After a five-month wait, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Kendrick Perkins are set to tip things off in a rematch of last May's epic seven-game Eastern Conference Finals as the Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers, two of the best teams in the East, take the floor at the TD Banknorth Garden at 8 p.m. tonight.
But out West, there's an even more intriguing matchup getting underway later this evening.
At 10:30 p.m. EST, we can expect to see a battle between not only the NBA's two most improved teams, but also likely the two best candidates to derail Boston in its quest for championship No. 18: the Los Angeles Lakers and Portland Trailblazers. The two men tipping it off at the Staples Center go by the soon-to-be-household names of Andrew Bynum and Greg Oden.
Those two centers, one who just reached legal drinking age yesterday and the other still a 20-year-old rookie, are on the verge of changing the face of the Western Conference. The era of Tim Duncan and Shaquille O'Neal is in its twilight; June's Finals, which L.A. lost to Boston in six games, was the first in a decade not to include either of the old-guard big men. Now, the new kids take the floor in downtown Los Angeles.
The Lakers, who won 57 games en route to the West's top seed last year, are only going to get better with Bynum's return from a knee injury sustained nine months ago. Bynum, who showed a remarkably well-rounded game at age 20 last year and brings solid defensive skills to go along with his scoring and freakish rebounding ability, last played on Jan. 13. Pau Gasol, acquired by GM Mitch Kupchak in one of the league's most lopsided trades in history, made his Lakers debut on Feb. 5, perfectly filling Bynum's role as an interior defender and second scoring option after MVP Kobe Bryant.
With Bynum and Gasol now taking the floor together, the Lakers have the best pair of 7-footers in the NBA, and both should be improved. Bynum is reportedly 100 percent after his recovery from May knee surgery, and he's bulked up to 285 with less body fat. The return of a bulkier, more physical Bynum will enable Gasol and his better scoring range to shift to power forward. Bynum, on the other hand, dunked on 31 percent of his scoring attempts last season, an absurd figure that dwarfs Gasol's 17.
The Lakers' offense, third in the NBA last year with 113.0 points-per-100 possessions, will only get better as Bynum joins Gasol and Bryant, who is still only 30 years old and in the middle of his prime. Defensively, the Lakers will benefit from shifting Lamar Odom, who hasn't seen significant time on the wing in about three years, back to small forward. The West's 57-game winners may very well top 60 this year.
In Portland, the ascent has been a little slower, but given the brilliance of GM Kevin Pritchard, the Blazers are now as good a pick as any to represent the West in next summer's Finals. The Blazers haven't finished above .500 in five years, but after a 41-41 record last year, this season may be the breakout one that will finally make it worth being a sports fan in Oregon.
Like the Lakers with Bynum, the Blazers' greatest acquisition has come not through a trade or signing but from a much-heralded disabled list return. Oden, who hasn't played a game since April 2, 2007 when his Ohio State Buckeyes lost to Florida in the NCAA title game, has, like Bynum, added a massive amount of muscle on his way back from a knee injury and is now listed at 7'0", 273. Judging by his preseason performance this October, Oden is on the way to becoming the NBA's most physical big man since Shaq.
But the supporting cast around Oden is just as good, which is what makes this year's Blazers roster so scary, albeit young. LaMarcus Aldridge, 23, will benefit much like Gasol from moving full-time to the power forward position, where he should become one of the game's best defenders. Offensively, he's not the most efficient scorer, but that will come with age.
Brandon Roy, 24, is a former Rookie of the Year and an All-Star at shooting guard and will combine with Aldridge and Oden to give the Blazers a dangerous inside-outside game on offense. Rudy Fernandez, 23, is Portland's other oversized shooting guard (both he and Roy are 6'6") and had a stellar Olympics this summer for the Spanish team. He will take the court in the States as a rookie.
And Jerryd Bayless, 20, spent one year at the University of Arizona as a combo guard before declaring for this year's draft. Pritchard left the rest of the NBA's front offices scratching their heads in amazement this June, somehow managing to trade the player Portland got with its No. 13 pick for Bayless, one of the class's four or five best talents.
With Pritchard's ability to consistently outsmart the rest of the Association, it's likely that even if the Blazers don't go deep into the West playoffs this season, they'll continue to improve and still be feared for years to come. And with a nucleus already in place of guys all born between 1985 and 1988, it's reasonable to expect 10 years of dominance in Portland. The Duncan Decade is over -- here comes the new era.
