NBA Playoffs 2007: Our First Round Predictions
Because the Raptors have joined the NBA postseason dance for the 2006-07 season, we’ve decided to play playoff prognosticator for the NBA playoffs as well as the NHL. Now, I realize the NBA playoffs don’t usually supply us with too many upsets, but there are a couple of close matchups:
Eastern Conference
New Jersey over Toronto 4-2
What a season for the Raps. Bryan Colangelo (women love him, men want to be him) rode in from the West and took over the sinking ship - rebuilding the franchise in a season with an infusion of unheralded international talent and a couple of nice trades. The team goes on to improve by 20 games and win it’s first Atlantic Division title. It’s all good, right. Well, in my opinion, the season came to a crashing halt on the final night of the season, when the Nets defeated the Bulls (who performed miserably, considering they could have moved into the number two seed with a win and avoided playing the defending champs in the first round, but I digress…) and moved into the number six seed in the East. Suddenly, Toronto went from an extremely favourable matchup with the severely undermanned Wizards (the closest thing to a first-round bye), to taking on a red-hot Atlantic Division rival, featuring none other than former favourite son, Vinsanity. The Nets are simply just a bad matchup for Canada’s team for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is simply more playoff and big game experience, which will be the deciding factor. With the series starting in T.O., the Raps no doubt will have some jitters, and JKidd and the Nets will play poised and focused. The Nets should be able to take one game in Toronto (probably the first), and it’s a homer series from there - Nets in 6. Like I said earlier - this is just the worst matchup for the Raps - I’d pick them over Washington, Orlando, Chicago, maybe Miami and maybe Cleveland - but not New Jersey.
On a side note, here was a great quote from Bill Simmons of ESPN.com in a recent online live chat:
Kmart, California: Raptors-Nets: Do you think any other arena is going to get as loud and angry as the Air Canada Centre, when Prince Carter steps on the floor? The city (Toronto) is in a frenzy.
Bill Simmons: Never. In NBA history, it will have only been topped once: Game 6 of the ‘86 Finals, the game after Sampson attacked Jerry Sichting and the Garden crowd unleashed about as much hatred as 15,000 fans could unleash in the following game (by the way, he had deer in the headlights and finished something like 2 for 15). People of Toronto, I urge you — don’t let up. The guy screwed you over. Don’t let him beat you in the playoffs. You can singlehandedly affect the outcome of this series — you can break him, he’s not a tough player. You are doing this for every fanbase who ever got screwed over by a star athlete who went somewhere else and decided to start giving a crap again. That’s your mission, now come through for us.
Detroit over Orlando 4-0
I don’t really see this one being much of a contest. The Magic don’t really have much to throw in the way of Detroit’s path to at least the Eastern final.
Cleveland over Washington 4-0
Another snooze-fest. The way the Wiz have been decimated by injuries and playing down the stretch, I’d pick Cleveland in 3 if I could. The Cavs can be wildly inconsistent though - it’s possible the Wizards could steal a game if LeBron and the boys get caught looking ahead, but I doubt it.
Chicago over Miami 4-3
Along with the Nets/Raps, this is the other ‘too close to call’ series. I initially thought Miami would take this series, but I’ve changed my mind and I’m going with da Bulls. I don’t like the fact that the Heat were on a tear without DWade, and when he came back at the end of the season, they struggled again. They also played poorly earlier in the season when Shaq and Wade were on the court together - something’s up. If Miami would go to Shaq consistently, they would win easily, because the Bulls just don’t have any kind of answer for him in the middle. The problem is that they have a tendency to forget about Shaq and start falling in love with their ‘average-at-best’ perimeter game. Combine that with a banged-up Wade wanting to get his ‘touches’, and I think the Bulls and their hot shooting and tough D will pull this one out in game seven in the Windy City.
Western Conference
Dallas over Golden State 4-3
The Warriors are red-hot and are undefeated vs. the Mavs this year. Nope, I’m not lyin’. They will give Dallas all they can handle but I just can’t see them advancing. I think they’ll extend the Mavs to seven though, and I can even see them pulling one out in big D. I don’t see Dallas making it to the dance this year - I think they played with the ‘pedal to the metal’ all year going for 70 wins and are going to run out of gas at some point - but they should have enough to outlast the fiesty Warriors.
Phoenix over the L.A. Lakers 4-2
The Lakers will again push the Suns, but they won’t have enough. The question is: what is the Lakers’ best strategy? Does Kobe scale back his personal assault on the opposition and try to get his teammates involved, or does he just go off for 60+ every night while the rest of the team stands around admiring the show and hope for the best? Either way, the regular season proved that it just won’t be good enough.
