Chai Wala’s First Round Predictions
April 17th, 2010 by ChaI-Wala
It hurts me to write this preview as you all know my beloved Toronto Raptors stumbled..No, they crawled…actually they internally combusted themselves out of the playoffs, but more on that later. The 2010 NBA Playoffs is shaping up to be one of the most compelling in recent memory.
West Preview
With every team in the west unbelievably with at least 50 wins each (Just think about that for a second….ALL 8 teams have at least 50 wins. That my friends is absolutely RIDICULOUS), the west features matchups what would make Vegas bookies swoon.
The NBA’s newest darling the 21 year old 2010 scoring champion Kevin Durrant and his young, athletic and talented Oklahoma City Thunder face the stumbling defending champions and one of the greatest scorers of all time in Kobe Bryant and the LA Lakers. Don’t be surprised if this series goes 6 or 7 games, the Lakers tend to be sluggish in the early rounds of the playoffs. The inexperience of the Thunder will eventually cost them the series.
We have Dirk and the revamped Mavericks against the old steady horses in Tim Duncan and the Spurs. I think the Mavericks are just way too stacked for the old Spurs to contend with. The play of Brandon Haywood on Tim Duncan will be the turning point and I expect Dallas to win in 5 games.
MVP candidate Mr. Kid Canada Steve Nash and the Suns will face off against a Brandon Roy-less Portland Team (Brandon Roy opted for arthroscopic surgery on his knee and will be out at least for the first round of the playoffs). Without Brandon Roy, the blazers will barely stand a chance against the high powered Suns with Nash and Amare playing All NBA basketball. I expect the Suns to take this series in at most 5 games. No Brandon Roy = No wins for Portland. It’s that simple.
And last but definitely not least Carmelo Anthony and the Nuggets will face off against a very strong Utah team with Deron Williams playing the best ball of any point guard in the league right now. This will be the most competitive series of the western conference. Both teams are strong defensively and have star players that can take over the game in Carmelo and Deron, BUT the X factor in this series is JR Smith. JR can go off for 30 – 40 pts any night. If JR goes off, The nuggets win ..I expect this series to go 7 games with the Nuggets edging out the Jazz on the back of JR Smith.
East Preview
So with my Toronto Raptors playing golf and gone fishing with their families, the east playoffs though not half as compelling as the west (big surprise…riiight) still provides some interesting matchups.
Lebron and the Cavs, the best team in the NBA over the regular season will face off against a Bulls team that scratched their way into the playoffs riding the strong play of Joakim Noah and Derrick Rose. They are a scrappy team, but The Cavs look too focused to even consider losing one game to this team. Please expect a sweep here.
The underrated Orlando Magic will face off against the pesky Charlotte Bobacats. The Bobcats are one of those teams no one wants to face, with Gerald Wallace and Stephen Jackson Manning the wings, they did lose Tyson Chandler to injury in the last game of the season and this leaves a big question. Who defends Dwight Howard? Nazir Mohammed? Boris Diaw?? Lol..please…Orlando in 5 at most.
The Atlanta Hawks will face off against Brandon Jennings and the Milwaukee Bucks. Now the Hawks have no injuries and everyone is playing top tier basketball on that team. On the other hand, the bucks lost arguably their best player Andrew Bogut to a gruesome elbow injury towards the end of the season. With an inexperienced leader, the Bucks don’t stand a chance against the Hawks and super sub Jamal Crawford. Hawks in 4!
And finally we have the floundering Boston Celtics against one man squad Dwayne Wade and the Heat. I fully expect the Celtics to step up their game in the playoffs and Rajon Rondo is going to dominate the Heat. Expect Rajon to average close to a triple double in this series like he did in last year’s playoffs. Dwayne Wade is good enough to win 2 games all by himself but his team is just not talented enough. Boston takes this series in 6 games.
So there you have it ladies and gentlemen, a playoffs for the ages…tipoff is this Sunday..dont miss it! And keep checking back on Letstalkball.com for the latest news and updates…Holla!
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