EAST
#1 CLEVELAND VS #8 CHICAGO
I do not think there is a sports analyst out there who has the guts or is stupid enough to pick the Bulls. We
ll, I too am not stupid enough to cheer against the King and his team. Cleveland finished with the best record in the NBA and was able to rest Bron Bron for the few games. He will have some fresh legs and this series will be over in 4, yep thats right, the Cavs sweep Chicago. The 2 games in Chicago will be close, but the Cavs will find a way to pull them out. It all comes down to Lebron and he can't be stopped by the Bulls.#2 ORLANDO vs. #7 CHARLOTTE
The Bobcats are in their very first playoffs ever since they became a team in 2004. It's too bad that they are playing the hottest team in the East right now. The Magic won the season series 3-1 but
the Bobcats won the most recent meeting a month ago in Orlando. They are capable of beating the Magic, but they will not win more then 1 game against the Dwight Howard, Vince Carter, and friends. Orlando takes this series in 5.#3 ATLANTA vs #6 MILWAUKEE
Two weeks ago this series would have been a whole lot more exciting, but now, with the injury of Andrew Bogut, this
is looking to be another one-sided affair. The Bucks still have John Salmons and Brandon Jennings but that won't be enough to stop Josh Smith, Joe Johnson and the rest of the Hawks. The Bucks were one of the hottest teams since the All Star break but have recently sizzled down a bit with the injury to Bogut. The Hawks won't have a hard time working the ball down low through Al Horford who can either make a move to the hoop or kick it back out to one of the many deep threats for the Hawks. The Hawks will take this series in 6.#4 BOSTON vs. #5 MIAMI
The grandfathers of the league will be taking on team D-Wade. Boston has been a roller coaster this season with moments where they looked unstoppable and other times where even the Nets could beat them, and beat them bad! They are one of the oldest teams in the NBA which means they are experienced. They won it all
3 years ago, but lets not forget, being the oldest team in the NBA also means they are brittle and subject to injury, which has happened all season long. Pierce has missed a number of games, Garnett is clearly slower then he use to be and he is allowing people to drive right past him. But Boston still has the talent to win this series and make a run into the playoffs. Will they? Nope. Even if they were to win this series, they would have to play Cleveland in the second round and no one will be beating the Cavs. Miami will win this series in 7. This may be the most exciting opening round series this year.UPSET TEAM
The only team besides Cleveland that I think even has a possibility of making it to the Finals is Orlando. And even though that would not be much of an upset, no other team can make it past the Cavs. Atlanta has a lot of talent, but they don't have what it takes to beat the big guns. Orlando is the only possible upset team in the East.
EASTERN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONS
Do any of you remember when the Cavs started the season 0-2 and 3-3? They looked no better than a .500 team (which in the east would've qualified them for the playoffs anyways). Since that first 2 weeks of the season, no one has been better then them. Lebron James continues to amaze everyone. I was not alive for the early part of Michael Jordan's career, so for me, watching Lebron is something special and amazing. It is something that never gets old. It makes me stop doing homework, stop eating dinner, stop kissing girls, stop doing whatever I am doing just to watch magic happen. This seems to be the season that not only Lebron, but the entire team is ready to win a championship. They will play Orlando in the Eastern Conference Finals and that will most likely be one of the all-time greatest and most epic battles. Remember the NCAA Championship game a few weeks ago, well imagine Duke vs Butler, that exact same game, but 7 times. That is what a Cleveland vs. Orlando series will be like. The front office in Cleveland has had only one goal all year long, keep Lebron in town next year and for many years to come. They have built a team around him good enough to win a title and hopefully good enough to make him want to stay. This year, we have all been witnesses to his greatness, and we will all be witnesses to his first NBA championship.
