You know, for once I agree with good ole Battlenuts.
Also take in account that one of the big reason the Laker bench suffered was that Lamar Odom and Trevor Ariza, who came off the bench in the beginning of the season, were starting most of the second half of the season. You lose two guys who were the main contributers off the bench, of course its going to drop off.
Also your assertion that the Lakers were 1-4 against the Blazers, Nuggets and Jazz is false. Collectively against those possible WC opponents the Lakers were 7-4 against those teams, the only losses were on the road. Meaning that neither of these good teams couldn't beat the Lakers on their home floor. Oh, I guess thats were home court kicks in.
The Lakers won 65 games in a tough conference and were 10 games better than the next. Losing to Boston in the Finals last year is irrelevant, and like I said before do you think any team is going to shoot lights out from 3 (which is a low percentage shot) for 4 out of seven games. In the playoffs, you win from the inside, not outside and Lakers are vastly superior in that department. That was the difference last year against the Celtics and in all other Finals before that. Name a team that has won a Finals without a strong inside game?