Many NBA fans on Yahoo Sports have been ranking teams {like Dallas over Memphis and Boston over Charlotte, etc.}. If you want to do it, go to sports.yahoo.com/nba and click on the little header thing called "Ranking". You can keep ranking as many times as you want. After I did it, I checked the results and it showed the predictions for the playoffs. Here's what it said:
EAST
1 Boston Celtics vs. 8 Atlanta Hawks
1 Boston Celtics vs. 8 Atlanta Hawks
2 Cleveland Cavaliers vs. 7 Miami Heat
3 Detroit Pistons vs. 6 Philadelphia 76ers
4 Orlando Magic vs. 5 Toronto Raptors
WEST
1 LA Lakers vs. 8 Portland Blazers
2 San Antonio Spurs vs. 7 Dallas Mavericks
3 New Orleans Hornets vs. 6 Phoenix Suns
4 Utah Jazz vs. 5 Houston Rockets
Many of the matchups look the exact same as last year, like Boston vs. A! tlanta and Utah vs. Houston. We don't want to see the same people playing in the playoffs every year. We need some new matchups. So I made my predictions:
EAST
1 Boston Celtics vs. 8 Washington Wizards
2 Orlando Magic vs. 7 Miami Heat
3 Detroit Pistons vs. 6 Toronto Raptors
4 Philadelphia 76ers vs. 5 Cleveland Cavaliers
WEST
1 LA Lakers vs. 8 Portland Blazers
2 New Orleans Hornets vs. 7 Denver Nuggets
3 Houston Rockets vs. 6 Phoenix Suns
4 Utah Jazz vs. 5 San Antonio Spurs
I think those are better predictions, but you don't have to agree. The Wizards still did pretty good without Gilbert, with Caron and Antawn, so I think they can survive until December when they get him back. Plus they added some good bench guys like Dee Brown {he will be good thi! s year, like the Wizards' new Roger Mason or something} and ro! okie JaV ale McGee. The Bucks will be a whole lot better than last year, but they won't make it all the way to the playoffs. Same with the Bulls.
But the Nets, man, the Nets. That crazy video where that Stuart Tanner kid blew out New Jersey star Point Guard Devin Harris, man that was crazy. Maybe if they sign that Tanner dude then they will succeed. Have you seen the YouTube video?
But I'm so glad, it's NBA Tipoff today. The game between Cleveland and Boston has already started, and so far the Cavaliers are leading 52-51 over the defending champs early in the third quarter.