WEST
# Los Angeles vs. #8 Oklahoma City
Unlike the 1-8 match up in the east, this one is going to be close. All 8 teams in the west finished with 50 or more wins. So lets just say, all 8 teams are freakin good. This series has the feel of a "anything you can do I can do better" type series. The veteran Lake
rs will look to defend their championship, but they'll be playing a group of guys too young to even know that LA has 15 total championships. The Thunder are the youngest team in the NBA and most guys on the team can probably only remember 4 of the Lakers titles. Just to put this into prespective, Kevin Durant, the leagues youngest ever scoring champ was only 8 when Kobe was drafted back in 1996. Yep thats right, 8 years old. But he's not the youngest on the team, Westbrook, Harden and Ibaka are all younger than Durant. The Thunder are so good, so young, this may not be their year, but can you only imagine what we will see from them in the years to come. The Lakers will take this one in 6 close games.#2 DALLAS vs. #7 SAN ANTONIO
Both these teams are getting old and for Dallas, this may be their last chance to win a title with this set of players. Although they are the #2 team in the west, they are not playing a team worthy of a #7 seed. The Spurs have all the potential of upsetting the Mavs. This is the third time they have played each other in the playoffs in the past 5 years with the Mavs winning the last two times. This will be a close seri
es, I think it will take all seven games for a winner to be decided, and I do not know who that winner will be. My gut tells me that Dallas will take it, but I feel there may just be an upset here. The Spurs are hurting a bit. Hill tweaked his ankle in the last game of the year and and Duncan is showing his age, but Ginobli is playing his best ball in years, possible of his career. The Mavs went on a 5-6 stretch a few weeks ago, but were able to finish with 5 straight wins and it appears that they have regained their focus. This is one of the best rivalries in the NBA and to be honest, their is no team I hate more then the Spurs, but the Mavs are always shaky when it comes to the playoffs, so I will give this one the San Antonio. The Spurs with the upset in 7 games.#3 PHOENIX vs #6 PORTLAND
The Phoenix vs Utah game two nights ago was huge because the winner got the 3 seed and would be playing the weakest team in the west right now. Portland is a great team, with Brandon Roy, but without him, they will not be the same. It looks like Roy is going to have surgery today and he will miss the entire series. The Suns come into the playoffs as the hottest team in the west with the best record since the All Star break at 23-6. They had a 10 game winning streak a few weeks ago and finished the season on a 14-2 run. It may sound cliche since their the Suns, but this team is on fire. Earlier in the year they would build huge leads in the second and third quarters just to watch them find a way to give that whole lead away and lose. But recently, they have built those huge leads, and they have held onto them. Take for example their last two games of the season, both against top tier teams. They had a 28 point lead against the Nuggets and held on to win by 22. The next night, at a game I attended, the Suns had a 23 point lead against the Jazz and won that one by 14 points. Both of those games Nash sat out the entire 4th quarter. The most improved part of this team from the early part of the season is without question their defense. I am not saying that they have the best defense in the NBA, not even close, but they have been able to get big stops when they were needed. Without a Brandon Roy, the Suns will win this one in 5 games.
#4 DENVER vs #5 UTAH
I mentioned above how huge the game on Wednesday night was for the Suns and Jazz. Had the Jazz won, they would have finished with the 3rd seed in the west and would be playing an injured Portland team with home court, but since they lost, they will be playing Denver without the home court advantage. The Jazz have shown this year that they ca
n match up against any team in the west, with only two exceptions, the Lakers and the Nuggets. I went to a Jazz vs Nuggets game back in January. The Nuggets did not have Billups or Melo and still were able to knock off the Jazz by 10. Without a doubt, the Jazz are a much better team now then they were in January, but the injury status of Carlos Boozer and Andre Kirilenko are not known. Boozer says he will play in game one against the Nuggets, but no one knows if his recent injury will affect him or not. If it does, this will be a nearly impossible series for the Jazz to win. They are a different team without Boozer. I think this series will come down to home court, so I have to give the advantage to the Nuggets in 7.UPSET TEAM
It may sound biased, but I don't care. I truly believe the Suns have what it take this year to make a push for the finals. They are the hottest team in the west right now and the Lakers and
Mavericks do not look to be playing their top ball of the season. The Suns have the most depth of any team in the NBA. On any given night, the Suns will have 10 or more players score. They have thei
r starting 5 and then in the second quarter they send in new set of 5 players, led by Goran Dragic, Leandro Barbosa, and Channing Frye, which play a completely different style than the starters. It is simple for a team to draw up a plan to stop 3 or 4 players, but no team is able to make a game plan to stop 10 players. The Suns 5 back up players could easily beat the top 5 of any of the lottery teams. Back in 2007 I thought that the Suns would make a run to the finals, that was stopped by a dirty Spurs team, but this year, if they play how they have been since the All Star break, they'll find a way to win the west.WESTERN CONFERENCE CHAMPION
I hate to say it, it beats me up inside, but it looks like once again, the Lakers will win the west. But this year, with all 8 teams in the west capable of winning one or more series, this is going to be a race to the finals and I will be biting my nails to see how the west will be won. I literally am praying that the Lakers do not win it, but if we lived in a world where good things happened to me, I would have a hot girlfriend, heck, I would have any girlfriend, I would have a good paying summer job, and the Suns would win the finals every year. But we do not live in that world, so most likely, history, a real sucky history, will repeat itself and the Lakers will be in the finals.
NBA FINALS
LAKERS vs. CAVALIERS
Need I say more...
NBA CHAMPIONS = CLEVELAND CAVALIERS
