NBA Playoffs Preview- Conference Finals

After all the action the four teams left are the top two seeds in their conference. Four teams left in the playoffs and any one of them can make a run for the title. Let's see who will advance to the Finals and who will be going home:


THE EASTERN CONFERENCE

#1 Atlanta Hawks vs #2 Cleveland Cavaliers- These were the top two teams in the East and the two teams that many picked to make it to the conference finals. But both of these teams are drastically different now than in the regular season. The Wizards were 0.1 seconds away from going to overtime in Game 6, but Paul Pierce's shot was too late and Hawks moved on. The Hawks looked unbeatable vs the East in the regular season and showed no signs of slowing down. But something that is common in the playoffs is that teams will exploit your weaknesses over the course of a series like the Wizards did to the Hawks. The Wizards dominated the Hawks on the wings with Paul Pierce and Bradley Beal each having an impressive series. With a one-handed John Wall many presumed that the Hawks would be able to wrap this series up rather quickly but the Wizards fought as hard as they could and played literally to the last second.

The Cavaliers dispatched the Bulls rather easily in a Game 6 blowout. It was an extremely impressive showing by the Cavs who won by 21 on the Bulls home court with no Kevin Love, LeBron shooting 7/23, and Kyrie Irving playing 12 minutes while attempting only 2 shots. A major reason the Cavs were able to beat the Bulls in 6 was the play of their role players. Mid-season additions J.R Smith, Timofey Mozgov, and Iman Shumpert all stepped up in defeating the Bulls and credit has to be given to GM David Griffin for adding these pieces that added much needed depth to a shallow Cavaliers team. Even second year guard Matthew Dellavedova had a coming out party, with 19 huge points in Game 6. With a banged up Irving and no Kevin Love, the Hawks will focus their defense on containing LeBron.

The Hawks have DeMarre Carroll a long defender that they will use to slow down LeBron. I also think that we will see a lot of team defense from the Hawks, Paul Millsap and Al Horford are too slow to guard LeBron on the wings but they can give him trouble when he attacks the paint. The X-factor for the Hawks will be containing the three point shooting of the Cavaliers, something that Cleveland relies on heavily. If the Hawks can limit the three pointers from the Cavs and force LeBron to carry the bulk of their offense they can pull the upset and make it to the Finals. During the Wizards series, the Hawks went through stretches where they couldn't get anything going offensively and if Kyle Korver shoots around 28% from three again the Hawks won't have a chance against the Cavaliers. Jeff Teague has been inconsistent in the playoffs and he will taken out of the game trying to guard Irving. I don't think the Hawks have enough scorers to keep up with the high scoring Cavalier offense. I think that the Cavalier role players step up once again and LeBron heads to his 5th straight finals appearance. Cavs in 6

THE WESTERN CONFERENCE

#1 Golden State Warriors vs #2 Houston Rockets- On Saturday the 9th the Warriors lost handedly to the Grizzlies to go down 2-1 in their series. The day after the Clippers assaulted the Rockets, beating them by 33 at home to take a commanding 3-1 series lead. How things change in a matter of days. The Rockets are the #2 seed in the West but nobody expected them to pull off the magic act that occurred last week. The Clippers, up 19 points with 14 minutes left in Game 6, were outscored 40-15 in the 4th quarter thanks to role players Jason Terry, Corey Brewer, and Trevor Ariza. But the epic comeback would not have happened without the magnificent play of Josh Smith. Smith had 14 of his 19 points in the 4th and lead a historic comeback. The most amazing thing about the Rockets comeback is that MVP runner up James Harden didn't score a single point during the 4th quarter and was on the bench for most of the final period. The Clippers barely put up a fight in Game 7 and have to be kicking themselves for squandering such a golden opportunity to reach the franchises first conference finals.

The Warriors eventually picked up their play and won three straight games rather easily thanks to the MVP Stephen Curry. Once the three pointers started falling for the Warriors it was evident how over matched the Grizzlies were and Memphis just couldn't keep up with the high octane offense of the Warriors. This series should be extremely fast paced and high scoring. Both teams like to push the ball and take a lot of three pointers. Dwight Howard will need to have a big series for the Rockets to pull the upset. If he can score in the paint at will and get easy buckets, the rest of the offense will benefit. In addition Josh Smith will be key for the Rockets, if he can get it going offensively off of the bench that will take a lot of pressure off the starters for the Rockets and give them much needed points against a very deep Warriors team. Although both teams are prolific on offense, they are also very good defensive teams. It will be interesting to see which team can do a good job of slowing the other one down on offense and limiting fast break points.

