For those of us without DVR, does anyone know a site to watch Game seven from last years finals online?

Since I have to type seventy-five words, if we end up playing Miami in the 2011 finals how big is the Barnes addition going to be in defending Miami? I haven't seen very much of him so I'm curious if he's capable of matching Wade's speed or Lebron's strength in guarding either of them?

I'm a newbie Laker's fan. Started following NBA the year after my hometown Sonic's moved out (Imagine that), and for awhile was just cruising the NBA scene, rooting for no one in particuliar. I was always a casual Kobe/Laker hater (For the same reason their are so many Yankee haters), but as I actually started to appreciate the NBA and watch more basketball games, I started to really find myself glued to the Laker's games. I was stuck for sure.

Now, my one claim to Laker's seniority is that I became a fan before the beggining of the Pau era. Before the Laker's were easy favorites to win the title. Before Kobe regained all his prestige and all the bandwaggoners from the Shaq years flocked back. I was a Lakers fan when we were just another team in a stacked Western conference, with seemingly no team chemistry.

Obviously, things have gotten better. Minus that 08 loss (Which despite my newbieness, devasted me), the Laker's have been riding high and show no reason of slowing down atleast for the next 2-4 years. Which begs my next question.

What are the Lakers prospects say 5-7 years down the line? How will our salary cap situation inhibit us after Kobe, and Artest, and Pau, and Odom are gone? I don't have the best understanding of the finer points of the NBA's salary situation, so I'm basically wondering if we're mortgaging the future on the next few years, inevitably to face a drop off to the bottom of the leauge?

Ok, everyone knows we have the best starting 5 in the leauge, whether Bynum or Odom is the odd man out. Boston makes a tough case with the signing of Rasheed, but other than Rondo I'm really concerned about the collective hip breakage factor of that squad.

Anyways, a lot of people like to hate on the Laker bench. But how bad is it really? Shannon Brown is an emerging stud as we saw last year. Jordan Farmar could be a starting PG on atleast a few teams in the NBA. Vujacic I predict will carry atleast half of his own weight next season. This was a guy afterall who we were all high on after 2008 so hopefully he will get his shit together now that some of the pressure is off the team. Regardless our guard situation is pretty solid, no real immideate holes to fill.

Luke Walton played really good basketball against the Magic. The rest of his playoff performance wasn't that epic if memory serves, but he is a good player and a good cog in the machine of the triangle. He isn't really an "energy" player in the traditional sense of the term, but he's a triangle booster for sure especially once the first unit is out. Morrison we know has been playing well this summer but we still don't know much about him other than he can knock down open 3's. Powell we all grew to appreciate during the regular season. I remember a close game where Kobe dished to him on back-to back-to back plays and Powell sunk all of his shots from about 17 feet. How he'll mature this season will be fun to see. Of course their is also Lamar..!

Mbenga is our back up center. Never really seen many of his minutes but he's crazy enough to atleast intimdate the other team (And Sasha).

So anyways as far as bench players can be ranked:

PG Shannon/Jordan: (4/5)

SG Sasha: (2/5)

SF Walton/Morrison: (3.5/5)

PF Odom/Powell: (5/5)

C: (Fuck it we got Gasol and Bynum)

Even before this hectic free-agent market opened a few weeks ago, I was consistent in my prediction that 2010 would see a rematch between the two most dominant teams in NBA history: Our Lakers, and the "I'm so old I need a wheelchair to get me off the court when I fall down" Celtics. Two big and highly surprising moves in the last week have solidifed my belief in that prediction, and hopefully will show to have given us Lakers fans what we've wanted all along... Celtic blood.

What's interesting is that the two guys involved in these trades are some of my favorite players. Both are extremely intelligent players (You can say either of them jack up too many shots at times but both have been on teams their whole careers where they've had to) who are going upgrade their squads at each's respective weakness. Assuming I am that we will see a repeat of the 08 finals, how do these two teams matchup?

1 Fischer
2 Byrant
3 Artest
4 Pau
5 Bynum
* Odom

1 Rondo
2 Allen
3 Pierce
4 Wallace
5 Garnett
* House

Christ, right? Of these 12, you have 10 potential all-stars. I know that's kind of a stretch, but 4-5 definitely will be there with a max number probably of 7.

Let's start with what cost LA the finals in 08, softness in the post. Lamar Odom was 100% incapable of guarding Kevin Garnett at that point (And probably still is) and Pau was a man who had never before seen a weight bench. His having not having been mentally or phsyically involved for majority of the season definitely showed against Boston, and the contrast is the defense he played on Dwight Howard a month ago. Bynum of course, is the lingering question. He was an absolute beast for a stretch of a month or two during this season, and if he can stay healthy and mentally prepared, the Laker's big men should be able to control Garnett.

The good thing, assuming LA doesn't lose any of its bigs to free agency or injury, is that Lamar Odom will get the task of guarding Sheed around the perimeter. This is good because Odom is at his most comfortable out there, and is tall enough to keep a hand in face. Also, Sheed spacing the floor with a bunch of three's might not be so good when you already have one of the best shooters ever doing the same thing in Ray Allen. Compound that with the fact that Allen himself will now be covered by Kobe Bryant, not Sasha or Luke like last year, and you've effectively covered two of the big three.

And the third member of the Boston Three Party? On Pierce will be our enforcer, Ronald W. Artest. I've heard a lot of people in the blogosphere talking about how losing Ariza for Artest is actually a let down defensively. Laugh.

The point guard position is now the Lakers #1 weakness. If we can hold on to Shannon Brown things will look a lot better, but regardless, Rondo is a great player (Albeit elevated by who he gets to play with) that hasn't reached his prime yet. Fisher and Farmar are both players that I have a lot of confidence in, but I wouldn't want either of them starting for us in 2010-2011, or hopefully even in the 2009-2010 playoffs if Shannon can develop like I think he will.

Basically, Ron was right when he told ESPN he needed to "hoodalize" LA a little bit. He didn't mean he was going to go after fans in the crowd or break camera's, he's just going to continue to play how he's always played, as a great defender. Which is precisely what we needed against Boston in the first place. Orlando was a good team, but they weren't the Celtics. We Laker fans want to see if it's true that the Celtic's faithful bleed green. Ron will give us that toughness on the perimeter. With Kobe there, he will not overload on 3 pointers, and on the flip side, Kobe wont have to expend so much energy on defense. If Ron is happy in his role as lockdown defender, this trade will be a beautiful thing for our Lakers. Now if that damn pinky/ring finger would heal.

Anyways, it's definitely premature to start finals predictions, especially with no one really knowing if Rondo, Odom, or Fisher will be back (I think it's safe to say that all three will), but fuck it, we want LA vs Boston. Given history anyways, it's not that unsafe a bet that these are the two teams are gonna see eachother again in the Finals.