Ok, so I had this nice series of blog posts I was going to make laying out the entire playoffs from the first round onward. But then life decided to get in the way, and that got scrapped. Now I will boldly march on, even sans readers, to get the noise about the NBA playoffs out of my head onto some digital paper.
But first, a brief summary of what I was gonna say:
Eastern Conference finals: Pistons over the Cavs in five. Against the Pistons suffocating defense, the Cavs will wilt like Chamberlain. The Cavs can't do much to slow down Dee-troit either, so this one could get ugly. I'd predict a sweep if Detroit could stay focused again for four straight games. That might not be a stretch, seeing how they've come out in their first six playoff games.
Western conference round one:
Mavs-Warriors: I picked GS in six, believe it or not. I can't get over the transformation of this team. Who'da thunk Baron getting healthy would lead this team to become a bunch of pit bulls on D and lead to the crispiest ball movement this side of, well, anywhere? Chalk up a big assist to the softness of Dallas. They need a leadership transplant, particularly in the form of a take-charge guard, in the mold of Steve Nash. Wait a sec...
Rockets-Jazz: Against my better judgement, I picked the Rockets in seven. Logic told me that the Jazz's frontcourt athleticism would give them the upper hand on the glass, and that Houston's anemic offense would give out on them at the worst possible time. I rationalized picking the Rox at the time though because (a) Kirilenko, the only Jazz starter who plays any semblance of D (maybe except for my arch-nemesis Derek Fisher), was battling injury problems and (b) I thought TMac would deliver a transcendental performance (a la the Spurs miracle and the Mavs series a few years back), and take H-Town to the promised land. But when AK-47 found his game in Utah, I knew H-town was in trouble.
As for McGrady, it seemed his focus wavered throughout the series, as we saw in the second half of game 7. Very troubling, for a guy I always thought of as like Kobe, if Kobe played team basketball 24/7. As much as I hate to admit, being a JVG fan from his Knick days, I think this team could use a coaching change. I'm not sure his style fits these players, and the mental execution breakdowns this team always had in the fourth quarter have to at least partially fall on him.
Suns-Lakers: Money. I had the Suns in five. The Lakes were just too much of a mess to put up much fight in this series. Especially since the presence of Amare negated their big edge last season on the inside. Big ups to Lamar Odom, though, dude was a soldier, playing through an Iverson-esque slew of injuries to post big numbers. Fact is, I don't think he's comfortable being a sidekick, and the beginning of the year seemed to show that the Laker offense runs better when going through him instead of Kobe. I really hope he'll get his own team to lead in the off-season (Golden State, I'm talking to you!), so we can see his talent shine some more. There isn't anything this guy can't do.
Spurs-Nuggets: My lone prediction blemish (no I don't count the Jazz-Rockets series; I knew that if Utah's team was in tact, the Rockets were out). I actually believed Denver would pull this out in six. Looking at the Nuggets deep, talented corps of bigs, I thought they would be able to control the glass and play just enough D to pull it out. So what happened? San Antonio was steady and Denver wasn't. After game 1, Melo and AI stopped moving the ball on offense, and, probably not coincidentally, everybody on Denver stopped playing D (with the exception of Marcus Camby).
On a side note, I'm not down with all the hating on Mr. DPOY. I'm not saying his pick and roll defense is all that, but if he should apologize for his teammates being so bad on D that he gets all those blocks and boards, then Bill Russell, and every other great shotblocking big man, should do the same. My point is, the value of his shotblocking is that everybody on the other team has to be thinking about Camby when they come down the lane, and you could see that even in the Spurs series, after he sent Mr. Eva Longoria and Ginobili packing shot after shot.
Anyway, the series showed that the Nuggs have a way to go before becoming legit contenders. For all their press clippings, Melo and AI must involve their teammates, especially Nene (blossoming at both ends now, and making Kenyon Martin completely expendable), for this team to really run with the San Antonios and the Dallases ( hahahaha) of the Western conference.
Damn, I got a problem with verbosity. I'll have to save my spiel about the conference semis for next time.
