Look for Lakers in Five

It's great to see these two old NBA rivals go at it for the title. And I remain amazed by this fact--of the 61 NBA titles awarded so far in history, half of them (30) have been won by either the Lakers or the Celtics.
Unfortunately, the glory days for each of these franchises came many years ago. Here's hoping the series is competitive and awakens some of the echoes of Heinsohn and Russell, West and Baylor.
But I'm not sure it will. I think the Lakers have two much firepower in this series, and they have the best player (by far) in Kobe Bryant. A year away from his trade demand, Kobe has strapped the franchise on his back and almost single-handedly led them through the postseason. Kobe has finally found the competitive fire that Michael Jordan had during his Hall of Fame career, and his intensity and focus is rubbing off on his Lakers teammates.
Unfortunately for the Celtics, their best player, Kevin Garnett, has been known to disappear in crunch time. For that reason, I look for the Lakers to win the NBA title in fairly short order--five games.