The sound of concern

The Suns win, and yet I type before you feeling that I may have been a bit bold with my prediction. I feel the series could possibly go the Lakers way, but it will come down to how Kobe plays. If he continues to get his teammates involved as he did Sunday, L.A. can win. If he feels that doing so isn't working (i.e. it was the Suns who won the game after all, right?) and tries to do much more himself, I think that plays into Phoenix's hands. Odom, Walton, Parker, and yes even Kwame Brown played serviceably today. Brown did miss some easy shots - shots I believe Elvin Hayes would have made in his prime.
But the way for the Lakers to exploit the Suns' obvious weakness down low is by Kobe not dominating the ball. Kobe played a smart game, and if he keeps it up his team can win. I hope the me-first Kobe returns, especially in front of the home crowd in Hollywood, to help the Suns steal some wins.
But have no doubt, I am concerned. The Suns were playing at home in front of a jazzed crowd and they had to scratch and claw to hang on. I think the Lakers got away with offensive fouls when backing down so powerfully, but the Kobe beef (ah, language is my tool) about no foul call on Tim Thomas was legitimate.
However, do not misconstrue this as shying away from a prediction. I stand by a Suns victory, but I fear an upset made of Zen, Odom and a dash of luck.
As for the other series, they are not exactly Masterpiece Theatre. LeBron was impressive, the Pacers-Nets series is destined for seven games, the Spurs showed they are ready and the
Clippers won a playoff game. In some cases, wake me when round 2 starts.
In other news, I watched Everything is Illuminated last night on DVD. Solid flick although I felt they edited out too many of the humorous scenes. Obviously, it's a serious book and a serious movie, but many of the scenes that made the book so fun ended up excised. The DVD does include some of them in the deleted scenes.
In what I'm reading news, I've moved on to The Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster. For anyone that has not read Auster, I highly recommend him. That is if you enjoy dark, brooding tales about the randomness of life.
In what I'm listening to news, I don't have a new CD, but I've decided to rename the category Blog-a-rhythm. Because it' s a pun. About math. And I like math puns.