NBA Playoffs 1st Round Preview

Here are my predictions after 1 game in each series.


Western Conference:

• LA Lakers - Oklahoma City: 4-2. I was actually hoping for Oklahoma to drop to the 8th seed and Denver to the 4th seed, to face the Lakers in the first 2 rounds. They are the 2 teams who gave them most trouble in the regular season. The lack of experience will hurt the Thunder.
• Dallas - San Antonio: 4-1. I like this team this year, with one my all time favourites Jason Kidd.
• Phoenix - Portland: 4-3. Having lost 3 starters throughout the year, it's a miracle Portland are even in this position, one game up in the playoffs. Game 1 was really good, and it had more of an 'international' style of basketball to it.
• Denver - Utah: 4-3. Utah are a man's team. Jerry Sloan has the longest tenure of any coach in professional American sports (25 years) for a reason. Unfortunately for them, Denver has more talent on their team and I expect them to go through.

Eastern Conference:

• Cleveland - Chicago: 4-0. I expect the Cavaliers to get to the NBA finals, losing only 3 to 5 games in the process. They'll win the 2nd round 4-1 and the Eastern finals 4-2.
• Orlando - Charlotte: 4-1. The Bobcats will win one in Charlotte for Michael Jordan!
• Atlanta - Milwaukee: 4-1. The loss of Bogut is too much for the Bucks.
• Boston - Miami: 4-3. The oldies should pull through.

As you can see, nothing much to say in the Eastern Conference. Cleveland and Orlando face up in the Division Finals, with the Cavaliers advancing to the NBA Finals in 6 games.