The NBA Playoffs Thread!
 

Playoffs starts on Saturday, make your picks people. Here are mine:
West Champions -> Spurs
East Champions -> Celtics
Finals Champions-> Celtics

What are your picks?

Pistons fan all the way, but sadly I dont see them winning anything. I cant even predict who will win because its so damn wide open this year, but since my fave athelete on the planet is Kobe i went with the Lakers. Im not confident that Boston will pull it off, but they definitely have the east.

Lakers.. just look at the bracket

They play the Nuggets first round.. thats a win, Nuggets dont have the consistency or the defense to beat the Lakers

There gonna have to play the Jazz or the Rockets in the 2nd round.. either one is a win. Neither team has a big man, neither team has the talent to beat the Lakers

Of the 3 teams they may have to face in the semi's... The Suns, the Spurs, and the Mavs (the hornets are a first round exit) Kobe wont allow Shaq to beat him in the Semi's.. no way in hell. The Spurs.. thats a tough matchup but overall they struggled vs the Cavs because they couldnt double-team Lebron and guard the 2nd options on the Cavs team.. good luck trying to double-team Kobe and guarding even better 2nd options on the Lakers team.. plus with Gasol and Bynum.. they should be able to keep Duncan at bay.

The Mavs.. give me a break, thats a win for the Lakers if the Mavs happen to make it to the Semis.

As far as the east is concerned, You got 3 choices... Pistons, Celts, and Cavs.. Lakers will beat all 3 especially the Pistons. Celts will give them the most trouble, and the Cavs would be classic but.. Celts are making it to the finals in the east anyways.

West Champions >>>>>> LA Lakers

East Champions >>>>> Boston Celtics

Finals Champions >>>>>> LA Lakers

Finals MVP>>>>>>>>>>>Kobe Bryant.

the lakers easily beat the pistons? the lakers lost to the pistons when they had kobe, shaq, malone, and payton, that after winning 3 in a row from 2000 to 2002. the west is def a better conference, but the pistons and celtics can hang with any of the west teams. the spurs and lakers are the best in the west, so one of them will face eaither the pistons or celtics. i dont know who will win, it is very open, but i def cannot see the lakers beating the pistons. what makes you think that anyways? not from recent matchups, that is for sure. and the pistons have been beating up on the top west teams this year. they easily beat phoenix by 30 at phoenix, then beat them again without their usual leading scorer, rip. i can see the spurs beating the pistons and celtics, but not the lakers.

the spurs vs. lakers arguement is funny too. this lakers team is not better then the kobe and shaq lakers back in the early 2000's. back then they fought close with the spurs but usually got the better hand, once shaq left the spurs dominated the west for the most part(sure not all the time). gasol and bynum and not known to be big defensive players, not that they are not good. but they will def help on the offensive end. do you really see them keeping duncan at bay? all around the spurs are a better team. fisher will not be able to handle parker, manu will be a big contribution, and the spurs have a lot of role players. the spurs, celtics, and the pistons are the 3 best teams in the nba. they all have a excellent all around team with great help from all the players. the lakers are the 4th best team in the nba and are a level below those 3.
that to add that bynum will probably not be close to 100% during the playoffs. im not anti lakers, i just dont see them winning this year. everybody keeps talking about how the spurs are the best nba team over the past decade, imo winning 3 in a row like the lakers did when shaq was there was much more impressive then 4 titles in 8 years.

Why do you keep comparing teams to back in 2003-2004 etc? The Spurs team isnt the same team either, neither is the Pistons teams.. worry about right now instead of 4, 5 years ago.

I'm hoping for the Suns vs the Celtics.

The Pistons are my team and Im the first one to admit that they dont have a chance this year. Yes. I'd love to believe it, but it just doesn't seem realistic. They're championship team from a few years ago was a one pop thing. Thats what bothers me about the management, is that they refuse to get away from that starting 5. Its a great starting 5, but it has fallen out of the playoffs ever since. They needed a little adjustment to get them back over the hump, but they seem to think it all has to do with their bench. I see another semi-final knockout in the works once again.

WCF: Suns...As for Kobe not letting Shaq kick his ass?? Well I don't think he has a say in the matter... When the Diesel is motivated nobody beats him. Kobe still gets his ass whooped even if he scores over 50 a game.

ECF: Detroit... They have Bostons # if you watched during the season when they beat Boston they didn't just beat them They dismantled them.

NBAF:Suns...This is just hope Detroit probably will beat them because of experience.

If Boston Plays the Lakers I know it is all fixed and a bunch of crap.