What's Up With The Lakers?

May 10, better than we have hoped, still has both Josh Smith and Carlos Boozer because their respective teams won at home court. Now that the Hawks and Bulls are visiting, the Celtics and 76ers are poised to use the energy of the crowd to close these series out. My pick.. Josh Smith.

• Josh Smith -- Safest choice at 29 PRA. Hard to believe there are still 22% of the drivers like me who did not pick him before (I should have). I guess lots of people like to gamble. Now that they extended the series for us, c'mon let's all hold hands and carry Josh into the pick pit.
• Carlos Boozer -- Hottest pick of the day as more than 31% of the drivers opted to bank on his 28 PRA. Not that far behind Josh in stats, and more likely to keep performing with Noah absent.

Case scenarios for May 12 (Game 7 if needed):

1. If both lose Game 6, then at least I already picked the highest available PRA player, Josh.
2. If Hawks and Bulls win (unlikely), then my pick on May 12 will be Boozer.
3. If Hawks lose and Bulls win, then my pick will still be Boozer.
4. If Hawks win and Bulls lose, then my pick will then be Al Horford (25 PRA). Not bad for the worst case scenario.

Meanwhile, the Lakers are having a hard time closing out the Nuggets. Game 6 will be in Denver where the Nuggets can steal one more game and force a Game 7. Now, if that makes you nervous of missing out on Kobe (41 PRA) and Bynum (29 PRA), don't be too concerned just yet. You can easily replace Bynum's PRA  with the aforementioned Josh Smith or Carlos Boozer in Game 6 (which we are all naturally doing already). And if worse comes to worst, we can all (well, most of us) pick Kobe in Game 7 while playing at Staples.

Excelsior! Aim high!