The Playoffs are finally here
and the Quest to topple the Miami Heat (an effort in futility if you ask me)
off their throne is well underway. For about a Month or so the Post Season
picture was quite clear with 15 of the 16 teams already settled and the La
Lakers and the Utah Jazz fighting over the last spot. And to some extent the
Lakers had been written off up until Wednesday night when they turned
everything on its head and Clinched the last spot and surprisingly without Kobe
Bryant their talismanic captain (Guess his injury sparked something in the
players)
However only Miami
Heat,Milwaukee Bucks,New York Knicks and the Boston Celtic knew for certain who
and where they would be playing when the playoffs tipped off proper
EASTERN CONFERENCE
MIAMI HEAT (1) V MILWAUKEE
BUCKS (8)
In all honesty this matchup
will be the easiest series to predict this entire playoff post season. The
pairing was set before wednesday night , but this series over the last two
years has been quite close with the Heat winning the Series 3-1 against the
Bucks. Lebron James is coming off the greatest season any player has had Since
the great
and legendary Michael Jordan and of
course the heat went on that 27 game winning streak almost equalling the La
Lakers 70's Class. However don't let that lure you into a sense of Heat
Dominance. The Milwaukee Bucks always seem to come up with the goods whenever
they play the defending Champions, with Larry Sanders having an amazing performance
in the solitary win over the Heat this season.
Hopefully the Lebron James
and his team mates will show the Killer instinct they possess which saw them
win 66 games this season and not allow the Bucks play to their strengths.
Failure to do so may be disastruous.
The Heat should take the
series in 4
NEW YORK KNICKS (2) V BOSTON
CELTICS (7)
This is going to be a battle
between two very different teams. The
Knicks are younger and fresher and in Coach Mike Woodson they have a viable
candidate for Coach of the year. They have also managed to somehow cope with
the absence of the injured Amare Stoudemire and the retired Rasheed Wallace while
the celtics are aging, they also have to deal with the fact that they will
have to perform without their star point guard Rajon Rondo. In as much as all
fingers are pointing at the New York Knicks for a comfortable passage in this series , they just may get a shocker and see the
Celtics having none of it and pulling off an upset,giving their all. The down
side to that is whoever they face in the next round will sweep them off fairly
easily as they'll be tired
The Knicks should take this
in 5,conserving their energy for the next round
INDIANA PACERS (3) V ATLANTA
HAWKS
These 2 have gone head to
head this season and have had a share of the spoils. The Hawks winning the first
2 meetings and the Pacers winning the second 2. This seems to be the
"boring" matchup of the series as both teams lack Big name players
but on a neutral basis it should serve as a good contest.
This Series should drag to
game 7 with the Pacers taking it
BROOKLYN NETS (4) V CHICAGO
BULLS
2 names come to mind when you
hear this Matchup. Jay Z (because of his affiliation with the nets) and Derrick
Rose. In as much as it would make for good TV to see Derrick Rose play some
part in this series its highly unlikely he does as he is still recovering from
his torn ACL surgery. The Bulls will just have to learn to carry on without him
as they have for quite a while now and they have players who can step up to the
plate in his absence. Luol Deng and Joachim Noah
As good of a first year as
they have had,its safe to say that the Brooklyn Nets really aren't so good and
the distraction of Jay Z 's buisness transactions may have
been a bit too much for them. The fact that they ended up as the 4th seed
really tells you how weak the Eastern conference was in the 2012/13 season
Chicago Bulls Should take
this Series in 6
WESTERN CONFERENCE
Now in theWestern
Conference,this is where it all goes down. Exciting matchups all the way
OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER (1) V
HOUSTON ROCKETS (8)
This Season the thunder took
the series 2-1 with blowout margins of 30 and 22 points ,and an exciting 3
point loss. In both OKC wins,former thunder James Harden went for 46 on 14 for
19 so its important for the Thunder to learn how to neutralize him which
shouldn't be so hard since he used to play for them
In as much as we'd all like
to believe that the Thunder will blow the Rockets Sky high , the Rockets will
not go down without a fight and they have players like Jeremy Lin,Chandler
Parsons,Patrick Beverly who can land more than one three pointer in a game and
the Thunder have a vulnerability on the perimeter this season failing to close
shooters down, and for what its worth they still miss James Harden who has
transformed the rockets into an unlikely playoff team and
also balanced and supported an overpaid Jeremy Lin.
