1 Oklahoma City vs 8
Houston
And thus begins my disliking of the WC matchups.. Thanks to adding Jeremy Lin and James
Harden, the Rockets have become my 2nd favorite team in the NBA only
behind the Thunder, so it kind of stinks that they play each other the first
round. OKC has improved each year over the last 5 years, and the only way they could really improve on last year is to finish with an NBA Championship.
I did quickly ponder if there were any ways for the Rockets
to somehow have a path to being the Champion.. But it didn’t last very long. It’s kind of funny how many games the Thunder won by 10 or more… 44 to be precise. 44 of their 60 wins. Impressive to say the least.
Houston is an extremely good 8 seed.. More like a 4 seed in reality.
The Thunder's average margin of victory per game at +9.4 (I think) is the sixth-highest figure since the introduction of the 3-point line starting with the 1979-80 season. (And all of those teams won the Championship, so it's kind of a good trend.)
I think it is really cool how the Rockets shoot so many 3’s each game. (I might go on a quick rant sometime about how efficient 3 teams should shoot many more three's than they already do. And even inefficient 3 teams should sometimes shoot more threes.)
I think that Houston can light up OKC in one game at
home. And I don’t think OKC will
want to completely embarrass Harden..
So… This will be the most interesting series to me and I see OKC
taking it in 5. (due to the pity
game.. I assume.)
Oklahoma City in 5.
2 San Antonio vs 7 Los Angeles
The Spurs have had so many 50+ win season in a row,
wow.
People have though that the Lakers are so awful all season…
And while they have underachieved a ton.. Honestly, they still have a chance to
make a deep run in the playoffs.
No offense to Mr. Bryant (who was possibly having his best efficiency season ever), but I don’t think the Lakers are much worse
without him.
I really would have liked to overload on some NBA in the last two
weeks, but I didn't really have a chance.. So this is partially a gut feeling
and box score reading thought.. But.. Are the Spurs having some serious difficulties? Something seems off about them.
I think I have given the Spurs a nickname.. Perpetually
underrated team. A little awkward, but it works. Although if they do lose in the first round, then I think
I’ll change that to perpetually underrated regular season team. Which is a bit too long.. So PURST for short or something.
Howard has missed more free throws this season (366) than Nash has missed in his 17-year NBA career (322).
While I could be reading it incorrectly, It appears that the Lakers have the least amount of fouls called against them and the 2nd most called against an opponent.
In the 3 games the two teams played in the regular season, the games
were decided by a combined 10 points, so they were very competitive games. Both teams have had some injury problems in the regular
season, but (other than Kobe) most players will be there for the playoffs.
Guess what.. I’m going to underrate the perpetually
underrated team. I think that
Dwight Superman Howard is back, and that he will help lead the Lakers to a
first round upset. (Finally I
picked a seed upset).
This
pick is based more on eye test (not that I’ve seen either team lately), then
how good each team actually is.
Weirdly enough, I almost picked the Lakers in 5, (which seed-wise, would
be a huge upset. Stats-wise, says
effectively the opposite, I would say that they say Spurs in about 5) but I
finally did end up settling on a vaguely major upset.. (In simulating
this in my mind and with stats, I forgot about T-Mac coming to the Spurs.. So I don't know if he'll even be playing, but I guess he’s a bit of a variable. Overall, this is probably just a bad pick.)
Lakers in 6
3 Denver vs 6 Golden State
For some reason, (even though none of their players are my
favorites), I have this strange affinity for Denver this year, yet not really
any individual player on Denver's roster. In the playoffs
they are probably my 3rd favorite team. Also in terms of power rankings, I would say that they are
#3.
I would put Igoudola on Curry and let Curry have fun with
that.. That’s the main reason I
think this series will be over quickly. The Nuggets have lost in the first round of the playoffs in
8 of the last 9 years. That’s kind
of hard to do.. Huh. However, I think this team would beat
any of those other 9 teams.
Gallinari was a huge loss for them, but I still think they
can do some serious damage in the playoffs. Curry is the main reason why the Warriors are actually in
the playoffs. Also, what happened
to the people who thought that Curry shouldn’t have been drafted so high and
that he would never make it in the NBA?
Hmmm? That’s what I
thought.
Both rosters are very young. I kind of like 5 or 6 for the Nuggets, but I keep coming back
to my first sweep for the WC.
Though, at the same time I just don’t know.. How couldn’t Curry simply
go off for at least one game.
I’m guessing this prediction isn’t all that popular, but
I’ll go out on a limb and say..
Nuggets in 4
4 Los Angeles vs 5
Memphis
If Memphis was facing anyone else in the first round but OKC
and Denver, then I would probably be picking them to win.. But, they face the
Clippers and Chris Paul. Side
note. Chris Paul’s is only
27?? Whoa.
Memphis is a quality team, but the Clippers appear to be the
better team. I would say the Clippers are the 4th best team in
the NBA. They are respectively #1 and #2 in turnovers created, so that’s
interesting. I guess I'll say a relative repeat of last year.
Clippers in 7
2nd Round
aka Semifinals
1 Oklahoma City vs 4
Los Angeles Clippers
Not a good matchup for the Thunder here.. I would say the Thunder should only be
worried about 3 or possibly 4 teams in the playoffs: the Heat (obviously), the
Nuggets, the Pacers (maybe), and finally the Clippers. I’m not quite positive on what to
do on this series, I could go from 5-7 games..
Oklahoma City in 5
3 Denver vs 7 Los
Angeles Lakers
I would prefer the Thunder to face the Lakers where the
Lakers start with a 2-0 lead, then take on the Nuggets straight-up..
Denver is so insanely deep.. Koufous, Mcgee, Chandler, and Brewer could all be starters
on a couple playoff teams. (not as a package deal necessarily, but as individuals) If the Lakers would win this series, then that would cause
all sorts of mayhem about what should be done with / what Kobe should do.
Ouch. Well, I
kind of backed myself into this one..
If it weren’t for the injuries to a couple Nuggets players, then there
would be no way that I would do this.. (another reason is that the Nuggets are
so young) But as it is.. And I don’t know if I even think this anyways.. But, here it goes.
Lakers in 6 Haha, just kidding. Denver in 5
Western Conference
Championship
1 Oklahoma City
vs 3 Denver
Coach Karl and company didn’t just make it past the first
round, but they made it all the way to the Conference championship game. These two amazing/indestructible/undefeatable (basically) teams
at home is mostly how I see most of this series playing out. This will be the second most tense series..
Thunder in 6.
I think that OKC returns the favor this year.. If this matchup does happen (again), then I'll certainly be writing more on the matchup.
Thunder in 6.
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