their defense and give the Lakers ample oportunities to take advantage and open up the floor. Although Chris Paul is great on the offensive end, he and the rest of his comrades give the Lakers starters plenty of room to operate and will essentially give away a lot of easy baskets.

I hope that the Hornets defeat the Spurs tonight in New Orleans for the simple reason that a Chris Paul vs Kobe Bryant match up is one for the ages and also because the Lakers should have a better opportunity to advance to the NBA Finals. I have to believe that a Celtics-Pistons series will go farther than a Lakers-Hornets series.

Here’s a toast to the Hornets keeping the home team winning trend alive!

Kevin Ding of the OC Register has also provided us with some comedic relief by providing a list of reasons the Lakers want to play the Hornets over the Spurs.

I also found a link to the Press-Enterprise article about the Lakers discussing which team they would rather face. The Hornets247 site is amazing and has brought together a great breakdown of different news sources from all around breaking down game seven.