Finals, Here We Come by Luke Walton (图)

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Championship or Bust
Back in the Finals. Always a great, special feeling. This is my third visit in the last five years. Believe me, it never gets old. You might have seen the postgame presentation of us receiving the Western Conference championship trophy in Denver. I heard from a lot of people who saw that and said that we looked like a pretty subdued group.

While we’re certainly honored and excited to represent the Western Conference, we’re not satisfied with that. We had an opportunity to win the NBA championship last year and we didn’t get it done. This year, we’re fortunate to get another crack at it.

The road to The Finals has been a hard one, especially the last two series against Houston and Denver. Both played different styles but Denver had so much firepower. The Nuggets series was one of the harder ones I played in and that’s because with Carmelo and Chauncey leading the way, they could really blow you out if you weren’t giving it your all.

Unlike Houston or Denver, Orlando is not really known as a physical team. They spread the court and are a very good perimeter team. They remind me of the Suns team from a few years ago where any open shot is a good shot. Plus, they have big Dwight down low, crashing the boards relentlessly throughout the game. They have good passers who make the extra pass and they end up getting good looking shots. This will be a different series than the last two, that’s for sure. Fortunately, we’ve played both styles and we’re confident either way.

Guarding Dwight
We would love to be able to guard Dwight straight up, which will be a huge challenge for either Andrew or Pau. Obviously at times you will have to double him as they get the ball in transition, but with the amount of great shooters they have, we can’t afford to do that too often. But how we guard him is one of those things where we won’t know until the series starts and get a read of how things are going.

Orlando\'s Heart
The Magic don’t have just one guy but if you had to pick one it would probably be Hedo Turkoglu because he does so much. Besides being a good outside shooter, the Magic put him in a lot of pick and rolls and allow him to make a lot of plays for other people. A lot of times he takes the shot down the stretch at the end of the ballgame. While opposing teams know that we’re going to dump the ball into Kobe at the end of the game, the Magic may give it to Turkoglu or look for Rashard Lewis or get it to Dwight. They have a lot of offensive options but it seems that Turk is the main guy.

Down Goes Cleveland
I wasn’t that surprised Cleveland lost the series to Orlando. You always knew it was going to be either Cleveland, Orlando or Boston representing the East but if I had to guess I would have probably picked Cleveland because of their home dominance this season. A lot of times in the Playoffs it comes down to the end of the game, little plays here and there that end up turning the entire series around and Orlando made those plays against Cleveland. They definitely had the talent and ability to win that series so I wasn’t shocked. They’re playing great basketball.

LeBron Not Shaking Hands
LeBron walking off the court has elicited a lot of reaction. Was I surprised? Not really. Cleveland really felt they were going to win a championship this year. They had the best regular season record, home dominance and a great player leading the way. It was apparent to me that the Cavs were frustrated.

I’ve experienced similar frustrations even after regular season losses. I have a good friend, Brian Cook, who plays for the Rockets and after a game we played against Houston one time, I was so frustrated that I just took off without even saying what’s up to him afterward. I waited until the next day before I called him. When you’re competitive and you’re trying your hardest to win, you get frustrated and angry. I don’t look at LeBron walking off as that big of a deal. I can relate to his frustration.

Father-Son Championship Combos
Winning a championship would put me in some pretty special company I’ve been told. Only two father-son combos in NBA history have won NBA titles -- Matt Guokas, Sr. with the 1947 Philadelphia Warriors and his son, Matt Guokas, Jr. with the ’67 Philadelphia 76ers; and Rick Barry, who won Finals MVP honors with the 1975 Warriors and his son, Brent, who won two titles with the Spurs.

It would be very special for me to share the experience of winning an NBA title with my dad. My dad won multiple championships at the collegiate level at UCLA and in the NBA. One with the Blazers where he was the Finals MVP and as the Sixth Man of the Year with the 1986 Celtics. Seeing my dad experience the ultimate winning feeling with his teammates and friends and for me to be able to experience the same would truly be special. I hope I get there.

My dad left me a voice mail today. He was talking about the importance of taking full advantage of the opportunity of being in The Finals and saying that even though it’s going to be hard, he’s confident we can do it and that he’s pulling for us. He also told me to make sure I give it my all for each game and not let the experience and enormity of the event overwhelm me. Just go out there and play basketball like I’ve been playing my whole life and if we play to our potential, we could have a championship ring by the end of the month.

Last year, my dad would leave me voice mails where he did impersonations of opposing players. They were pretty funny. He would be like, “This is Carmelo Anthony and I’m going to torch you for 40 points and we’re going to sweep you and send you home early.” He was talking a lot of trash while impersonating the guys.

Kobe\'s Legacy
If we win a championship, a lot of people believe that it will really add to Kobe’s legacy. I think Kobe already added to it given the fact that we’re making our second Finals appearance in a row.

Normally when a dynasty ends like it did here in L.A. when the team split up five years ago, it takes a long time for an organization to rebuild and get back to that level. For Kobe to stick it out and experience the ups and downs, making back-to-back Finals shows what kind of competitor that he is.

Winning a ring would be icing on the cake for him.

This is a personal weblog. The views expressed here are those of Luke Walton and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the NBA, the Lakers, or NBA.com and its partners.