
June 4, 2005
Are You Ready?!?
The Finals Around the corner!
The culmination of the season has arrived. It's the time of the year when it's down
to just two teams, one from the west, one from the east. It's the time to put on your
game-face put up some wild performances Yes, it's the NBA Finals!
With the Hornets' last night victory of the duncanless Spurs in game 4 of the Western
Conference Finals we can now get ready for some real action.
The 2004-05 season has brought us many surprises. First of all the end of Lakers'
dynasty – the departure of Shaquille O'Neal. Even though Kobe did a good job,
the Lakers were only 3 games behind the 8th seed. And then there was a team that
raised from the ashes, like a phoenix. No, they weren't the Suns, the fire started in
Washington D.C. The Wizards more than doubled their winning percentage in a
single season, improving from .305 to a league leading .759. With the addition of
Antawn Jamison in the off-season the Wizards was already considered a tough
opponent. But the Wizards' GM wanted more. This resulted the arrival of 5-time
NBA champion Robert Horry and the 2004 Draft first pick Dwight Howard. The
guard duo Hughes-Arenas stepped up and nobody doubted in this team anymore.
They finished the season with a 15-game winning streak and are 9-2 in the playoffs,
do we need to say more?
The other team's story is totally different. The Hornets roster didn't change much
during the season and were just over the .500 mark, qualified for the 6th seed. Then
again the most important games are in the Playoffs and the Hornets knew that. The
strong contribution from Baron Davis (20ppg, 4rpg, 7apg, 1.5spg), Jamal Magloire
in the paint (14ppg, 11rpg, 2bpg) plus the points of David Wesley and Jamal Mash-
burn, that was all they needed! They eliminated the Timberwolves in the first round
(3-2), Dallas in the second (3-1) and now the Spurs (3-1). Sounds like a dream, doesn't
it? Remember the '99 Knicks? Well, this is the sequel.
You might think that the Hornets are in it way over their heads and this will be a sweep,
but actually the season series were tied 1-1. The first meeting between these teams may
have been a 25-point blowout by the Wizards, who had 80 points from Howard, Jamison,
Hughes and Arenas, but the Hornets didn't allow their opponent to score over 90 points in
the second game and Davis put up a 41-point game. And if you consider the fact that
Washington's Hughes and Howard are out of the Finals with injuries, the Hornets could
be the stronger team.

Antawn Jamison must step up in order to win the title.