Lakernoise

Phil Jackson is the master of match-ups. He knows that factor singularly rules the order of succession, not just in the playoffs, but on a nightly basis in the NBA.

It’s just that the match-up issues are more profound in the playoffs.

So now we have a fresh four-team tournament before us, the NBA’s version of a super-sized Final Four. It’s fun to try to figure where things are headed.

As LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers can tell us now, the Boston Celtics look really scary. They can embarrass you. And the Lakers still carry that memory from two years ago, when the Celtics took their manhood in the ‘08 championship series.

Two factors make them so dangerous now. The rise of Rajon Rondo and the recovery of Kevin Garnett. Matching up with either of those guys is a nightmare for the other three teams left in the fray.

Then you throw in Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and the rest of the Boston roster, and the reasons for concern grow. Tony Allen makes their bench a threat, and folks are starting to speak of him as they did James Posey in 2008.

Hey, we’re not even talking Orlando here yet. It seems pretty simple in the Eastern Conference finals. If Orlando continues to make all those jump shots and three-pointers, they’ll give Boston a run for the money. Plus Orlando has a better means of attacking the basket this year in Vince Carter.

But if the jump shots don’t fall, the Celtics advance with their pack-it-in defense. Even if those shots do fall, Boston still might just outlast the Magic. Yes, Orlando is a fine team, undefeated in these play-offs. But if Boston has some gas in the tank, the Magic will discover they’ve met nothing this season like the revived Celtics.

In the Western Conference finals, the Lakers should advance because of their size and their triangle offense, which will help them control tempo. You do have to sit back and admire the Phoenix Suns, how hard they’ve played, and the fine job Alvin Gentry has done with them.

Plus, it’s not just about their older players. Jared Dudley is a player to watch among their youth corps.

But the Suns are only a feel-good story in this equation. Absent of a major development/injury, the Lakers advance to take on the Boston-Orlando winner.

If it’s Orlando, they’re a better team this year, but L.A. still wins those match-ups. It maybe goes six games.

The hoops world hasn’t gotten around to announcing it just yet, but everybody’s itchin’ for another Boston/L.A. thing in the championship series.

It has tradition, the promise of big markets, the allure to make the whole world take notice and to make David Stern wiggle with delight.

If it’s Lakers/Celtics, L.A. center Andrew Bynum and his fragile health become a large factor. If Bynum’s healthy and feeling all right, the Lakers fare much better in the match-ups. That means L.A. will have more depth to throw at Garnett with long-armed Pau Gasol and versatile Lamar Odom.

Lakers small forward Ron Artest looms large as well, with his ability to factor in lots places defensively. L.A. should be able to assure that Paul Pierce won’t be the MVP of the 2010 NBA Finals.

But does L.A. have an answer for the guy who has made himself the game’s newest force, Rajon Rondo? Kobe Bryant and proud old Derek Fisher will have their say on that one.

Surviving that mismatch will require all of Phil Jackson’s cunning. Phil sorts that Rondo thing out, and Lakers owner Jerry Buss has little choice but to re-sign him next year to another big contract.

When Jackson was an adolescent sitting around playing board games with his evangelist mother Betty, the stakes were high in terms of pride. Now it’s the time of year where Jackson, the old man, really gets to feel like a kid again. He’s locked in for the challenge, full of concentration, feeling totally alive.

Yes, we’re at the NBA’s version of the Final Four. Let the mind games begin.

Roland Lazenby is the author of Jerry West, The Life And Legend Of A Basketball Icon, recently released by ESPN Books.