NBA Playoff Dream Matchups

Hoops fans, take one look at the matchups we see before us that start this Saturday. If you don’t start to salivate at the possibilities, I will make Carmelo Anthony my personal chauffeur. I offer very few solid predictions on these matters. After all, why be like everybody else?

In the East, right away the Cavaliers and Wizards battle it out for the third year in a row. Last year the Wizards had no chance without star guard Gilbert Arenas in uniform, and the year before was a six game war with three games going down to the wire. Arenas has already mentioned in print how hard it is for one team to beat another team in the postseason three years in a row and frankly, I think he’s right.

The Cavs have slightly more talent although LeBron has never been thought of as having a competent starting cast. If the Wizards win this though, the country may have some new names to learn from Washington, as Arenas has Caron Butler and little else to back him up. The Wizards frustration of losing to Cleveland the last two years should be enough to push this series to the seven game limit with LeBron and Arenas taking over most of the action. Should be fun.

The Magic and Raptors should be a very even matchup as big men Dwight Howard and Chris Bosh face off although both teams have very talented supporting casts. Look for Toronto to give the Magic some trouble, perhaps two wins before going down. The Raptors however, are not ready to challenge the Pistons should they pull the upset. Orlando may be able to give the Pistons a battle as they are much improved from the watered down 40-42 team that was entirely suffocated by Detroit in last year’s first round.

The other two east series, Celtics-Hawks and Pistons-Sixers will only be worth watching if you are looking to marvel at the greatness of the shamrock and the Motor City. However these two teams should meet for a stirring conference finals that harkens back to memorable slugfests in the 80s that still echo “And there’s a steal by Bird…”

With any luck, Cleveland will emerge from the 4-5 matchup, which would provide a tasty appetizer to the aforementioned Pistons-Celtics East Finals. King James versus KG is a distinct possibility, and will draw plenty of ratings simply to see those two bona-fide stars with no rings and no shortage of fiery intensity go mano a mano and dunk for power dunk. On paper, Boston should take such a series in 5 games or less, but who cares? Enjoy the ride just the same. Plus the Cavaliers proved the skeptics wrong just a year ago.

The real fun is going to be in the Western Conference. Keep this in mind: The 8 seed in the west is 50-32. They don’t play around out west.

With that said, the 50-32 Nuggets will have little to no chance of upending the top-seeded Lakers in round one. But if you want to see 132-128 basketball you have found it. For several years, Carmelo Anthony’s Nuggets teams have severely underachieved in the playoffs, and the addition of Iverson curiously has not seemed to put Denver into the upper echelon in the West. How can a team with ‘Melo, AI, K-Mart and Camby not be beasts of the West? And yet they remain in 8th. They can erase that dubious legacy with one upset here. The 1-8 series in the West last year was a little shaky if I recall. Whose to say it can’t happen again? Will it? Probably not. Kobe’s finally got a team that knows what they’re doing out in Cali. Should be buckets (and buckets) of fun either way.

The Jazz and Rockets get to pick up exactly where they left off last year. Tracy McGrady fell short on his promise to take his team to a playoff series win and couldn’t bear to take any more questions from the media. The teams are exactly where they were last year, same amount of talent, the Rockets won 22 straight games but they also lost Yao for the year and Rafer Alston for 2 games. The Jazz homecourt advantage at Energy Solutions Center is just as intimidating as ever. It will be a series of two teams that have all year played bigger than the sum of their parts. It’s easier to trust the Jazz though as Jerry Sloan always gets the most out of his players. McGrady will walk home crying yet again.

Published 2008-4-18 (approximately) for Sports-Central.org

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