I think San Antonio is gonna take it this year. They’ve been playing great and with all their experience and Pop??? I think theyre gonna take it.
Best Case Playoff Scenario: Lakers somehow put an amazing run together, stop blowing leads and win it all (possible but highly unlikely. Maybe a 15-20% chance)
Worst Case Playoff Scenario: Miami beats the Lakers in the final (that would bloooooooooooooooow)
[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
OKC looks damn good, but the more I watch the less I’m sure they have what it takes [this year]. I honestly think that Laker comeback rattled 'em a l’il, and a championship team needs a short memory.
[/quote]
FWIW, I don’t think the Lakers would have won that game without MWP’s elbow… Harden is the man and has played outstanding… If he doesn’t leave that game I think OCK would have won.
[quote]gregron wrote:
[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
OKC looks damn good, but the more I watch the less I’m sure they have what it takes [this year]. I honestly think that Laker comeback rattled 'em a l’il, and a championship team needs a short memory.
[/quote]
FWIW, I don’t think the Lakers would have won that game without MWP’s elbow… Harden is the man and has played outstanding… If he doesn’t leave that game I think OCK would have won.
[/quote]
Yep… was about to say the same.
Wasn’t a real test because of the Harden elbow and OKC was on the road. OKC has home court.
[quote]gregron wrote:
Worst Case Playoff Scenario: Miami beats the Lakers in the final (that would bloooooooooooooooow)[/quote]
You think the worst case scenario for the Lakers is to lose it in the Finals?
So you think that would be worse than the Lakers getting swept by the Nuggets in the first round?
[quote]gregron wrote:
[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
OKC looks damn good, but the more I watch the less I’m sure they have what it takes [this year]. I honestly think that Laker comeback rattled 'em a l’il, and a championship team needs a short memory.
[/quote]
FWIW, I don’t think the Lakers would have won that game without MWP’s elbow… Harden is the man and has played outstanding… If he doesn’t leave that game I think OCK would have won.
[/quote]
I definitely think OKC missed Harden more than LA missed Artest. You gotta remember though that LA was making a huge comback and had pulled within a bucket before Artest dropped the hammer, and when he left LA fell to as a low as 19 behind before storming back and taking it.
[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
[quote]scj119 wrote:
[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
Remember in '94 [I think?] when David Robinson needed whatever number to pass Shaq on the list and played a meaningless game against the Clips and wound up putting up 71 to clinch it? It’s just competition. As far as Bryant, think it’s just getting individual timing and rhythm back. He was at 28.1 before the layoff, had 2 games where he didn’t play much or well and dropped. Durant passed him during that time so I think it’s fair to try and get it back. And, this game poses no more potential risk than anyother in the immediate future. I’d personally love to see him go off, but he might just play a half then rest. Who knows?[/quote]
Oh, I’m not saying NO ONE would do it, I’m just saying not everyone would. There was a famous game a long time ago when George Gervin’s Spurs played… um, someone… they came into the game neck and neck for the scoring title and each threw up a bunch of shots and scored (I think) 40-50ish points trying to win it.
Regardless, news is Kobe is now going to sit, I think it’s the right call, kudos to him for forgoing the individual title.
[/quote]
It was David Tompson, and it was over 60 a piece. Thompson scored 73 I believe, Gervin had 60-something and ended up winning the title.
Also, I don’t like that he’s sitting. He’d be [I think] the oldest guy to ever win a scoring title, so why not do it? If he didn’t get it, no one would remember. But if he did, it’d be one more thing with his name in the books. I do believe that Bryant has never really cared about personal achievement. If he did, he would’ve asked to be traded when he was sharing the floor with Shaq so he could put up 35+ a night for several seasons in a row. He just wants to win, and to be the best.[/quote]
I think he cares about the all-time scoring title.
I would’ve had much less of a problem with him going for the scoring title if healthy and young. It was the fact that he was just coming off injury that made me say it was dumb. No sense risking it for a meaningless title.
[quote]therajraj wrote:
[quote]gregron wrote:
Worst Case Playoff Scenario: Miami beats the Lakers in the final (that would bloooooooooooooooow)[/quote]
You think the worst case scenario for the Lakers is to lose it in the Finals?
So you think that would be worse than the Lakers getting swept by the Nuggets in the first round?[/quote]
I think he’s just saying, the last thing he would want to see is Miami winning the title while beating the Lakers at the same time.
Predictions:
First off, the playoffs are more about specific matchups than overall strength.
SAS are the best team in the west, but the Jazz are a horrid matchup for them. SAS really has one weakness, defending bigs who can score in the post (not many of them left). They’re going against Jefferson, Favors (beastly lately) and Millsap who might combine for 60/game (Jefferson can score 25/game against them, Millsap 222). Not saying they WILL but it’s POSSIBLE. Then the Jazz have the suddenly non-dreadful version of Devin Harris and suddenly-good Gordon Hayward in the backcourt. I think SAS closes them out but it’s tougher than most think - SAS in 7.
Unfortunately, they will probably face Memphis in the 2nd round… and MEM taught us last year that they are another bad matchup for SAS, and they have more skilled players than UTA. Memphis may very well take this series, considering they beat the Spurs last year with the same players minus Rudy Gay. Spurs are better than last year too though. This series goes 7 and I’m taking… drum roll… Memphis. This may make me look dumb if they lose in the first round to the Los Angeles Chris Pauls.
