I’m not really excited to see any first round match ups but lakers and thunders. As much as I hate the lakers; with their experience and depth, they will probably win. However, I would love love to see an upset.
Shit, if the warriors could upset the mavs, durant and his team have a great chance.
Man, why is everyone picking against the Mavs. We dismantled the Spurs last season, granted Ginobli was not 100%, but the Mavs are MUCH better this season. And Parker is not 100%, he’ll probably be coming off the bench. The Spurs have nobody that can guard Dirk, and if Rick Carlisle pulls his head out of his ass and lets Roddy Beuabois get some real minutes I can see him going nuts. Devin Harris was a nightmare for the Spurs when he played in Dallas and Roddy is a similar type player, with more potential and athleticism. I think the Butler/Haywood trade was seriously underrated as well. It was the catalsyt for a 17 game win streak and catapulted the Mavs to the 2 seed. The Mavs and the Nuggets are the only real threats to the Lakers this season, and the Nuggets are playing without a coach…
^^ in my opinion Lakers/Thunder is the only foregone conclusion in the first round in the West. Durant and co. are fun to watch, but much too young/inexperienced to hang with the Lakers for a 7 game series.
In the East I want to see Cleveland take care of business. If they aren’t playing the Mavs, I’ll be rooting for them. I’d like to see Lebron get a ring.
Though I am a little scarred of Phoenix, one of the best teams past the all star break, I think Miller and Camby are going to show up to ball and really take care of business. Aldrige is still in, and he can take frye to town all day, same with miller on nash.
Roy really hasn’t been a huge threat lately anyways (4/14 and 3/13 both against Denver, had a good game against the Knicks, but its… the Knicks…), I hope Phoenix takes us lightly with Roy it, puts some confusion on them as they won’t double team as much, and if Roy is able to play a game or two, should add to the confusion.
i actually don’t think that the Lakers beating OKC is a forgone conclusion. if anything, i think this could be one of the best upsets since the #8 Nuggets beat the #1 Supersonics back in the day of Dikembe and Kemp! i don’t know if it WILL happen, but i wouldn’t be too suprised if OKC did pull of the upset. Young, yes. But LA seems out of steam lately, and i think the Thunder are riding a wave of confidence. it may not get them to the Western Conf. Championship, but i think an upset is very possible…
also, if the Nuggets can get past the Jazz (this one might go to Seven, so i’m happy my Nuggets have homecourt for at least ONE series) then they may be in this long enough to get back Coach Karl. and if that happens, watch out West! Denver’s record certainly should’ve been better, but most of the teams they lost to were losing teams. Agasint playoff teams, however, Denver has been phenominal this season! and if Karl gets back soon enough, it may lead them to a Western Showdown against Dallas or Phoenix…but NOT LA. somehow i don’t see them making it through this year’s playoffs.
My lakers are making me nervous lately, extremely unpredictable and pretty sad considering how excited I was for how great they were going to be this year with ron artest and a healthy bynum. But on the upside this will make the series much more interesting. Granted I doubt thunder can beat them in 7 games, but they’re still making me nervous.
[quote]marqcoig wrote:
i actually don’t think that the Lakers beating OKC is a forgone conclusion. if anything, i think this could be one of the best upsets since the #8 Nuggets beat the #1 Supersonics back in the day of Dikembe and Kemp! i don’t know if it WILL happen, but i wouldn’t be too suprised if OKC did pull of the upset. Young, yes. But LA seems out of steam lately, and i think the Thunder are riding a wave of confidence. it may not get them to the Western Conf. Championship, but i think an upset is very possible…
[/quote]
If anything, I would say that the Thunder have run out of steam. They look like they have hit a wall over the last couple of weeks of the regular season. I think the controversial loss to Utah is when it started.
That said, LA hasn’t looked great either. I still think LA beats the Thunder in five, although a six game series where the Thunder push LA would be great. If it was a five game series, like the first round used to be, I would give a the Thunder a better chance.
