In A World of Sports

Well the NBA trade deadline has left us with what will likely be the rosters teams will have going into the playoffs (with the exception of teams buying up waived or bought out players).  So with that in mind, I decided to look at the current playoff matchups and predict 1st round outcomes were the NBA playoffs to start today.  Tonight I’ll look at the East, which is easier to predict, the next couple days I’ll look at the West.

So let’s have a look at what we got….

#1 Boston Celtics vs. #8 New Jersey Nets

This should be a walk in the park for Boston.  They lead the season series so far 3-0 and I know that regular season and playoffs are two completely different seasons, but Jersey just really doesn’t have a chance.  New Jersey has Keith Van Horn, I’m telling you now he’s going to make a comeback.  They did get some pretty good players in Diop for depth down the middle and Devin Harris who is a good young point guard only getting better.  However, Harris isn’t healthy right now, so he wouldn’t be good to go in this scenario (that of the playoffs starting today) and even once he does come back, he will have less time to be integrated and get a feel for his new team. Boston will just walk all over them, I don’t even know why I’m spending this much time writing about this matchup.  To make it a little more interesting, I think Boston should take 2 fans from the crowd at each home game to play alongside Garnett, Pierce and Ray Allen.  If this is the case, I can see Jersey mabye stealing a game.  Boston Wins 4-1.

#2 Detroit Pistons vs. #7 Philadelphia 76ers

I can spend even less time on this matchup.  Detroit is the strongest team in the East despite Boston having a better record.  Philly has some players I actually can cheer for, like Iguodala (though he is going to be ridiculously overpaid at the end of this year), and Sam Dalembert (who is already ridiculously overpaid) and a young gun I have liked a lot in any game I’ve seen him play, Thaddeus Young.   At any rate, I see Detroit sweeping Philly in the first round.  Detroit wins 4-0.

#3 Orlando Magic vs. #6 Washington Wizards

This matchup is a little more interesting.  Now if the playoffs started today Washington would be without a couple of key players, namely Gilbert Arenas and Caron Butler, in which case I would take Orlando in 5.  However, with those two guys healthy, particularly Caron who plays better in the team mentality that Washington has going, this matchup becomes much more interesting.  Without Arenas, the PG matchup is moot, neither team has a number one guy at the point, I’m sorry to any Jameer Nelson fans out there (if there are any), but he isn’t a number one, he is a good backup.  With Arenas healthy, I give the advantage to Washington.  At SG, Washington wins at the starting position, I’ll take Stevenson over Maurice Evans, but off the bench, Keyon Dooling will give you better minutes than Nick Young, so Washington gets the nod here but not by much. The small forward matchup would be great if Caron Butler is healthy.  I like both Turkoglu and Butler, although sometimes Turkoglu is a little too trigger happy.  Both these guys shoot at a pretty high percentage, rebound well at their position and can distribute the ball as well.  I think if Hedo grows a mean playoff beard he gets the advantage because Caron’s face is still waiting for puberty, but without the beard I give a slight nod to Washington. PF provides us with another interesting matchup.  The $120 million dollar man from Orlando versus Antawn Jamison.  Personally I’ll take Jamison.  Rashard got too much money for what he brings and really the success that Orlando has experienced this year has a lot less to do with his arrival than it does with the emergence of one Dwight Howard.  Lewis can score, but beyond that he doesn’t offer the Magic much.  At 6′10″ he should pull more than 5.1 boards a game.  Jamison on the other hand is having arguably his best year at 31, despite his lowest FG%.  Antawn has managed 20 games of 12 or more boards including a 24-20 game against the Raptors.  The problem with Jamison is despite his second best PPG average of his career, he is taking too many shots and his FG% is suffering.  Jamison should be a 3rd scorer on the team, but this season he has been the 2nd scorer most of the year and the #1 guy since Butler’s injury, he’s responded by shooting .416 in the month of February.  Still Jamison wins the PF matchup. It’s all about Dwight.  The centre position is owned by Howard in Orlando, his backups play a combined 15 minutes per game, so Orlando’s hopes rest on the shoulders of this manchild.  After his ridiculous start he has dropped off a little but Howard still has 9 games of 20 rebounds or better.  He will draw double and triple teams from Washington and if his passing was better he could really make them pay, but the fact of the matter is Dwight isn’t much of a ball distributor.  Howard will absolutely run the table on Haywood and Blatche if he doesn’t tire out, but that will have to be Washington’s strategy, make the big man work and the longer the series goes, the better chance Washington will have.  But Orlando’s Dwight Howard is arguably the best centre in the game and he is the key to Orlando winning this series, they will only go as far as he takes them.  If Washington is healthy, this is a good series with Orlando having the best player but Washington having the better team, if Washinton isn’t healthy than this is Orlando’s.  A healthy Washington takes it in 7.

#4 Toronto Raptors vs. #5 Cleveland Cavaliers

Aw crap.  This is a matchup I dread for my Raptors.  These teams have met 3 times in the regular season with Cleveland having a 2-1 advantage, however, both losses for the Raptors were close, 111-108, and 93-90.  The lone win came in Toronto with both teams stars out nursing injuries.  However, James was dominant in both wins, and in that 93-90 Toronto loss, James went off for 24 points in the 4th quarter alone.  James is one of those talents that most teams just can’t defend, and Toronto has the tendency to really let guys like him shine.  When playing top tier talent and showmen, the Raptors often tend to become spectators just like the fans.  Players like Lebron and Kobe just seem to have their way with Toront’s defense and it doesn’t bode well for this matchup.  Furthermore, the way Lebron elevates his game in the playoffs makes me even more nervous.  At every other position Toronto matches up fairly well.  Toronto has the better PGs with Calderon and Ford, and I like their SGs over Clevelands (Parker and Delfino over Devin Brown, Daniel Gibson, and Sasha Pavlovic).  Cleveland has been playing Ben Wallace at PF, and he’ll defend Chris Bosh but I think that because Wallace has lost a step, Chris will do well against him on offense and having an inept scorer like Wallace to guard allows Bosh to provide help D against Lebron and Zydrunas.  Joe Smith though will maybe have an easy time working Kris Humphries because of his higher basketball IQ, and Humphries knack for recently taking ill-advised long, and I  mean long 2’s.  Centre is interesting.  Andrea Bargnani is really hit or miss, if he starts hot in a game he plays well, if he starts cold he may as well sit for the rest of the game.  Nesterovic and Brezec are pretty good backups, Nesterovic being silent and simple, but he tends to play fairly mistake free ball. Brezec is more of a crowd pleaser and if he can play healthy, he can put up decent numbers.  Behind Ilgauskas, Cleveland features Anderson Varejao, who has strong, tenacious D, but like Ben Wallace doesn’t have much of an offensive game.  Toront’s team and depth gives them a good chance in this series.  However the fact that it’s Lebron scares me.  I just don’t know if the Raps can stop him and Bosh will have to try and take over the game the way Lebron will.  Bosh is capable of doing that (he scored 41 against Cleveland earlier this year), but sometimes he settles too much for outside shots instead of driving against slower defenders.  I must admit though, he has a pretty sick stroke when he’s on and his jab step is just nasty.  The intangibles will be huge in this series.  Right now Toronto has home court advantage which is indispensable.  Toronto elevates their game at home and can even manage to just crush opponents on home court.  Cleveland though has more playoff experience which also bodes well for their nerves in tight games.  Toronto takes the team game, but Cleveland has possibly the best player in the league on their side.  I hate to say it, but I’ll take Cleveland in 6.