With Kobe Bryant, the Los Angeles Lakers are still the favorites to win this year's NBA Finals. Game 5 is tonight.

2-2.

The NBA Finals has gone as I expected and with the series being tied heading into tonight’s Game 5 in Boston, look for the Los Angeles Lakers to upend the Boston Celtics in a close one.

Besides, I picked the Lakers to win the series in six games so they got to win tonight, right?

The key to this series has been when the Celtics makes it a physical, defensive game, the game favors them. Boston coach Doc Rivers preaches that to his team and when they follow accordingly, the Celtics are tough to beat.

When the game has a flow to it and players are allowed to play with freedom and display their skills, the Lakers have the advantage because they have the best talent.

They’d rather play that way than grind it out. With that being said, here are three things Boston has going in its favor tonight.

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The emergence of point guard Rajon Rondo sparked the rejuvenated Boston Celtics to the NBA Finals.

Kobe vs. LeBron.

Ya’ll wanted it.

Heck, I even had dreams about it, but then reality set in and I knew the Los Angeles Lakers and Cleveland Cavaliers weren’t going to meet in this year’s NBA Finals.

In fact, I said one of four teams would make it to the NBA Finals instead.

My latter three choices were the Denver Nuggets, Charlotte Bobcats and Atlanta Hawks.

My first choice: The Boston Celtics.

Wow.

Either I know the NBA or miracles do happen. I’ll lean more toward the latter, but I have to know something about basketball to even make that kind of prediction because at the time, the Celtics were struggling.

Now they’re rolling and making me look like an NBA expert.

Kobe Bryant has lead the Los Angeles Lakers to the last three NBA Finals and become more of a leader during this stretch of success. He has a chance to win a fifth NBA championship ring this year.

Let’s get it on.

The Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers are going to do it again. I know everyone wanted to see two-time NBA MVP LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers (for now) and Kobe Bryant go at it, but hey, seeing two teams renew their rivalry is the NBA Finals isn’t too shabby.

In 2008, the Celtics took the Lakers out in six games and in the series-clinching Game 6, they just ran them out the building with a 131-92 victory.

Two years later, the Lakers and Celtics meet again, but this time, Los Angeles comes in as the defending champs and unlike 2008, it has the home-court advantage this time.

The two teams are essentially the same from when they faced each other in 2008. You’ve got the Big 3 for Boston and Kobe Bryant is still the best player between the two teams.

 Here are the differences.

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Doc Rivers has now lead the Boston Celtics to the NBA Finals twice in the last three years. Boston won it in 2008.

Up 3-0, the Boston Celtics had the brooms in  hand and were ready to sweep the Orlando Magic.

Then the Magic got tough and took two games to make it a series.

But on Friday night, the Celtics took care of business at home and beat Orlando, 96-84, in Game 6 to advance to the NBA Finals for the second time in three seasons. In 2008, they won it all and last season, they lost in the Eastern Conference semifinals to who else, the Magic.

Boston will play the winner of the Western Conference Finals series between the Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns.

With a 3-2 lead, the Lakers will try to close out that series in tonight’s Game 6 in Phoenix. If the Suns win, there will be a Game 7 Memorial Day in Los Angeles.

Don’t bank on eating hot dogs and watching a Game 7 Monday. Lakers should take care of business to set up a date with the Celtics.

Now back to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Here are three things we learned from this series.

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No one shot the ball as poorly as Ron Artest did last night.

Well Andrew Bynum was 0 of 5, but he’s got a bum knee. Artest seemed to have a bum brain because he took  two ill-advised shots late in the game. He shot 2 of 9 from the field, 0 of 3 from 3-point range.

However, he woke today the hero.

Artests’s put-back bucket of a Kobe Bryant air-ball, 3-pointer at the buzzer gave the Los Angeles Lakers a 103-101 home win against the Phoenix Suns in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals.

With a 3-2 series lead, the Lakers can earn their third straight trip to the NBA Finals with a win in Phoenix on Saturday night.

LeBron James may have played his final game for the Cleveland Cavaliers in Thursday's Game 6 loss in Boston.

It’s over.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are done for this season and if LeBron James decides to bounce and join another game, they will be done for much longer.

