River of Broken Dreams

I figure I'd better get my shots in before the game tonight, so I'll throw out some predictions with the hope that I'm wrong:

1. The Cavs will lose in 6. The Cavs should come out all hot and bothered tonight and squeak out a win (I'll go so far as to say a win by 8). Then, reality will sink in on Saturday and the dismantling of Cleveland's Last Hope will continue. No one seems to be able to figure out what exactly is going on, obviously Mike Brown included, but it doesn't help that the Magic are shooting the lights out. 17 from behind the arc? 17?! For one, they need to stop sending help on Dwight Howard. Let Superman have his way- how much damage can he possibly do? It's not like he has a jump shot, he's just hustling around, like anyone who is 8 feet tall and 400 pounds of muscle should be able to do. Make him beat you, and stop opening up high percentage shots against a team that is shooting this well. Hopefully tonight Lebron can drag the chagrined corpse of Mo Williams and crew to victory, but it's going to end there.

2. Cleveland will not win a major sports championship in the next 10 years. If the Cavs are unable to win this year (and it certainly looks that way) then they will also be unable to beat the Magic next year. And let's face facts: LeBron could be the most loyal human being on earth, but he's also a competitor. He's going to want to win a championship and that means he's going to have to leave. Nathan is dead on. The Brown's? Indians? No and no.

3. Hedo Turkoglu is the most underappreciated player in the 2009 playoffs, and he will be the reason the Magic beat the Lakers. Bleacher reporter put together an excellent article on why Hedo is so boring. Essentially, he's too predictable. He's going to give you 17 +/- 5 every night, game in and game out. He won't explode on you for 50, but he's capable of beating you in many different ways. He's also a closer, and that makes him even more dangerous given how well-rounded the Magic are. As the Onion points out, the nation just refuses to get to know the Magic Turk. And of all the foreigners we had to embrace, it was this goon?