A bit late, but here’s my take on what is going to happen this year:
You might have to get your reading glasses out to read what I’ve filled in, but a little stress on the eyes never hurt anyone, right?
I really don’t think any series is going to be easy for any team, with the exception of Chicago-Indiana in the first round. And even though I’m calling for a sweep there, I’m reeeeally on shaky ground… a couple of Chicago miscues and a little Pacer over-achievement could easily stretch the series to 6 games. Boston in 5 was another tough call, but I just don’t think the Knicks can adequately fight anything Boston brings to the table (aka play defense).
There are so many series/potential series that could go 6-7 games and that is so very exciting. I think Boston and San Antonio, for all the great basketball they played during the season, are not going to get it done this year. All of their veteran savvy and craftiness will be needed to stretch their respective second round series out, but in the end I think a motivated LeBron with better help, and an improving Thunder team will be too much to handle.
In all honesty, the LA/Miami finals was a complete gut call, mixed in with bias on what I want to see (a LeBron-Kobe final). It could easily be OKC-CHI or any other combination. The great part is, if those 4 teams make it to the conference finals, basketball fans can’t go wrong with any finals match-up.
My favourite picture from the weekend (courtesy of ESPN’s TrueHoop Blog, photo cred to Dilip Vishwanat/Getty):
Anyway, if you’re reading this, you probably disagree with something in my predictions. So feel free to leave a comment or an opinion down below, and I’ll try to defend my claims!
Carl Incognito 