Playoff 1st Round Predictions

[Mr October]

Bulls in 5
Heat in 5
Pacers in 4
Celtics in 5

Spurs in 4
Thunder in 5
Lakers in 5
Nuggets in 7

Outside of Clippers Nuggets, I expect to see a bunch of beat downs in round 1. After that anything can happen with the final 8.

[Celtics18]

Chicago over Philadelphia 4-2
Knicks over Miami 4-3
Indiana over Orlando 4-1
Boston over Atlanta 4-2


Spurs over Utah 4-2
Dallas over OKC 4-3
Denver over LAL 4-3
Memphis over LAC 4-2

[Who]

This is the way I am leaning ...

East

Chicago vs Phily - undecided
Miami vs New York - Heat in five
Indiana vs Orlando - Pacers sweep
Boston vs Atlanta - Boston in five

West

Spurs vs Utah - Spurs in six
Oklahoma vs Dallas - undecided
Lakers vs Nuggets - Lakers in four or five
Memphis vs Clippers - Memphis in six

[butterbeanlove]

Chicago vs Philly - Chicago in 5
Miami vs New York - Heat in 7
Indiana vs Orlando - Indiana in 6
Boston vs Atlanta - C's in 5

West

Spurs vs Utah - Spurs in 5
Oklahoma vs Dallas - OK in 7
Lakers vs Nuggets - Fakers in 7
Memphis vs Clippers - Memphis in 6

[butterbeanlove]

Speaking of Atlanta, I will go to my grave arguing that we would have beat them in 5 in 2008 if games 3 and 4 in Atlanta had not been officiated laughingly in their favor - refusing to call charges on Atlanta, letting the Hawks hack us with IMPUNITY all night long until we got frustrated and started jacking up jumpshots. It gets me irritated just thinking about it. Hopefully we don't see any more of that.

[JSD]

East
Chicago vs Phily - Philly in 6. I think Collins will have 76ers back on track and playing like they were at the begining of the season.

Miami vs New York - Heat in 7. NY will give the Heat more trouble than a lot of fans think. Chandler was a Heat killer in the Finals last season and Melo is made for the playoffs in terms of his game being condusive to that of the slowed down half court set style. I still like Miami but it is rivalry renewed between these two squads.

Indiana vs Orlando - Pacers sweep. Orlando is just too depleted with Howard, Nelson and Davis injured.

Boston vs Atlanta - Boston in 6. I see Boston splitting the first two games then holding home court in this one. This isn't your older brother's Hawks squad. Their best player is out.


West
Spurs vs Utah - Spurs in 5. Jefferson finally gets back to the playoffs but his team doesn't have enough to get by the Spurs who are well rested and have a good insertion of mid-level youth.

Oklahoma vs Dallas - OKC in 5. Dallas sealed their title defense fate when they let Chanlder walk last offseason.

Lakers vs Nuggets - Lakers in 5. I'm just not sold on the Nuggets winning in the playoffs.

Memphis vs Clippers - Clippers in 7. This might turn out to be the most evenly contested series. Both teams are young, athletic and have all-star level big man talent.

[PRIDE]

Chicago over Philadelphia 4-2
Knicks over Miami 4-3
Indiana over Orlando 4-0
Boston over Atlanta 4-1


Spurs over Utah 4-2
OKC over Dallas 4-2
LAL over Denver 4-3
LAC over Memphis 4-3

[jdz101]

Bulls in 5
Heat in 4
Pacers in 5
Celtics in 7

Dont care about the west 1st rnd

[ManUp]

East

Bulls over Sixers 4-2
Heat over Knicks 4-1
Pacers over Magic 4-1
Celtics over Hawks 4-2


West

Spurs over Jazz 4-0
Thunder over Mavs 4-3
Lakers over Nuggets 4-1
Grizzlies over Clippers 4-3

TP for the thread, you beat me too it.

[dang] you Mav's for making me a liar! [dang] you Knicks for sucking beyond reason and looking to make me a double liar!!!!

[bfrombleacher]

Can we make this a dedicated playoffs prediction thread? We need one of those.

As of right now, my predictions are:

East

Sixers-Bulls => 6 games at least. Probably 7. Either team now.
Heat-Knicks => 4-1
Pacers-Orlando => 4-2
Celtics-Raptors => 4-1

West
Spurs-Jazz => 4-1
Lakers-Nuggets => 4-2 or (hopefully) 4-3. 50/50 either way
Grizzlies-Clippers => 4-3 (was going to be 4-2 before. Why Grizz?  )

[jdz101]

Can we make this a dedicated playoffs prediction thread? We need one of those.

As of right now, my predictions are:

East

Sixers-Bulls => 6 games at least. Probably 7. Either team now.
Heat-Knicks => 4-1
Pacers-Orlando => 4-2
Celtics-Raptors => 4-1

West
Spurs-Jazz => 4-1
Lakers-Nuggets => 4-2 or (hopefully) 4-3. 50/50 either way
Grizzlies-Clippers => 4-3 (was going to be 4-2 before. Why Grizz?  )

We're playing the hawks not the raptors chief

I feel we would take that series 4-1 though.

[clover]

I don't have overall predictions, but I'm feeling an easy Celtics win coming today for game four (finally!), and then the question is whether they buckle down on the road to win in five or let that one slip away and close the series back in Boston.

It's time.

[JSD]

Nobody had OKC sweeping

[Celtics18]

Nobody had OKC sweeping

I feel real smart being the only one to pick Dallas in the upset. 

[bfrombleacher]

Heat-Knicks => 4-1

Celtics-Hawks => 4-1

Hopefully Heat-Knicks goes 4-2 or even 4-3 but Baron Davis down.

Edit: Whoops. Said Raptors instead of Hawks twice haha.