The storyline that everyone will be talking about is MVP Stephen Curry vs runner up James Harden. We might see them matched up against each other at times and if we are lucky hopefully both stars go off for 30+ points in each game of the series. In addition an interesting thing to look at is which one of these players has the most triple doubles in the series, as both are extremely talented passers. The Warriors are extremely difficult to beat, but they are not unstoppable. The Grizzlies showed a few weaknesses in the Warriors as Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph beat them up in the post, which is why it is imperative for Dwight Howard to have a big series. For the Rockets to pull of the upset they will need a lot of things to go their way. James Harden will have to have an excellent series, Howard must be elite on both sides of the ball, and the role players will have to hit their three pointers. But after the miracle they pulled off against the Clippers you have to think that Rockets believe they can beat anyone. It will be an exciting series with a lot of high scoring games and three pointers which I think favors the Warriors. Golden State has more depth off of the bench and that will be key as they edge the Rockets to make it to the NBA Finals. Warriors in 7

NBA Playoffs Preview - Second Round

After a fun first round the second round is upon us. Here we will find the true contenders and the teams that will be one step closer to the Finals.

THE EASTERN CONFERENCE:

#1 Atlanta Hawks vs #5 Washington Wizards- The Hawks are coming off of an unexpectedly long series vs the Brooklyn Nets. Atlanta went through stretches where they couldn't get anything going on offense which allowed Brooklyn to play them close in every game except for Game 6. The Hawks now face a Wizards team that have had a lot of rest because of their sweep of the Toronto Raptors. The Wizards were every bit the better team than the Raptors and had a great series from John Wall and Paul Pierce. The Wizards looked like an excellent team in the first round but one has to wonder if that is the great play of the Wizards or the ineptitude of the Raptors. Either way, Wizards coach Randy Whittman has looked like a much better coach in the playoffs. He has given role player Otto Porter more minutes and Porter has come on strong, improving his play from the regular season and playing key minutes for the Wizards. The key for this series will be whether or not the Hawks can control the perimeter play of Wall and Bradley Beal. DeMarre Carroll and Jeff Teague provide a difficult challenge to Wall and Beal so that will be a good match up to watch. Many people are saying the Hawks peaked in the regular season and don't have what it takes to make it to the Finals. This is a veteran team with experience so they will not go down without a fight. But this Wizards team with their stars and veteran players will provide a difficult challenge. This series will come down to late game execution and I think the Hawks make just enough plays to advance to the conference finals. Hawks in 7

#2 Cleveland Cavaliers vs #3 Chicago Bulls- This is a series that every basketball fan is looking forward to, with two teams that don't like each other at all. LeBron has had many battles with the Bulls, in a Cleveland Cavalier jersey as well as a Miami Heat jersey. If you are a Bulls fan you have to be tired of seeing LeBron James across you in the playoffs. This must be what fans in the 90's must have thought of Michael Jordan. The Bulls got a lucky break when Kevin Love injured his shoulder in Game 4 vs the Celtics. Love provided floor spacing and 3pt shooting that made the Cavs excellent on offense. Kyrie Irving and LeBron can still carry the load on offense but Love raised the Cavs offense to another gear and made them difficult to guard. Bulls forward Jimmy Butler had a huge series vs the Bucks and will need to come up big on both sides of the ball for the Bulls to win this series. But as past seasons have gone, this team will only go as far as Derrick Rose can take them. He has the ability to exploit Kyrie Irving on offense by getting to the basket. Rose needs to cut down on the 3 point shooting in this series, as he went 3-10 in the last two games vs the Bucks. An advantage for the Bulls is that the Cavs aren't as long on defense as the Bucks were so they should cut down on their turnovers this series. A key battle will be between Tristan Thompson and Chicago's bigs on the glass. Thompson destroyed the undersized Celtics bigs but will undoubtedly have a tougher time vs Joakim Noah and Pau Gasol. Every game in this series will physical and tough which will work to the Bulls advantage if they can slow the pace down and play inside-out. Ultimately the series will come down to whether the Bulls can contain the Cavs explosive offense. If Kyrie and LeBron both have huge games at the same time the Bulls won't be able to win. In addition if role players J.R Smith and Iman Shumpert come up big, it might not matter if the Bulls contain Kyrie or LeBron. This series will be extremely hard fought and this Bulls team is not one to fear a challenge even if it is vs LeBron, but I think the Cavs offense will be just too much as the Cavs move on to the East finals. Cavs in 7


