Wiedmer: Kobe versus LeBron is NBA destiny

It may go down as The Quote of the NBA playoffs. Asked what he and his Los Angeles Lakers teammates learned from their seven-game series with Houston, Kobe Bryant wryly replied: “That we're bipolar.”

Really?

Just because the most talented team in the NBA lost three games to a battered Rockets team by an average of 12 points and secured its four wins by an average of 21.5 points?

Who could possibly see uneven behavior in play such as that?

Yet all that counts this morning is that the Lakers are moving on to the Western Conference final against Denver following Sunday’s 89-70 victory over Houston.

Too bad the Boston Celtics couldn't follow suit in their Game 7 against Orlando.

Though no one would label last year's champs as bipolar, their 101-82 loss to the Magic was the first time in 33 opportunities that the Big Green had lost a Game 7 after leading a best-of-seven series 3-2.

Of course, never in those 32 previous deciding games had a star Celtics forward turned in the kind of game Paul Pierce did on Sunday night, when he stood 2-of-9 from the floor midway through the fourth quarter.

Give the Celtics credit. Without injured power forward Kevin Garnett, the centerpiece of last year's title team, Boston still managed to force two game sevens. And their financial gamble to bring in both Ray Allen and Garnett to win a championship for the first time in 22 years paid off.

But without another infusion of cash or point guard Rajon Rondo finally developing a reliable jumper, it's difficult to imagine Boston making another title run next year.

Their time has probably come and gone, as often happens when you bet the bank on aging veterans. Just ask the Atlanta Braves.

But Orlando’s run will almost assuredly end against LeBron James and Cleveland in the Eastern Conference final.

The Magic are good and getting better. With injured point guard Jameer Nelson back a year from now, they should make a serious run at a title.

But this year appears to belong to Cleveland in the East, where the Cavs not only posted the NBA’s best regular-season record but have also won all eight of their playoff games thus far by double-digits. Cleveland plays terrific defense every game and is all but unbeatable with King James is on his game.

So go ahead and pencil the Cavs into the Finals, where they’ll also own home court.

Then settle in for what could be a profoundly entertaining Western Conference final between the Lakers and Nuggets.

LA, of course, will have the home floor again by virtue of an outstanding regular season (65-17). And until this year's playoffs began, this appeared to be the best team the Lakers could play, since Denver usually plays terrible defense.

But these Nuggets don’t look like fool's gold this time around. They hustle on both ends of the court, they're deep and they've got the best clutch point guard in the league in Denver native Chauncey Billups, who does everything well and shoots free throws phenomenally, hitting over 90 percent from the line.

Kobe and the home court should be just enough to advance the Lakers to the championship round — especially if Los Angeles center Andrew Bynum can play — but this isn’t the lock the Lakers probably thought they’d have.

Still, when Kobe teammate Lamar Odom was asked Sunday what he learned about his team from the Rockets series, he said, “To make it interesting. It’s Hollywood, you know.”

And in Hollywood the only satisfying ending for this NBA season would be for Kobe to square off against LeBron in the Finals.