The time has finally come. The NBA Finals are here and fans are actually excited about it this year. We get an old-school rivalry with the Boston Celtics taking on the Los Angeles Lakers. It's what the NBA wanted and needed. Quite frankly, I don’t think anyone would have turned in to watch the San Antonio Spurs win their fifth title in 10 years. The Lakers and Celtics have a combined 30 NBA titles, but who has the advantage this year?

They say experience is the best teacher and in the world of sports, it is conventional to take not necessarily the older team but the one that has played together longer. Well, you can throw that cliché out the window since it didn’t mean a thing this year. The Lakers took out the Spurs, and the Celtics defeated the veteran Pistons. Boston was able to do that by picking up their first two road wins in the playoffs after struggling against Cleveland and Atlanta.

Boston is the older team, but this has been their first season together. The core group of Lakers has pretty much been together since the beginning of the 2004-05 season. L.A. is incredibly quick and deep off the bench. It was tremendous to see so many of their role players step up in the San Antonio series.

The Lakers have their own "Big Three" with Bryant, Gasol and Lamar Odom.

L.A. has been a favorite to be playing in June after the February trade for forward Pau Gasol. Gasol has been a great Robin to Kobe Bryant’s Batman, always in the right place when Bryant dishes the ball after drawing extra defenders.

The biggest key for the Lakers is their defense on the Celtics’ Kevin Garnett. Although Garnett isn’t the biggest clutch player in the world, you don’t want to allow him to get going early in the game.

In my opinion, Bryant is the best player in the NBA hands down. He gets his teammates involved early and is still averaging almost 32 points in the playoffs. It will be hard to say if he gets those type of numbers this series as the Celtics have been the league's best defensive team.

Much has been made of Boston’s "Big Three" of Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. Well, the Lakers have their own "Big Three" with Bryant, Gasol and Lamar Odom and a better bench to boot.

The Lakers also have the better coach with Phil Jackson gunning for his 10^th title which would put him No. 1 over former Celtics great Red Auerbach.

With all that going their way, I expect the Lakers to close out Boston in six games.