Well I’m nothing if I’m not a predictor of all things (reality tv, celebrity predictions, sports, etc…) and while I don’t ever claim to be good at this sort of thing I figured I might as well drop my 2009 playoff predictions for you before the first round starts today. So without further adu (who is this adu and why don’t we want any more?) here are my predicitions:
Eastern Conference Round 1:
Cavs vs Pistons: Cavs in 5. Lebron is, simply put, a man on a mission this season. It really feels like he is on his destiny to acsend to the next level of super duper stardom and become one of those rare players who can carry an entire team on his back (I would say Jordan is the only modern era player you could put in this category, Magic may have been up there but his team was too well build for him to need to do it alone. Kobe is the best player in the world hands down but not even he can make up for his teamates shortcomings.) I wouldn’t be suprised to see a sweep, the Pistons tank seems to be empty, much like the rest of the cars in the motor city.
Boston vs Chicago: Celtics in 6. The loss of Garnett is definately going to hurt the Celtics but they are still a pretty good team without him good enough to handle a Bulls team that seems to be perennially on the rise but never ready to move on to the next step.
Orlando vs Philly: Orlando in 5. Simply put, I don’t think Philly has an answer for Dwight Howard. Its pretty amazing that Orlando lost Jameer, plugged in a new point guard and haven’t seemed to miss a beat. Superman indeed.
Atlanta vs Miami: Atlanta in 6. I like the Hawks. They are a team that plays with nothing to lose and Miami is only as good as Wade can take them. Wade seem to falter a bit the last couple of weeks of the season. I wonder if the year is catching up with him.
Western Conference Round 1:
LA vs Utah: Lakers in 5. Yes I am a Laker fan let me get that out of the way, but beyond that, this Utah Jazz team is a team in dissaray. They are quitting on the coach, and each other. Spells certain doom and a rough off season for this Jazz team.
Denver vs New Orleans: Denver in 7. Wow Denver as a 2 seed, what alternate universe am I living in here? Pre season you would have thought these seeds would be reveresed. I don’t really have a feel for these two teams, just that Denver is playing as a team and the Hornets are not. I think it should be entertaining though and they are evenly matched if everyone is healthy and playing hard. So I put this at 7.
San Antionio vs Dallas: Dallas in 7. Yeah its hard to say that but San Antonio is in a bad way. With Duncans knees and Ginobli out I don’t see how they can take Dallas (or probably any of the other Western Conference Playoff teams) in a 7 game series. That said, they have the heart of a champion and will probably prove me wrong.
Portland vs Houston: Portland in 6. This is hands down the hardest series to call in the first round. But Portland is insanely talented at every position and playing well. Houston is, well see they have Ron Artest and if anything goes badly in this series, tick tick tick….BOOM!
Eastern Conference Semis:
Cleveland vs Atlanta: Cleveland in 5. See comment from above. Should be a fun series to watch but who is going to stop Lebron on the Hawks? Nobody.
Orlando vs Boston: Orlando in 6. Should be a good series but if KG is really out, who on the Celtics is going to stop Howard? He’ll probably average 20-20 in this series.
Western Conference Semis
LA vs Portland: LA in 6. I think Portland is probably the team that scares me the most in the west as a Laker fan. Talented at every position but with Bynum coming back so strong I’m not that worried anymore.
Dallas vs Denver: Denver in 7. Don’t have stong feelings on either of these teams but Dallas can’t make it to the western conference finals right?
Eastern Conference Finals
Clevland vs Orlando: Cleveland in 6. I hate to repeat myself but the NBA wants Lebron in the finals…
Western Conference Finals
LA vs Denver: LA in 5. This is almost a joke of a conference finals but there you have it.
NBA FINALS
LA vs Clevland: Hmm, Lebron will be the best player in this series but Kobe is clutch and wants this title more then anything. He finally has the supporting cast to do something about it. So LAKERS in 6!
Or at least thats how I see it, as an overly influenced Laker fan!
