No need to ask why David Stern is smiling.

The NFL season ended on Sunday, momentarily lifting its massive footprint in the sports marketplace. Kobe Bryant went for 61 in Madison Square Garden on Monday. LeBron James dropped a 52-point, 11-assist, 10-rebound line in MSG on Wednesday. And the Lakers and Celtics knocked heads in a playoff-caliber OT thriller on Thursday.

It's good to be David Stern.

While Roger Goodell had to watch a team no one cared about a month ago crashing his Super Bowl, Stern can start salivating at the prospect of another boffo matchup in the NBA Finals in June.

There won't be any Arizona Cardinal-type run to ruin Stern's party.

The Denver Nuggets won't peak at the right time. The Atlanta Hawks won't come out of nowhere.

No, there are only three teams with a shot to play in the Finals and they would all be very good for business. The Lakers are a lock in the West and the Cavaliers and Celtics will play for the right to meet L.A. for the title.

LeBron vs. Kobe? Or a Lakers-Celtics rematch?

Talk about a win-win.

They may not have played the All-Star game yet, but in this season — with the gap between the elite three and the rest of the league so gaping — it's not too early to start hyping these potential matchups.

LeBron vs. Kobe

Friday's action

• Celtics complete 0-3 week for Knicks
  
• Magic can't stop Granger, Pacers
  
• Down 17, Hawks rally past Bobcats
  
• Nuggets show no mercy vs. Wizards
  
• Randolph, Clippers clobber Grizzlies
  
• Stojakovic, Hornets snap 4-game skid
  
• Durant, Thunder beat Oden, Blazers
  
• Williams, Jazz hang on to beat Kings
  
• Suns handle Warriors for home win
  

  ---

FOXSports.com analysis

• Hench: NBA back to its Glory Days
• Goodman: Lakers erase Boston demons
• Rosen: Answering your NBA questions
• Galinsky: NBA Power Rankings

---

Video

• LeBron talks about his Garden party
• Hill: What Kobe must do now
• NBA stars on Black History Month

---

Photos

• Celtics, Lakers battle in Boston
• Eastern Conference All-Stars
• Western Conference All-Stars

Zydrunas Ilgauskas is 33 and coming off an ankle injury. He is averaging 7.3 rebounds per game, his lowest total in seven seasons. He is also moving further and further away from the basket on offense as his 11 made 3-pointers attest.

Meanwhile, the Lakers may have lost Andrew Bynum for the moment (he vows to be back for the playoffs), but they still have an All-Star big man in Pau Gasol. The 7-foot Spaniard had some up and down moments after coming over from the Grizzlies last season, but he has been a rock for the Lakers this year.

Gasol is averaging 18.1 points per game on 56 percent shooting and 9.2 rebounds a game. In three games since Bynum went down he has averaged 28.7 points on 70.8 percent shooting and 14.3 rebounds.

In three games against the Celtics and Cavs this season — all wins — Gasol has averaged 22 points on 68.3 percent shooting.

The acquisition of Gasol from the Grizzlies (for Kwame Brown, Jarvaris Crittenton, Aaron McKie, Marc Gasol and two guaranteed-to-be-late first-round picks) was the most corrupt transaction not involving Bernie Madoff of the last 10 years.

A Lakers-Cavs series would inevitably be distilled down to the meeting of the two greatest players of this generation for hype purposes, but L.A. would be favored because of Gasol.

Lakers-Celtics

While neutral NBA fans probably want to see LeBron and Kobe clash for seven games in June, Laker fans (and obviously Celtic fans) would prefer a resumption of the hostilities that almost boiled over Thursday night.

Los Angeles fans are obsessed with the way last season ended (a 131-92 drubbing in Game 6 in Boston) and the only way to exorcise that demon is to beat the Celtics in the Finals. A five-game romp over Cleveland would yield a victory parade, but not the primal cleansing of beating hated Boston.

Twice in the last six weeks the Lakers have shown that they have no intention of being rolled by the Celtics again.