NBA Playoffs: It's Fantastic
April 27, 2007
Many people call this year’s NBA playoffs a four-dog race between the Suns, Spurs, Mavericks, and Pistons. While they do seem to be the odds-on favorites, the post season always provide some interesting pairings and the possibility of a big upset. Here’s an inside look.
Eastern Conference
The most serious hope for the Eastern Conference to take home the NBA championship lies with their number one seed, the Detroit Pistons. Led by the veterans Richard Hamilton, Rasheed Wallace, and Chauncy Billups, the Pistons should have no trouble putting away the eighth seeded Orlando Magic, who at, 40-42, were the only team to make the playoffs with a losing record. The Magic haven’t beaten the Pistons in four tries this season, and never led at Auburn Hills as they dropped the first game of the series 100-92.
The second-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers also took care of busy, handily beating the Washington Wizards 97-82. LeBron James had 23 points and nine boards in the win, but Larry Hughes, who dropped 27 and pulled down seven rebounds, was the leading scorer. There were quality contributions from him Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Drew Gooden as well.
Washington simply found themselves outmatched, and without Gilbert Arenas, there seems to be no way for them to stay with the Cavs. While Cleveland should dispatch of them easily, I do worry about the depth of the Cavs bench, which featured five players—two that did not score—and contributed only twelve total points in the opening game. This will be a huge factor later on in the playoffs.
As the only team in the Atlantic Conference with a winning record, the Toronto Raptors earned themselves a three seed, and now face division rivals in the sixth-ranked New Jersey Nets. With All-Star Chris Bosh, who led the team in points and rebounds during the regular season, the Raptors should match up well against New Jersey,. But the Nets will step-up their game in the playoffs as they always do. If Jason Kidd continues to spread the ball around like he did in Game 1 (15 assists), New Jersey could be sending Toronto packing early.
Like the Raptors, the Miami Heat earned a top tier playoff spot thanks to a weak division. The defending champion Heat struggled early in the season, but made a comeback after the return of oft-injured Shaquille O’Neal and Dwayne Wade. The two of them plus Antoine Walker off of the bench tallied 60 points in game one, but it was not enough to stop the fifth-seeded Chicago Bulls from snatching a five-point win, led by the 33 points of Luol Deng.
The Bulls come out of the season having won seven of their last ten, including a 33-point drubbing of Washington last Sunday. With the talent of Deng, Ben Gordon, and the inside presence of Ben Wallace, even a healthy Heat team will have difficulty with this underrated Bulls club. It looks like the repeat train will run out of gas early into its journey in Chicago.
Western Conference.
The Western Conference features some powerhouse teams, especially the utterly dominant Dallas Mavericks. After losing only 15 games this season, Dallas would appear to be in the driver’s seat. However, the Mavs weren’t happy to see that their opponents were-the eighth-seeded Golden State Warriors. The Warriors are 3-0 against them, including victories by 17 and 29 points.
Still, that wasn’t the playoffs, right? Surely the Mavs would pick up their game and beat, if not sweep the lowly Warriors. But the Warriors won Game one by 12 points, led by 33 points and 14 rebounds from Baron Davis.
Could there be a huge upset in the first round that would send the Mavericks home crushed? I doubt it. The Mavs are too good and too deep of a team to let this one slip away. They certainly need Dirk to score more than 14 points a game or it is going to be a long and difficult series against a Golden State team that matches up very well against them.
The second seeded Phoenix Suns took care of business as usual, jumping out to a 1-0 series lead on the L.A. Lakers. The game mirrored the underachieving Lakers’ season, as Kobe dropped in 39 points, but the bench only contributed eight and Kobe won’t be able to carry the Lakers past a team like the Suns. Phoenix is by far the most well rounded team in the league, and with Steve Nash feeding Shawn Marion, Amare Stoudemire, and Leandro Barbosa, this should be the year they win it all.
The San Antonio Spurs earned themselves the third seed and a date with the Denver Nuggets. Since having both Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony on the floor together, the Nuggets have been a solid team, helped by key role players like Nene and Marcus Camby.
San Antonio had good contribution off the bench in their Game 1 loss, but Tony Parker led the team with only 19 points. Tim Duncan added just 14 while the all-star combo of Carmelo and Iverson alone combined for 61 points for the Nuggets. The Spurs also need help inside, as starting center Francisco Elson went scoreless and grabbed only four rebounds. The Spurs are an experienced team, and should be able to come back in this series, but their veteran scorers need to have bigger games if they want to avoid an upset.
One of the best match-ups in the West is the contest between the Utah Jazz and the Houston Rockets. In a low-scoring Game 1, the underdog Rockets jumped out to an early series lead, virtually all on the backs of Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady. The Jazz have a well rounded team, and got fourteen points from Matt Harpring off of the bench. Carlos Boozer is dangerous when driving down the middle of the paint and with help from Derek Fisher and Deron Williams, the Jazz will match up well against a Rocket team that they beat three out of four times this season. I look for this series to go the distance, and for the Jazz to win in seven close games and deny McGrady his first trip to the second round.
More Fun to Come
It’s certainly worthwhile to tune in to see some great first-round NBA action. What else are you gonna watch? It’s not like its baseball sea—right. Enjoy the games.