HoopsHype.com NBA Blogs - Eddie Johnson

We are winding down the NBA season and one thing seems certain… The Cavaliers, Lakers, Celtics, Magic and Spurs top the charts. There are some wild cards like Houston, Denver, New Orleans, Utah, Portland and Atlanta that might compete and throw a scare during the playoffs at one of the top seeds, but chances are it will not happen because these teams have a combined record of 100-115 on the road and in the playoffs that inability to get a victory will spell doom for them.

The Cavaliers are my team of choice going into the playoffs and it is not all about probable MVP LeBron James. It is about the Cavaliers support group. They have the best support group surrounding a superstar of any team in the league and that is why the Cleveland Cavaliers might indeed win their first NBA championship this season.

Every one of the five top teams has a nucleus of three All-Star caliber players. Cleveland has LeBron, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Mo Williams. Lakers: Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom. Celtics: Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. Magic: Dwight Howard, Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis. Spurs: Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili –  but that will not be enough to win it all.

The Cavaliers are the better team after we recognize the nucleus of each team. They rise above the other four when it comes to three-point shooting and versatile big men that anchor their stingy defense. Looks like a championship team to me.

Boston won last year with versatility and the Cavaliers have that same blueprint this year. They have been dominant with a 34-1 home record and 59-13 overall.

Cleveland brings a plethora of big defenders plus great three-point shooting to balance the dominance of James. That will allow them to protect him against constant double-teams and also allow them to grab second and third opportunities on the glass. These ingredients combined with their great defense (91.2 ppg allowed) and taking care of the ball (only 13 turnovers a game) are huge if you want to move on to the Finals.

Yes, the Lakers can boast of having some big bodies and a low-post game the Cavaliers lack, but that is only if Andrew Bynum can return from injury, which does not look good at the moment.

The Cavaliers are loaded with Ilgauskas, Ben Wallace, Joe Smith, Anderson Varejao and JJ Hickson and all can cause damage in a variety of ways, which gives head coach Mike Brown many options.

The Celtics can brag about Kevin Garnett, Kendrick Perkins, Leon Powe, Glen Davis and new addition Mikki Moore, but I give the Cavaliers the edge and mainly because of Garnett’s health.

I also believe the Cavaliers have the best collection of three-point shooters. Mo Williams, Delonte West, Sasha Pavlovic, Booby Gibson and Wally Szczerbiak are all money from beyond the arc.

The Lakers can get hot with Fisher, but Sasha Vujacic and the rest of the Laker bench have been inconsistent behind the arc.

The team that should really worry everyone is San Antonio because they will enter the playoffs well rested, but I believe they don’t have enough fire power off the bench to beat the Lakers, Celtics or Cleveland.

The Cavaliers also realize that the Celtics and Magic will face one another before meeting up with them so it would be huge if they could utilize that great home record (34-1) and put away their likely opponents (Chicago or Detroit) in the first round before they deal with probably a tough Atlanta team in the conference semifinals.

The Lakers are privately hoping the Dallas Mavericks garner the 8th spot over the Suns because that will allow them to avoid an emotional and physical confrontation with Shaquille O’Neal and then face Houston or Portland before probably facing San Antonio. Without a healthy Bynum, Pau Gasol will be exhausted having been pounded by Shaq, Yao Ming or Greg Oden before dealing with Tim Duncan.

The road is set and the Cavaliers have put themselves in a great confident position winning 11 in a row and having the best overall record with only one lost at home. That alone should establish them as the favorites.

There is no doubt in my mind who reins as the best team at the moment and now the question will be… Can King James win his first title and start the climb to greatest player ever?

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Ask me who I think is the best pure basketball player on Earth when it comes to smarts, overall ability, mental toughness, fundamental skills and clutch play and I will say Kobe Bryant. Ask me who I think is the most physically dominant basketball player with similar traits and I will say LeBron James.

But if you ask me who I think will win the MVP award if voting is in favor of the player that has the weakest supporting cast and yet still has his team in the playoffs and competing at a high level… Then I will tell you it’s Dwyane Wade.

I have been one of Wade’s most vocal critics, but his dedication this year in getting his body in great physical shape to play 82 games has paid dividends that we all knew he had.

Wade listened to someone this past offseason – or maybe he just watched the ultimate workout machine, Kobe Bryant, over the past few summers while playing for the Redeem Team. He reported to the Olympics in great shape and it showed with his ability to play great on both ends of the court and stand out more than anyone else on that gold medal team.

Wade was the best player this past summer and he is trying extremely hard to convince a great number of writers to change their thinking about who should be MVP this season. What he has done this season – 29.9 points a game, and even better after the All-Star break – sends a signal to anyone who thought it’s a two-man show between LeBron and Kobe for the award.

The run Wade has been is Jordan-like for sure. He is not only putting up insane numbers. He is also flirting with triple doubles every night and winning games with Hollywood endings. He has truly become an un stoppable force with his ability to get to the rim at will to set up his improved shooting range out to the three-point line.

Kobe and LeBron have taken notice because their numbers have risen in this stretch as well.

Wade is on such a rapid pace with a mediocre team that I can’t help but say he has become a serious contender to Kobe and LeBron. If voting goes to the standards of how to view a MVP, Wade should walk away with the award beating this year’s most dominant player – LeBron James.

That has happened before. Charles Barkley and Karl Malone won the award during the Michael Jordan era. Allen Iverson, Kevin Garnett, Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki have been MVPs this decade – basically dominated by Kobe, Shaquille O’Neal and Tim Duncan.

So we must assume the MVP does not usually go to the best player in the league. The best example would be Steve Nash, who admitted during his back-to-back MVP run that it was absurd to think he was better than Kobe, LeBron, Duncan or Shaq. But he was doing something no one expected and that was taking a 28-win Phoenix Suns team and help turn it into the most exciting team in the league by winning 62 games.

Wade is not doing that. He has the Heat only six games over .500 (36-30) and in fifth place in a weak Eastern Conference, but if you look at the Heat’s roster without him they would be lucky to win 12 games.

That reason alone will increase Wade’s chances of leapfrogging over Kobe and LeBron.

The easiest comparison of the three might lie in if the voters agree with my thought that the Lakers and Cavaliers would still be potentially play-off bound teams minus Kobe and LeBron and where would the Heat be without Wade.

The Lakers have Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom, Andrew Bynum and Derek Fisher, which would be a legit fifth or sixth seed in the Western Conference. The Cavaliers have Mo Williams, Zydrunas Ilgauskas and a trio of solid veterans that could have them competing for a sixth, seventh or eight seed in the East. Miami? It would be lottery-bound squad with an aging Jermaine O’Neal surrounded by a nucleus of young players still trying to figure the league out.

That sceanario should really get Kobe’s and LeBron’s supporters scrambling because if Wade continues with this rapid pace and somehow overtakes Atlanta for the fourth seed, then Wade will have a chance to win his first MVP award and that will be the biggest steal he has had all year long.

Dwyane Wade: 29.9 ppg, 7.6 apg, 5.1 rpg, 2.28 spg 49.8 FG%
LeBron James: 28.5 ppg, 7.2 apg, 7.5 rpg, 1.76 spg, 48.7 FG%
Kobe Bryant: 28.0 ppg, 4.9 apg, 5.4 rpg, 1.27 spg, 47.5 FG%

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