NBA Playoffs Thread

Hope this one goes a little better than the regular season thread, but playoffs start tomorrow:

Chicago-Indiana
Miami-Philadelphia
Boston-New York
Orlando-Atlanta

San Antonio-Memphis
Los Angeles-New Orleans
Dallas-Portland
Oklahoma City-Denver

Not a particularly compelling first round, if you ask me, but my team (Sixers) is technically still alive, so I'm happy even if they get blown out by the Heat. I like the Blazers and Knicks as upset picks.

I said it at the beginning of the season, and I still don't think Miami makes it out of the East. If the Sixers can't make the Finals, I'd love to see Chicago and the Lakers.

Thoughts?

 

Everyone is on Portland and New York. Although it's tempting, I see Dallas and Boston winning.

I couldn't be more cised for the playoffs. Could be epic. Especially in the second round, when you could have Boston-Miami, San Antonio-OKC and L.A.-Dallas.

Being a Lakers fan, I'm obviously pulling for them, but only with about 35 percent confidence that they can actually win. Too many good teams.

 

If the Knicks win more than one game in this series, I will be surprised. I also like Oklahoma City a lot.

 

Only lower-seed I see with any chance in the first round is Atlanta, and that's hardly a huge upset.

The second round, though - hold on to your hats! That's when it's really gonna get fun.

 

Atlanta's going to get swept.

 

Could see Memphis giving San Antonio a real struggle.

Orlando will knock of the Hawks in 3. After three 30 point blowout losses, the citizens of Atlanta will barricade the arena and refuse to let the players in for any more carnage.

And the only thing in the way of a Heat/Lakers final is OKC.

 

Is the first round best of 5 or best of 7?

 

And they'd like you to come to their home court to have it. That's going to make a bit of a difference.

 

Everybody's on OKC, but have they even won a road playoff game yet? I don't believe they have. Quite a jump from 0 road wins to NBA Finals. Or even Western Finals.

Sure are fun to watch, though.

 

Yea, I know, but I've been on the Heat back since they were getting smacked around by all the top contenders and people were burying them, and I'm not about to change my tune now. Even if it turns out wrong. And incurs the wrath of the Windy City SportsJournalists.commers (which I fully expect it will--very shortly).

With that said, despite how good the Bulls are and how well they've played in calendar year 2011, I see them coming up short against Miami in the conference final matchup.

 

I used to complain that the playoffs and the NBA season in general went too long, but now that I've almost completely tuned out MLB, I sort of welcome this thing dragging on into June. No clear-cut favorite makes it more entertaining for me, but I understand why it would be less compelling for a general audience.

 

I'm an OKC fan as much as I'm a fan of any NBA team, but I just don't see them getting through the other top 3 teams in the West. Most likely case for them is a competitive series loss in the second round. Next year they could be the top seed in the conference though.

Just because I think it'll be fun to see how I fare:

Chicago-Indiana - Bulls in 5
Miami-Philadelphia - Heat in 4
Boston-New York - Celtics in 6
Orlando-Atlanta - Magic in 6

San Antonio-Memphis - Spurs in 5
Los Angeles-New Orleans - Lakers in 5
Dallas-Portland - Mavs in 4
Oklahoma City-Denver - OKC in 5

Rd. 2
Chicago-Orlando - Bulls in 6
Celtics-Heat - Celtics in 7

Thunder-Spurs - Spurs in 7
Lakers-Mavs - Lakers in 6

Rd. 3
Bulls-Celtics - Celtics in 6
Lakers-Spurs - Spurs in 6

Championship
Spurs-Celtics - Spurs in 6