Magic Hero

Magic-Bobcats:
I don't really know much about the Bobcats and was toying with the idea of doing the post as consumate outsider Jackie Harvey (Item: apparently Chicago Bears bigman Maurcel Jordan has got himself his very own South Carolina team -- that joke isn't that much funnier in The Onion). I decided to scrap this idea, however, in favor of the short but sweet post. It seems to me that Charlotte has a good team that's not really ready. They have some amazingly athletic players in Stephen Jackson and Gerald Wallace (one of the only plays I saw the Bobcats perform had Wallace shooting almost straight up to grab a steal, and sprint for a dunk; it doesn't sound so good written here, but trust me it was impressive, he shot up like he had a jet-pack), one of the NBAs top coaches, and a new majority owner in Michael Jordan. They're undoubtedly green, but hungry, and could potentially make the series closer than many (including me) suspect (espn has an article here on how game 1 could have ended differently). But I can't really see them topping the Magic who had the league's best record after the arbitrary all-star break. The Magic's ridiculous and patented "hundreds of three-shooters plus Dwight Howard in the post" style will probably carry them deepish in the playoffs.

Interesting Stories:
Besides the Pietrus v. Wallace and Carter v. Jackson matchups that should be entertaining, the thing to watch in this series is the coaching. Both coaches have reputations as very good in-game coaches adroit at finding match-up advantages for their players and pressing them. Watching Van-Gundy go head to head with Larry Brown in a shifting, chess-like variety of rotations might be the most exciting thing this series has to offer (though there will most definitely be some awesome highlights).

Prediction:
Magic in 5
(Game 1, Game 2, Game 4, Game 5)