Saturday, April 19, 2008

NBA Playoff Predictions


OK, I'm not going to do a whole graphic thing like I did for the NFL playoffs (that took me way too long), but here are my predictions:

East
1st Round
Boston in 4 over Atlanta - The Hawks are just happy to be in the playoffs.
Cleveland in 5 over Washington - I have the benefit of already watching Game 1.
Orlando in 6 over Toronto - Dwight Howard is a person of unusual size and athleticism.
Detroit in 5 over Philadelphia - Detroit will forget to bring it for one game, as usual.

2nd Round
Boston in 6 over Cleveland - Nice job getting the 1st seed, Celtics. Have fun with Lebron.
Detroit in 5 over Orlando - Howard, Turkoglu, and Lewis are great, but what else is there?

Detroit in 7 over Boston - A great rivalry is restored.

West
1st Round
LA in 7 over Denver - The Nuggets can score. Defense? Not so much.
Utah in 7 over Houston - Tracy McGrady may never get past the 1st round.
Phoenix in 7 over San Antonio - Will Amare become the best player in the NBA?
New Orleans in 6 over Dallas - Jason Kidd is a very poor man's Chris Paul.

2nd Round
LA in 5 over Utah - Yes, Utah is underrated. That doesn't mean they can handle Kobe.
Phoenix in 7 over New Orleans - I can't wait to see the match-up between Nash and Paul.

Phoenix in 7 over LA - The Lakers are more than the Kobe show, but Phoenix still has a few more weapons.

Finals: Detroit in 7 over Phoenix - The Western Conference is playing for second. Whoever comes out will be too beat up to handle Detroit or Boston.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

this is a fun fun time to watch the NBA. I do fantasy basketball and we had our playoff draft last night and it was terribly difficult b/c the West is so hard to call. I think that 7 teams (all but Denver) are good enough to get hot and make it all the way to the NBA Finals.

I think I predicted the East the same as you up until I had Boston taking Detroit in the conference finals. Obviously I'm a Piston fan but I just think it's their year. In the West I took San Antonio over Phoenix, and Dallas over New Orleans in Round 1. And then I had San Antonio beating Dallas in Round 2, then losing to the Lakers. And Boston-LA would be ABC's dream finals matchup I suppose.

Selfishly I'll be pulling for Utah b/c I ended up with Okur, Kirilenko, and some of their scrubs in our fantasy pool. But the Lakers in round 2 will be an enormous problem. I actually think Utah's bigs can play them tough, but Kobe will be the difference. Not sure if Kirilenko can cover Kobe, well noone really can. But Deron Williams should absolutely destroy an aging Derek Fisher as well. I anticipate a few late nights falling asleep on the couch watching TNT.

Rudi said...

Boston over Phoenix in 6.

Print it.

Jon Vander Plas said...

I think the Spurs-Suns series could go either way (just look at yesterday's game), but I really think the Hornets will handle Dallas. The Kidd trade was a big mistake.

I think Denver could cause some problems for LA and with a little luck, get past them. They can really score.

I agree about the Williams/Fisher match-up, but Kirilenko has no chance.