So let’s look at our projections and see how we did:  Wow, actually pretty good.  Go wcbias.com.  The AL predictions were flat out money and of course I whiffed on the Reds winning the Central and the Giants in the West but I did come up with Atlanta winning the Wild Card which has got to be worth something.  And while I’m at it here’s my playoff picks:

Philly over Cinci
San Francisco over Atlanta
Tampa Bay over Texas
Yanks over Twins

Philly over Giants
Tampa Bay over Yankees

Tampa Bay over Phils in an upset

And let’s look at a few semi-sports things that we’ve done over the last few weeks.
1. Kickball.  0% fun.  Seriously no fun at all.  You use a ball that is more medicine ball than anything else so it goes nowhere, you play ELEVEN people in the field that is about the size of half a basketball court and lends itself onto to bunting.  Oh, and 26 people are on each team so you play every-other-inning and likely only get one at bat.  Quitmastered after only one game and joined another softball team instead.
2. Hiking in Yosemite.  This was good times, close to 100% fun probably I would say.
3. Fantasy football…Ray Rice I hate you with the burning passion of 1,000 suns.

And that is all.

• If Lamar “The Candy Man” Odom plays like this the rest of the way, give the Lakers the trophy now. Someone get this guy some Runts, or some Nerds, or something.
• McDonald’s LeBron James-Dwight Howard commercial reminded me of the ill-timed Kobe Bryant-LeBron James puppet show last year. Note to Ronald: get KG or Kobe a Happy Meal once in awhile.
• Another horrendous suit by Craig Sager (did you know this site was almost named SagersSuitSucks.com?) — even Phil Jackson couldn’t help but make fun of Sages … during the game!
• Gained some respect for Vanessa Bryant after reppin’ that black “Do I Look Illegal?” shirt courtside — making a jab at Arizona’s lame immigration law.
• Shannon Brown has some serious hops, almost pulling a Vince Carter on (make that, over) Jason Richardson.
• With Mike D’Antoni long gone, or as I like to say, “LeGone,” the Suns are a “defensive team.” Yeah, right. And Kobe’s not going to complain to the officials next time he misses a shot in traffic. HEY!

Bad news for Thunder fans, so sayeth the common wisdom.  Basketball blogs have been saying for weeks that every other West team simply wanted to avoid that first-round date with LA.

So will this match-up produce the typical #1 seed vs. #8 yawn-fest?

Not so fast.

We’ll break this series down in greater detail from a few different perspectives later this week, but here’s a couple of quick LAL/OKC thoughts to chew on:

*First of all, it never makes sense to me that bloggers, fans and beat writers obsess over first-round matchups and seeding at the bottom end of the bracket.  Of course, home-court advantage is critical, and so the focus on the jockeying at the top of the playoff bracket is worthy of attention.  But why should the Thunder or their fans care whether they are the sixth, seventh, or eighth seed?   Either way they will need to beat the best to be the best.  Sure enough, year after year, players always say as much whenever they are interviewed on this question.  Here’s a mind-numbing thought for Thunder fans:  if you harbor even the faintest hopes of your team winning the title this season, perhaps you’d actually prefer to face the defending champs in the first round.  With Andrew Bynum out indefinitely and the Lakers having lost six of their last 10, there’s no time like the present to attempt the impossible.  And again, either way, they would need to eventually beat the best to be the best.

*This will be Kevin Durant’s first career trip to the postseason, no doubt the first of many.  The Durantula’s breakout season will end with his first career scoring title, 30 points per game, and a likely top-3 finish in MVP voting.  It might end with a thud, though, when Ron Artest and Kobe Bryant take turns pushing, shoving, and elbowing him all series.  Durant Twittered earlier this year that Artest was the toughest defender he’s faced; can the slender forward withstand that punishment and still provide 35-40% of the Thunder’s offense in a six or seven-game series?  I don’t think so.  Phil Jackson and his staff have a week to prepare for this young man, and then a two-week series to analyze and make adjustments to his every movement.  Think about this:  Durant has probably never had an opponent prepare for him as much as the Lakers are about to.

*Thunder coach Scotty Brooks is a front-runner for Coach of the Year, and is widely respected for both the effort his team plays with and his X’s and O’s.   Can he out-coach Jackson in a seven-game series?  He would have to for OKC to have a chance to win.

*Derek Fisher can’t chase down lightning-quick point guards anymore.  Russell Westbrook is a lightning quick point guard.  However, Westbrook is turnover-prone and a bad shooter, and I think Fisher has enough veteran guile to avoid being badly outplayed in this matchup.

*Remember this name:  Thabo Sefalosha.  If you’re a casual NBA fan, he might be the best player you’ve never heard of.  But you’re about to hear his name a lot, because his performance might be the difference in this series. Who is he?  Sefalosha is OKC’s shooting guard, and arguably the best perimeter defender in the NBA. He will be guarding Kobe for 40 minutes a night in this series, and his defense will be the difference between blowouts in the Lakers’ favor and close games that the Thunder has a chance of winning with a few breaks.  No pressure, Thabo – you just have to slow down one of the two best players in the world. Can he force Kobe to take 30 shots to get his 30 points?

*An 8-seed has beaten a 1-seed only once in the history of the seven-game first-round format, and that was during the 2007 playoffs when the Warriors upset the Mavs.   The lightning-quick Warriors played uber-small ball and gave Dallas fits at the offensive end, as Dirk and Dampier hopelessly lumbered after a barrage of three-point bombers. Perhaps the Lakers share a few parallels to those Mavs: an aging, star-filled team, prone to lapses in concentration, with a soft 7-foot scorer, facing a smallish, young upstart team that’s willing to go through a brick wall for its coach.

But there’s one huge difference – the Mavs’ best player (Dirk) was a defensive liability in that series, and Kobe is one of the best defenders in the game.  I think that he and Artest will combine to make Durant’s first postseason into a trip that he will soon hope to forget.

Lakers in five, closing it out on their own home floor.

Good game, good game, good game, good game, atta baby, nice job, good game...

Come on, did you really think I wasn’t going to watch?  A little five-game losing streak isn’t going to stop me, that post was nothing short of the greatest reverse-jinx of all time.  So now that we’re in we turn our sights to the dreaded Cardinals, a team that scares the living beejesus out of me.  This is a Cardinals team that pretty much had their way with the Dodgers, beating them 3 out of 4 in St. Lou and 2 out of 3 at the Ravine.  No es bueno.  Of particular concern is Game 1 starter Chris Carpenter who had two appearances against the Blue this year and held them to a measley 3 earned runs over 15 dominant innings (good for Wins in both starts).  And as bad as that looks, Adam Wainwright takes the hill in Game 2 and his numbers against the Dodgers are even better.  Barf.

It’s not that announced Dodger starters Randy Wolf and Clayton Kershaw are total schlubs but the Cards could leave LA up 2-0 with their foot on the Dodgers’ throats and ample evidence as to why 7 out of the 8 ESPN experts picked Saint Louis.  I’m going with whoever takes Game 1 takes the series, I know that’s not the ballsiest of predictions but it’s the way I see it…Dodgers shock Chris Carp and they’re looking good, drop the first one and they’re looking down the barrel of a gun.  Not much of a homefield advantage but at least the crowd will be into it.  Or not.  Come on people, let’s fill this thing up.