Official Playoffs Thread

[Bibby10]

Washington in 7, alright. Gilbert Arenas and Jamison always get the jitterbugs on the first playoff game. Caron Butler obviously caught the virus. Oh well, we'll be back for Game 2.

[detroitbasketball]

Hence me putting "although I regret this after today"...

[Jami]

falcons007 said:

Well lebron did get injured in the aformentioned game, and the playoffs are a whole different stroy.
plus i know my predictions are far fetched but at least i not the run of the mill pistons over someone.

The Cavs were already losing by 20 when LeBron went down in that game, but I think the Cavs would be able to get a game or two from the Pistons in the playoffs. Winning 4 games is a stretch, though...I think the Cavs are still a year or two from doing that. As for being run-of-the-mill, the NBA playoffs rarely have any first round upsets anymore since they went to a 7-game series in Round 1. In a 7-game series, it's just too hard for a real upset to take place -- the better team will win a 7-game series 95% of the time.

My predictions:

East Round 1
Detroit over Milwaukee, 4-0 (the Bucks shouldn't be in the playoffs, and this is coming from a Bucks fan)
Cleveland over Washington, 4-2 (LeBron will have to do everything himself...he's bound to have a couple bad games)
New Jersey over Indiana, 4-1 (Nets are red hot right now)
Miami over Chicago, 4-2 (Accounts for a couple games where Ben Gordon will be lights-out shooting)

East Round 2
Detroit over Cleveland, 4-2 (Detroit's just better in more places)
Miami over New Jersey, 4-2 (Miami's just too strong down low)

East Finals
Detroit over Miami, 4-2 (Shaq is bound to break down by this point, the Pistons are just better than the Heat this year.)

West Round 1
San Antonio over Sacro, 4-1 (I think the Kings'll win the first game at Arco, but the Spurs looked very very impressive today)
Dallas over Memphis, 4-1 (Dallas is just too good and too deep for Memphis to keep up IMO)
Clippers over Denver, 4-3 (I just want to see the Clips win a series)
PHX over Lakers, 4-2 (Kobe will score about 25,000 points in this series, but so will the Suns)

West Round 2
Dallas over San Antonio (Going against my better judgement...Dallas is just loaded and I think this is the series they'll be going all out in)
Clippers over Suns, 4-3 (What the hell...it'd be fun to see, wouldn't it?)

West Finals
Dallas over Clippers, 4-2 (AJ will have a way to slow down Brand in the post, the Mavs just have too much firepower)

NBA Finals
Detroit over Dallas, 4-2 (The Pistons will make Dirk Nowitzki cry, snap, and blame everything on his teammates like the Spurs usually do)

[hoosier]

Game 1 of the Pacers-Nets series was easily the best game of the playoffs so far. Pacers steal home court advantage. Tough call for the ref to make at the end, but the right one... Nets got a lot of calls throughout the game, not to mention Indiana turned the ball over almost 3 times as much as the Nets, so it shouldn't have even come down to free throws. We got lucky, but I'll take it.

[sep]

107-102 Suns, - I want to see the Staple Series, so please Suns, start losing.

Although I'll trade off a Laker lose for Pacer win, go Tinsley!

[detroitbasketball]

Staple Series isn't gonna happen. No way the Lakers beat the Suns, especially after how they kept Kobe in check today. Think that won't boost Phoenix's confidence?

[Maize]

West 1st round
Spurs over Kings
Mavs over Grizzlies
Suns over Lakers
Clippers over Nuggets

East 1st round
Pistons over Bucks
Cavs over Wizards
Heat over Bulls
Nets over Pacers

West 2nd round
Mavs over Spurs
Suns over Clippers

East 2nd round
Pistons over Cavs
Nets over Heat

West Finals
Suns over Spurs

East Finals
Pistons over Nets

NBA Finals
Pistons over Suns

[sep]

maizeandblue15 said:

West 2nd round
Mavs over Spurs

West Finals
Suns over Spurs

[Jami]

detroitbasketball said:

Staple Series isn't gonna happen. No way the Lakers beat the Suns, especially after how they kept Kobe in check today. Think that won't boost Phoenix's confidence?

It's still the best first round series, IMO. From what I saw of the game, the Lakers were just missing wide open shots when they got them. If they hit some of those, they might have stolen the game from the Suns. I could easily see the Lakers taking both games in LA, which is why Game 2 is going to be big. Even though Kobe was "shut down" (guy still had 22 points), other guys like Luke Walton stepped up...if the Lakers can get consistant games from Walton and Odom, then they might make the Suns sweat a little.

[detroitbasketball]

Jami, tell your Bucks to stop putting up a fight. They're making me more nervous than they should.

[Jami]

I want to know where this team was in the last week of the season. They wouldn't be stuck playing the Pistons if they didn't sleepwalk through their last 4-5 games.

Edit: I'm surprised it's this close at the half considering Redd is getting shut down and no one else can make a jumper for the Bucks.

[Bibby10]

hoosier said:

Tough call for the ref to make at the end, but the right one...

I gotta agree with the guys over at ESPN, when it comes down to the final seconds you play it out. Only hard fould, do you call. That wasn't worthy of the whistle. I thought the game would've been a New Jersey win in overtime if the call wasn't made.

[Bibby10]

West 1st round

Spurs over Kings / 4-2
Mavs over Grizzlies / 4-1
Suns over Lakers / 4-1
Clippers over Nuggets / 4-2

East 1st round

Pistons over Bucks / 4-2
Wiz over Cavs / 4-3
Heat over Bulls / 4-3
Nets over Pacers / 4-3

West 2nd round

Spurs over Mavs / 4-3
Suns over Clippers / 4-1

East 2nd round

Pistons over Wiz / 4-1
Nets over Heat / 4-3

West Finals

Spurs over Suns / 4-3

East Finals

Pistons over Nets / 4-2

NBA Finals
Pistons over Spurs / 4-3

[Jami]

Well the real Bucks finally showed up in that second half...at least they didn't get blown out as badly as the Kings did last night. The best thing the Bucks can hope for in this series is maybe stealing a win at home, otherwise they're just getting playoff experience for their younger players.

I keep forgetting that missing the playoffs wouldn't have done the Bucks any good this year because they sent their first round pick to New Orleans in the Magloire trade.

[hoosier]

xmikebibby10x said:

I gotta agree with the guys over at ESPN, when it comes down to the final seconds you play it out. Only hard fould, do you call. That wasn't worthy of the whistle. I thought the game would've been a New Jersey win in overtime if the call wasn't made.

Maybe, but bottom line is, it just should not have been that close to begin with. NJ got a LOT of calls prior to that, and had just 5 turnovers to our 17... had more offensive rebounds than we did... and O'Neal was a non-factor for 3 quarters.

[Bibby10]

Wiz even the series at 1 a piece. Ugly game. We place terribly at the end, I'm surprised Cleveland didn't shoot back up. But anyways, we're heading back to D.C. Hopefully we'll pick up two home wins.

[detroitbasketball]

Cleveland will take one game in Washington in this series, at least one. I triple guarantee it.

[Just Blaze]

Hey all, Im seein the Wizards play TONIGHT against Cleveland up in DC. Im about to leave and am too excited. My first playoff game and my 3rd NBA game. Wiz will win.

[sep]

LeBron will destroy them.

[McGahee]

Assuming he doesn't go 7/25 with 10 turnovers again...