San Antonio over Denver 4-3
I think the Nuggets will give the Spurs a real run for their money. Everyone falls in love with San Antonio every year at this time - they play great team ball, great D and have championship rings aplenty. I have a feeling this isn’t quite the same team as in years past - I think their game 7 home loss to Dallas last year changed things - there’s a little, itsy bitsy ounce of doubt there now, and their key players are all one year older…. You still have to take them to win - but I think Denver pushes them to the limit and may even be able to steal this one. ‘Melo and A.I. finally know how to play together, as their torrid finish to the season would suggest - and I like their bigs - Nene and Camby, the latter offering up some quality D which they’ll need badly. This should be a good one.
Houston over Utah 4-2
I guess this means I’m picking Tracy McGrady to finally lead his team to a postseason series victory after several unsuccessful tries. I don’t really think that stat said anything about his effectiveness - he always posted solid numbers on completely outmatched, low-seeded Toronto, Orlando and Houston teams. The Rockets had a good year, including a nice second half to wrestle home-court from the Jazz. On the other hand, the Jazz came out blistering this year, surprising most of the ‘experts’, but slumped down the stretch. I think the Rockets just have too many weapons (Rafer Alston aside) and should take this in six.
Alright, there you have it - the first round NBA playoff results - take it to the bank.
Now, what do you think?
May 8th, 2007 at 9:01 am
Looks like I pretty much nailed the East bang on, other than Miami failing to show up for the playoffs. We kept hearing all year how they would just ‘turn it on/throw the switch’ once the playoffs began. Um, not so much.
How about the Nets/Raps prediction - I knew the jitters would get the best of the Raps early at home. After that, it was up to them to steal one in Jersey to get it to game 7 (which I’m not sure they could have won, even at home), but alas, they came up short after a valiant effort in game 6, the best of the series and a winnable game. As a Raptors fan, that game left me quite disappointed - everyone was ready to crown the Nets as the second coming of the showtime Lakers after games 3 and 4 when they obliterated Toronto, but I think after seeing games 5 and 6, I realized that was more of a product of bad play and not making adjustments on Toronto’s side of things, rather than the Nets being THAT good. I thought New Jersey was lucky to eke out a win in game 6 with the Raps two point guards hampered by injuries - hardly an impressive home performance by NJ with a chance to wrap up the series. I just think that after making the proper adjustments, the Raps really are the better team.
Oh well - the Raptors will be back next year with valuable playoff experience under their belts while the Nets will be one year older. I’ll take our situation over theirs any day - I think the Raps could have given the Cavs a better run in round 2, seeing how LeBron and co. obliterated the Nets in game 1.
At least VC didn’t singlehandedly win the series by putting up 50 or hitting a last-second three or something… It was the combination of Kidd/Jefferson that won it. Speaking of RJ - what an a*hole he was with his comments during the series - he was obviously looking to take pressure off of Vince and become public enemy #1 north of the border. Yeah, nice try RJ - a few comments about the T.O. fans wearing red shirts aren’t going to get Torontonians as riled up as a gazillionaire, oft-injured, crybaby franchise player tanking it for a year or two and demanding to be traded…
Out west there were a couple of surprises…
I thought Golden State could give the Mavs a run, but not complete the upset. That was impressive. Okay, as much as the Warriors looked great in stealing game one and holding serve in front of arguably the NBA’s best home crowd, I thought Dallas looked disinterested at times. Nowitzki hardly ‘put his team on his back’ as they say, reinforcing why I believe Nash is the MVP, but that’s another topic… I also had a sneaking suspicion, as I mentioned in the original post, that the Mavs went a little too hard in the regular season, trying to get to 70 wins. It just seemed like they ran out of steam and Golden State was hungry and had something to prove. I was bummed when the Raps were eliminated, but I kept thinking: ‘at least I’m not a Mavs fan today.’
San Antonio looked like champs in dispatching the Nuggets quickly after losing game one. No panic there. Sheer professionalism, focus and execution. Same with the Suns as they manhandled the Bryants - I mean, Lakers, setting up a classic second round series (look no further than this series in the argument for re-seeding after each round a la the NHL - wait, did I just say the NHL is doing something right??).
Then there’s poor Tracy McGrady. Despite leaving the Raptors several years ago (when he could have stayed and formed a wicked one-two punch with his cousin for years to come), he’s not as hated as VC - but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy watching the extension of his post-season winless streak. Utah found their game as the series went on, and looked impressive winning games 6 and 7. Should be an interesting matchup with Golden State.
Overall, not an amazing first round, but nonetheless scintillating compared to the NHL playoffs so far. At least there were a couple of upsets - something rarely seen in the NBA, where the favoured teams and to a lesser extent, home teams are usually guaranteed winners.
Anyways, I’m a bit late with my 2nd round picks - leave it to the NBA to start a round before the previous one ends….
-MiltonSearch.com