OKC should take this in 5. I
see the Rockets Squeezing out 2 games and making life difficult for them
SAN ANTONIO SPURS (2) V LOS
ANGELES LAKERS (7)
This San Antonio Spurs team
is built around seemingly pensionering trio of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and
Manu Ginogli; Duncan is without a doubt
one of the best players of all time and Future Hall of Famer. They also have
one of the greatest coaches of all time in Gregg Popovich and if Tony Parker
and Manu Ginobili had been lucky enough to be injury free, the Spurs would have
sealed top spot in the Western Conference
Now the Spurs have signed
Tracy (T-Mac) McGrady right before the start of the playoffs, adding some
valuable experience to their roster. No
team with McGrady on their books has ever made it past the first round of the
NBA playoffs. One can safely say he's cursed and hope he doesn't jinx the team.
However he isn't expected to feature prominently in Popovich's plans and should
be called upon to give rest time to the regulars in the team
Lakers Lakers Lakers!!! My
dearly beloved Los Angeles Lakers. Everything that could have possibly gone
wrong for the lakers this season went wrong.
They got 2 potential Hall of
Famers in Dwight (DH12) Howard and Steve Nash (The Zinidene Zidane of
Basketball in my opinion) and look what happened. Nash has had a torrid time
with injuries while Dwight Howard just couldn't fit into the lineup. Add some
coaching problems into the mix. Mike Brown was fired within 5 games and they
Passed over Phil Jackson in favour of Mike D'Antoni. The cherry right on top was losing Kobe Bryant to an
achilles injury a week before the end of the regular season. No Laker fan on
this planet would have thought that any
of this would happen to the team
O.K.
No need feeling sorry for themselves. They're in the playoffs and that's that.
Dwight Howard will have to step up to the plate and carry the team. Everyone
has to be a leader and stand up to be counted in the absence of the Black Mamba
The
Spurs I'm sure won't underestimate the Lakers even without Kobe. For some reason I think the other Lakers have
a point to prove and they'll go all out
Lakers
take the Series in 5 (Hey,I'm a Laker Fan. You weren't expecting me to give it
to Spurs were you?!)
DENVER
NUGGETS (3) V GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS (6)
The
Nuggets won the Season series 3-1 with the Warriors solitary win coming by a
single point at home, talk about close game. They did send their first meeting into. Double overtime though before
losing at home
In
Kenneth Faried the Nuggets have a player who is good in transition and can
hustle to make the baskets when the chips are down. Unfortunately for them he
suffered a severe ankle injury on sunday and may likely be unavailable in the
first or even two games of the series. Its no news that the Nuggets need him
desperately
Meanwhile in the Warriors.
Season finale against the Trail Blazers, Steph Curry set the all time NBA record for three
pointers in a season at 270. Curry might be the biggest X-Factor in the western
Conference and he could single handedly win the Warriors a game anywhere
While this isn't one of the
high profile matchups ,its still one to watch from a neutral standpoint
I think the Nuggets should
take this in 7 games
LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS (4) V
MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES
The Clippers are wrapping up their very first
season in franchise history where they were without a doubt the best team in
Los Angeles and in Chris Paul and Blake
Griffin they have the players to back that up. The playoffs will be a whole lot
more fun if the clippers can send the Grizzlies off and make it to the next
round
Chris Paul has transformed
himself into the best point guard in the league and carries a more potent
impact offensively
The Grizzlies however are an
efficient team. What they lack in flash and panache they make up for in direct
play. Sometimes they don't play pretty and that's the hallmark of their game.
After trading their best player Rudy Gay to the Toronto Raptors , they'll have
to look to other players to step up to the plate
The Clippers should wrap this
up in 7 games. I don't see the Grizzlies coping with the intensity they bring
So there you have it. Let's
see how it all plays out in the first round of the 2013 NBA playoffs