It’s like my heart wants the Celtics to surprise everyone and win them all, but obviously that’s not going to happen. They’re all getting old and if they did have ANY chance, this would be the season for it.
Denver is hot though, Anthony might just be able to take them all the way.
If their is a Lakers vs. Nuggets matchup in the second round, I can see the Nuggets winning the series if George Karl comes back to coach in that series.
They really need to go back to a five game series for the first round. The playoffs are too long and there is too many teams that make it.
What up T? I’m not sold on the Lakers making it out of the west. I called from the summer that signing Artest was a boneheaded move, and add that to the fact that Bryant is pretty damn beat up and the rest of the team playing half-assed ball and you’ve got a likely early exit. I could see that exit being at the hands of the Nugs. My main concern is the NBA doing their best to get James a ring. Last year they played 8-on-5 and still couldn’t beat the Magic, but I don’t know if the league will allow him to not make it. There’s too much riding on his making [and winning] the finals. Gues we’ll see. Also, I don’t want that to sound like Cleveland will just be ushered in. They still have to play, and play well, I just get a little tired of the excessive star treatment James gets.
EAST:
Cavs sweep
Magic sweep
Hawks in 5(although seeing this 1st half that could be a sweep too, getting absolutely killed inside without Bogut)
Celtics in 6(wouldn’t be shocked to see them sweep this as a statement that they’re still built for playoff ball, or even lose because there’s just no steam left in the tank and D-Wade do what he do)
West:
Lakers in 6(Phil and Kobe will get that team right for the playoffs, Durant can only carry so much so I’m giving them 1, MAYBE a 2nd game, no 7)
Mavs in 6
Suns in 5(would’ve taken Portland in this if they had Roy, feel bad for everyone on that team with the injuries they’ve had…)
Nuggets in 7? If we were doing confidence picks this would be 0, I see this as definitely the closest series in the first round.
Yeah straight up its going to be a good playoffs. I generally don’t believe that anyone deserves anything and you get what you get but I will be rooting for the Cavs and LeBron to win the championship this year.
You know I see people making predictions about first round matches and the team with the better home record will probably win. That being said I’ve been saying it since 10 games into the seaon, the west is as volatile as I have ever seen it.
Before I conclusively pick the Lakers or any other team to beat their opponent I have to watch the first game of the series. That’s going to tell you a lot about how hard everyones working.
CARMELO ANTHONY WITH A PLAYOFF HIGH 42 POINTS and a HUGE win for the Nuggets over Utah! they certianly aren’t playing like a team missing a coach! however, they are playing like a team missing a coach against a team with lots of hurt players…
the Nuggets will definitely make it out of the first round (i didn’t know till watching them play tonight), probably in 6, and with they way they played this first game, I think George Karl can limp them through a second round.
its the Western Conference Finals i’m really worried about, though. the Nuggets already know they can beat the Lakers, so although that could prove to be a long series, I’m confident in my boys. But a Championship series against who? The Mavs? The Suns? that could prove difficult…
[quote]marqcoig wrote:
i actually don’t think that the Lakers beating OKC is a forgone conclusion. if anything, i think this could be one of the best upsets since the #8 Nuggets beat the #1 Supersonics back in the day of Dikembe and Kemp! i don’t know if it WILL happen, but i wouldn’t be too suprised if OKC did pull of the upset. Young, yes. But LA seems out of steam lately, and i think the Thunder are riding a wave of confidence. it may not get them to the Western Conf. Championship, but i think an upset is very possible…
[/quote]
You are smoking dope. I’d bet any sum of money on this not happening under any circumstance. Everyone thinks LA is <insert negative adjective here i.e. old, no momentum, tired, etc>. OKC has absolutely no size to counter the 2 7 footers down low for LA never mind the level of playoff/championship experience on the Lakers. OKC are too young and inexperienced. Gimme a break…