THE WESTERN CONFERENCE:

#1 Golden State Warriors vs #5 Memphis Grizzlies- The Warriors have had a lot of rest thanks to a quick sweep of the New Orleans Pelicans. It was looking like they were going to lose Game 3 with a daunting 17 point deficit in the 4th quarter, but somehow came back and won in overtime thanks to a miracle shot by Stephen Curry. The Warriors looked every bit like the one seed and their home court advantage will be crucial throughout the playoffs. The Grizzlies overpowered an injured Portland Trailblazers team in 5 games, but got dealt a huge blow with an injury to Mike Conley in Game 3. He is their primary ball handler and the Grizzlies have another challenge in a series where they are already the underdogs. Conley is aiming for a Game 2 return and hopefully he can play in this series. It would have been interesting to see Conley matched up against Curry, but Nick Calathes has task of guarding Curry which is a huge disadvantage to the Grizzlies. The Grizzlies can not let Draymond Green get hot on offense, if Green is hitting his 3's Warrior games usually result in blowouts. The thing that makes the Warriors so difficult to beat is that they have an excellent defense and will make scoring difficult for a Grizzlies team that already lacks scoring aside from Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph. The only way the Grizzlies can win is if they can slow the pace down and exploit the Warriors on the inside. This task would obviously be much easier to do with a healthy Mike Conley. The truth is that the Grizzlies don't have much of a chance without Mike Conley and even if he was healthy it would still be difficult to beat this Warriors team. I think Conley comes back in Game 3 and the Grizzlies put up a fight but in the end it won't be enough. Warriors in 6


#2 Houston Rockets vs #3 Los Angeles Clippers- I'm going to take a moment here to talk about how excellent that Spurs/Clippers series was. Each game was a battle that deserved to be played in the Finals not the first round. Game 7 was a perfect way to cap this series, the game was back and forth the entire time and both teams gave everything they had. It's unfortunate that the Spurs had to go home and if that was Tim Duncan's last game, he put on a show worthy of a finale. Chris Paul injured his hamstring in that brutal Game 7 and his health is questionable for Game 1 vs the Rockets. If he doesn't play it will be nearly impossible for the Clippers to win in Houston and an injured Paul would be disastrous. The Rockets defeated a dysfunctional Mavericks team in the first round in 5 games. The Rockets exploited the Mavs on pick and roll with Dwight Howard and Josh Smith, both who had an excellent series. A match up to watch in this series is between Dwight Howard and Deandre Jordan. Howard is much better offensively while Jordan is a great defender. A key turning point will be who wins the rebounding battle between the two. The X-factor for the Rockets is the play Josh Smith. His play in the first round raised the Rockets from a solid playoff team to a championship contender. Smith is an excellent passer and rebounder and coming off the bench gives him a huge advantage over anyone on a weak Clippers bench. A huge concern for the Clippers is who they are going to match up against James Harden. Chris Paul is probably their best defender on the wing, but even he is undersized against Harden and if his injury is serious he will be over matched. If Harden and Smith both score at will with Howard dominating the glass, the Clippers won't be able to keep up no matter how good their offense is. The Clippers are undoubtedly a tougher team after that Spurs series and showed that they are a true contender. But one has to wonder how banged up they are and if they can put up a fight in what should be a long series. In addition the Clippers don't have home court advantage in this series, something that was huge in Game 7 vs the Spurs. If Chris Paul's injury is serious this may be a short series, regardless I see the Rockets pulling this one out by a slim margin. Rockets in 7