OKC is solid but have the same crunch time issues as last year. Whether they play MEM or SAS in the WCF it will be an awesome series. Given that MEM and SAS have to play each other (probably) before they get to OKC, I’ll take OKC in the West.
In the East, despite BOS’s insane run at the end of the year, I still think it comes down to CHI vs. MIA. It pains me to say it but I think MIA takes it again. I don’t see the Bulls as having solved any of the issues that got them bounced in 5 games against the Heat last year, plus they are re-integrating injured Derrick Rose and Rip Hamilton on the fly. Granted the Heat lost to the Bulls with Rose out, which is just dumb, but the Bulls owned the Heat in the reg season last year and we saw how much that mattered in the playoffs.
OKC vs. MIA finals. OKC wins. Wade will go off because OKC has no wing stopper, but Westbrook somewhat cancels him out, Durant/LBJ cancel each other out, Ibaka/Collison shut down Bosh and the Thunder get enough out of Harden to take the series.
It’s gonna be an exciting playoff. Frankly, even though I took OKC to win it all, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if LAL bounced them in the 2nd round. I have a feeling it’s gonna be really unpredictable - particularly in the West.
Already thinking about reversing my MIA-CHI pick. MIA’s 4 thru 9 players are even worse than last year. I keep wondering how anyone will score on them, but the real question is how will anyone outside of the Two And a Half Men score any points vs. ANY playoff defense?
Good to see ya back Greg!
My finals predictions: Heat vs. OKC
I don’t think the Heat are going to fly through the playoffs like last year. Wade was awesome in the playoffs last year and he hasn’t been playing at that level this year. Whether its due to injury, lack of minutes or whatever. It’s still remains to be seen if Lebron can take his game to the next level and close out games. Regular season closeouts don’t mean shit in comparison. Knicks will win 2 games vs. the Heat. With a full healthy roster I’d say they have just as much raw talent when you consider their bench and Miami’s lack of. They just haven’t been able to put it together this year. I wish NY could’ve gotten that 6th seed.
I don’t catch a lot of Western Conference games since I go to sleep early but I’ll just go with OKC due to pure talent and how much they impressed me in the games I’ve seen.
Fun
Try again?
If LAL gets knocked out, I’d like to see MIA win it (sick and tired of the Lebron-haters)
And remember, last time we had a lockout, a #8-seed did make it all the way to June…
Anyone BUT miami…
Ideally i like the Thunder, however i feel for the Sonic fans and it sucks seeing your team win after moving out of town.
I kinda wanna see Chicago win a title without Derrick Rose.
I’m not cheering for injury or anything, but it would be a cool story if the Bulls won a title with him out
Yeah it looks like we’re heading towards a very unpredictable playoffs. But last year it was supposed to be pretty straight and it turned out to be extremely volatile, especially in the West, so maybe the overall strongest teams will breeze through.
But yeah, it is hard to make any conclusive predictions because it feels like everyone is confident they have a chance. Every team in the playoffs had a relatively successful year in terms of getting good wins against the top teams.
With that said I have to go with SAS vs OKC in the West and CHI vs MIA in the East. But it’s all going to be relative on how each team comes out to start the playoffs. That’s going to tell us how hungry everyone is respectively.
I won’t pretend to know the exact year/stat, or perhaps I’m even wrong, but I swear this is the first year in a LONG time that every team in the playoffs has had a winning record. I feel like at minimum the East 8 seed has been a sub-.500 team for at least the last decade, maybe longer.
[quote]therajraj wrote:
I kinda wanna see Chicago win a title without Derrick Rose.
I’m not cheering for injury or anything, but it would be a cool story if the Bulls won a title with him out[/quote]
I just don’t see how CHI can win, not without D Rose being fully healthy.
Granted CHI can defend with the best of em, but in the playoffs halfcourt tempo you ABSOLUTELY need that go-to guy who can manufacture buckets down the stretch, when every single possession matters (and gets defended as such)
Anthony, Wade, Durant, Bryant, James, Pierce, Manu, a healthy D Rose, etc
So if CHI and IND don’t go very far this year, this is likely why
edit - I would also Harden to the list of clear-out-and-let-them-go-to-work scorers
[quote]chillain wrote:
[quote]therajraj wrote:
I kinda wanna see Chicago win a title without Derrick Rose.
I’m not cheering for injury or anything, but it would be a cool story if the Bulls won a title with him out[/quote]
I just don’t see how CHI can win, not without D Rose being fully healthy.
Granted CHI can defend with the best of em, but in the playoffs halfcourt tempo you ABSOLUTELY need that go-to guy who can manufacture buckets down the stretch, when every single possession matters (and gets defended as such)
Anthony, Wade, Durant, Bryant, James, Pierce, Manu, a healthy D Rose, etc
So if CHI and IND don’t go very far this year, this is likely why
edit - I would also Harden to the list of clear-out-and-let-them-go-to-work scorers
[/quote]
I know their chances without him aren’t good, I just found a couple of the games they played w/o Rose pretty exciting to watch.