National Basketball Association

LeBron, Lakers to complete three-peats

Published Jan. 20, 2011 12:00 a.m. ET

foxsports

How things look in our always-reliable crystal ball for the second half of the NBA season and beyond:

LeBron Wins the MVP: It’ll be James’ third consecutive award, joining Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell and Larry Bird as the only players in league history to pull off the MVP three-peat. James will be the first to do it with two different teams, and the first to give his acceptance speech via Twitter. He chastises Cavs owner Dan Gilbert and reminds everyone of the “bad karma” in Quicken Loans Arena. James will outpoint Kevin Durant for the second season in a row, with Amar’e Stoudemire, Derrick Rose and Dirk Nowitzki rounding out the top five, in that order.

Heat Fizzle: The Heat’s lack of size will catch up with them in the playoffs, leading to an exit in the East finals. With the season deemed a failure by James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, Pat Riley replaces Erik Spoelstra with Doc Rivers, who steps down in Boston after leading the Celtics to their second consecutive Finals.

Lakers Top Spurs: En route to their three-peat in Phil Jackson’s swan song, the Lakers take out the Spurs in another classic Western Conference finals between the two teams. After Kobe Bryant has a monster series, the Spurs bemoan never having replaced Bruce Bowen.

Shaq Leaves Boston: After getting limited action for the Celtics in the playoffs, O’Neal gets a buyout for the final season of his two-year deal. On his way out of Boston, he’s heard mumbling something about getting “the Rasheed Wallace treatment.” Shaq again starts looking for a team that will get him minutes and shots. He rejects offers from teams in China, Turkey and Uzbekistan.

McMillan Bolts Portland: Nate McMillan leaving the Blazers would have been considered unimaginable a few years ago, as Portland had the makings of a big-time team featuring Greg Oden and Brandon Roy. But with Oden’s succession of knee surgeries and Roy’s career in doubt because of knee problems, it will be time for McMillan to move on to a team ready to win now. The Lakers will need to replace Jackson, and McMillan, a favorite of Kobe Bryant, will be a strong candidate should assistant coach Brian Shaw not get the job because he’s never been a head coach.

Clippers Make a Playoff Push: Blake Griffin is so good, he even has Baron Davis wanting to play hard every night. That’s partly why Griffin will win Rookie of the Year honors in a landslide over John Wall. It’s also why the Clippers, only seven games behind Portland entering the weekend, will make a run at their first postseason since 2006. To do it, they’ll have to somehow survive a brutal schedule that has them on the road for 11 consecutive games, from Feb. 4-25, as Staples Center hosts the Grammy Awards and All-Star Weekend.

Mavs Fit for a Prince: To overcome the loss of their key bench scorer, Caron Butler, the Mavs will acquire Tayshaun Prince from the Pistons. With the Pistons trying to lower their payroll as they try to find a buyer, team president Joe Dumars needs to move Prince and Richard Hamilton. Although Charlotte’s Stephen Jackson has been mentioned in a potential trade with the Mavs to replace Butler, Prince is a better fit because he’s a better defender and is more versatile. Dumars would take Butler’s expiring contract, among other things, in return for Prince, who played his rookie season for Mavs coach Rick Carlisle.

Denver Deals ‘Melo: With the Knicks unwilling to break up their team, Houston will end up with Carmelo Anthony at the trading deadline as the Rockets rent the scoring ace for the second half. After Anthony comes to New York in July, the free-agent focus will shift to 2012 and the top free agents, Deron Williams, Chris Paul and Dwight Howard. Howard will command the greatest attention of the three, centering on his potential move to the Lakers. Stan Van Gundy’s reaction? “As long as it doesn’t happen on Christmas.”

Christmas Day 2011: Much to the delight of Van Gundy, it’ll be a full slate of games, as the league has to make up ground for the lockout that caused all of November’s games to be wiped out.

Knicks’ Move: Once they don’t get ‘Melo next month, the Knicks will reacquire Chris Duhon to shore up their declining point-guard situation. They let Duhon walk last summer when they brought in Raymond Felton to play point guard. But Felton’s All-Star caliber play has suffered in recent weeks, as he’s averaging the most minutes (almost 39 per game) of his career. And Toney Douglas has shown he can’t run the offense up to Mike D’Antoni’s standards.

Trade Bait: Portland’s Andre Miller, Washington’s Kirk Hinrich and Charlotte’s Boris Diaw will be moved by the trading deadline. Miller will go to Miami, Hinrich will be sent to the Lakers and Diaw will resurface with Toronto. What’s going back? My crystal ball didn’t reveal, although the word “expiring contracts’’ did appear.

Prokhorov Reveals Plan B: After failing to come up with LeBron last summer and giving up in his quest for Anthony, Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov orders GM Billy King to start trade talks with the Hornets for Chris Paul. Devin Harris puts “For Sale’’ sign back out on his front lawn.

Jennings Leads Bucks to Playoffs: Once Brandon Jennings returns from a foot injury, the Bucks will make the playoffs. But they’ll be one of two teams with losing records to claim the final two playoff spots in the East. The other will be the Sixers.

The Talk of L.A. — Labor Pains: The rhetoric regarding a lockout will really heat up when All-Star players attend the next full-scale negotiating session between owners and players, scheduled for Los Angeles and All-Star weekend in February. At the end of the session, LeBron and Dan Gilbert will exchange insults. James’ barbs appear on Twitter, although he says he merely passed on the thoughts of someone else and did not wish ill on his former team. After burning an old James No 23 Cavs jersey that he brought to L.A., Gilbert is fined $100,000 by David Stern and forced to apologize. LeBron Tweets; “Bad karma will get you all the time. lol.’’