That almost was a sweep, wasn’t it?

The Los Angeles Lakers won the series 4- 1 and I’m happy about it.  I’m not estatic, but I’m happy.  As they say, a win is a win, no matter how ugly.

A lot of sports writers say that the Lakers were, sort of, sleepwalking through this series.  That they should’ve won game 3 and that they shouldn’t have blown 22-point leads.

My take is this: Utah’s rallies is a testament to their team’s resilience and not necessarily because of the Lakers‘ flaws.  This Utah Jazz has a legitimate leader in Deron Williams and you just don’t dismiss them like the Lakers should’ve blown this team away like peanuts.

Having said those, I also think the Lakers have issues.  The second unit needs to improve.  I think it will, once Lamar Odom goes back there.  I figure Andrew Bynum will start with big-centered Houston or Portland.

You have to give it to the Jazz for taking Andrew Bynum out of the series.  They played small and fast.  They have no choice, they already are small.

Next up, Houston or Portland.  I have no preference, both teams are equally dangerous.

Houston has a behemoth in Yao Ming.  They have two legitimate defenders in Shane Battier and Ron Artest.  They have a scrapper in Luis Scola.  One good thing with matching up with Houston is that the Lakers swept the season series.  The other thing is that they have no legitimate perimeter offensive threat so the Lakers can swarm Yao Ming.

Portland, overall, is a very athletic team and could be the only team that matchup well (in terms of athleticism) with the Lakers position by position.  One good thing with matching up with Portland is that the Lakers have lost  in Portland for so long, the law of averages tend to catch up.  The other thing is experience.

No matter who the Lakers face in the second round, it figures to be tougher than the Jazz series.