Just for the record, as much as I thought Cleveland had the team to win it all this season, I predicted before the season began it wouldn’t even make it to the NBA Finals.

Who did I pick: The Los Angeles Lakers to win back-to-back and beat the Orlando Magic again. They’re both still alive. Who would have thunk it?

As for the Cavaliers, they won 60-plus games in consecutive regular seasons, James won back-to-back NBA MVPs and didn’t make to the finals last season or this season.

Something is wrong with that picture?

Who is to blame?

Well, let’s start at the top. Or near the top.

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Charles Barkley played with an elbow injury in the 1993 NBA Finals against Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls

Seeing LeBron James play through a right elbow injury for the Cleveland Cavaliers reminds me of a former NBA superstar who tried to win a championship with a bum bow: Charles Barkley.

When he led the Phoenix Suns to the 1993 NBA Finals, Barkley played through a painfully inflammed right elbow against the then two-time defending champion Chicago Bulls lead by Michael Jordan.

Barkley had a great series, but looking back on it, he wore this bulky wrap, didn’t play as good as he could have and the Bulls won the series in six games by winning Game 6 in Phoenix.

Want to talk parallels between Barkley and James in this situation.

1). James will win his second league MVP award this season and Barkley was the NBA MVP in 1993.

 2). The Suns had home-court advantage throughout the playoffs and the Cavaliers have it in this season’s playoffs.

 3). That was Phoenix’s best chance to win a title with Barkley and this may be Cleveland’s last chance to win one if James decides to sign with another team after this season.

LeBron James scored 37 points in leading the Cavaliers past the Lakers on Thursday night.

After scoring 12 consecutive points in the fourth quarter of Cleveland’s 93-87 win against the Los Angeles Lakers, James sat in his locker with his feet in ice and his knee wrapped in nice.

Still trying to figure out what he’s doing with his hair these days, but when you score 37 points, dish out  nine assists and grab five rebounds against the defending NBA champions, you can wear your hair anyway you like.

Here’s what James had to say after the game.

You talk about (closing games) all the time. You really commanded it in that last couple of minutes?
“Uh, that’s what it’s about. I know you guys are like what we waiting on and why we wait until the fourth quarter so much, but we know that’s money time. That’s when most of the games are won 85 percent of the time games are won in the fourth quarter. In our case, probably 95 percent of the time so it was a big game for us. We played well and we’ve just go to keep the momentum going.”

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Kobe Bryant scored 30 points in leading the L.A. Lakers to a Game 5 victory.

After losing Game 4 Thursday night to fall down 3-1 in the NBA Finals, the Orlando Magic were leaking and the Los Angeles Lakers smelled blood.

So when the L.A. Lakers went on a torrid 16-0 run in the second quarter of Game 5 Sunday, the end result was inevitable.

The Los Angeles Lakers are NBA world champions after beating the Magic, 99-86, in Orlando.

Few expected the Magic to upset the Lakers even though they had upset top-seeded Cleveland to make to the NBA Finals. When the Magic look back at this series against the Lakers, they let Game 2 and Game 4 slip away as they lost both in overtime.

It’s hard to win a  best-of-7 series when you give two games away.

As for the Lakers, this is the 10th NBA title for their Hall of Fame coach, Phil Jackson. It’s the first time Kobe Bryant has won a title without Shaquille O’Neal.

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He may be the shortest guy in the picture, but Derek Fisher (2) hit the two biggest shots of the night in Thursday's Game 4 win for the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals.

The Orlando Magic gave the Los Angeles Lakers new life in this one.

Not a good idea.

They blew a 12-point halftime lead and then after failing to close out the Lakers in regulation, the Magic lost Game 4 in overtime, 99-91, in the NBA Finals on Thursday night in Orlando.

With a commanding 3-1 series lead, the Lakers will try to close out the Magic in Game 5 on Sunday night in Orlando. The reason the Magic are playing their third consecutive home is because in the NBA Finals, it’s a 2-3-2 series format.

Derek Fisher’s 3-pointer with 4.6 seconds left forced overtime and then he hit another one off a Kobe Bryant assist to break a tie and put the Lakers up for good with 31.3 seconds left.

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