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		NBA Semi-Finals report By Dave Zizmor May 20, 2008

	Lakers-Spurs series: When the San Antonio Spurs face the L.A. Lakers, one thing the Spurs will definitely keep in mind is that Los Angeles is a very good team. The Spurs will not take the Lakers too lightly. The Spurs haven't really taken anyone lightly after winning in seven in New Orleans. One of the reasons the Lakers are such a good team is that they always expect the other teams to bring their best. The Spurs never thought that they would be caught being down two games to none to the Hornets early in the last round. That was a bit of a surprise for San Antonio. They certainly thought the Spurs were a good team and New Orleans, they just ran out of steam by the end of the series against the Spurs. New Orleans is a young team, they're very inexperienced in terms of playoffs and they just couldn't pull it off against the Spurs. The Hornets just didn't have the energy. If you watched that last game seven, the Hornets just petered out at the end. It wasn't because the Hornets weren't trying, but it was the Spurs defense that just wore out the Hornets for those seven games. The Hornets didn't have too tough a time in their first round series, but in the second round, the Spurs were a whole different story. The Spurs played defense all game long and didn't take a break. They’re very tough; you have to defend well when they’re on offense. The Spurs have so many weapons; they have Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and Tim Duncan. With the Spurs, you have to defend inside and you can't take a break and New Orleans as young as they are, they just weren't ready for that level of intensity. Sometimes you just lose your legs. If you watched that game seven, New Orleans was just too tired by that fourth quarter, and that kind of spelled their doom. The Hornets made it close but they just weren't able to hang with San Antonio all the way through. The Lakers are going to be a completely different story, because the Lakers have guys who've been deep into the postseason and have won championships. Kobe Bryant and the obvious guys are Derrick Fisher and Phil Jackson at head coach; they're not going to let this team lay down against the Spurs. The Lakers have had a few days to rest up before this series starts. This might be an advantage because the Spurs played seven games; they played against a very tough and quick team in the New Orleans Hornets. The Lakers have had a chance to rest up and the Spurs are a bit of an older team. Celtics-Pistons series: The Celtics, so far, no one expected that they would go through the playoffs and play two seven-game series right out of the gate. In their first series against Atlanta, everybody just assumed they'd win it in four or five games. Then everyone figured that Boston was good on the defensive end, that Cleveland had no shot, but LeBron James proved them wrong and he did what he did last year and carried the Cavilers on his back, and was tough to defend and difficult to stop. James was just a monster on the court and just kind of carried the Cavilers all by himself into game seven and the Celtics ended up prevailing. Boston is the team with the best record in the NBA and certainly in the east. Everyone is a little bit concerned considering the high expectations for the Boston Celtics because they have won over 60 games. The Celts have Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and all these other good young players. Now the Celts go into the playoffs, they can't shut teams out. They're only able to win games at home and not on the road. They haven't won a single road game so far in the playoffs. That's got to be troubling and I've said this in every single series that we've talked about: you can't win the championship if you can't win on the road. So far, the Celtics are avoiding that cliché, "the further you get, the better the teams are that you face and if you can't pull one off on the road, you’re putting yourself in a really difficult situation.” The Celtics have got to figure out a way to win at least one game at Detroit to take the pressure off. Boston's best players are all over 30 years old and they have all had their bouts with injuries over time and at this point in the season, we’re not just talking about 82 regular season games. You’re talking about 82 plus 14 games counting the playoffs. So now you’re up to 96 games. It really starts to take its toll. So we will see what's left in the tank when the ball is tossed in the air to start the Celts-Pistons series. David Zizmor covers the NBA Playoffs for Sportstalk Radio.