'05 NBA Playoffs

[Major]

Playoffs finally start on Saturday I think. Here are the matchups...

(1) Miami vs (8) New Jersey
(4) Chicago vs (5) Washington
(2) Detroit vs (7) Philadelphia
(3) Boston vs (6) Indiana

(1) Phoenix vs (8) Memphis
(4) Dallas vs (5) Houston
(2) San Antonio vs (7) Denver
(3) Seattle vs (6) Sacramento

and my predictions...

First Round
Miami over New Jersey in 6
Chicago over Washington in 7
Detroit over Philadelphia in 4
Indiana over Boston in 7

Phoenix over Memphis in 5
Houston over Dallas 7
San Antonio over Denver in 6
Seattle over Sacramento in 7

Second Round
Miami over Chicago in 5
Detroit over Indiana in 5

Phoenix over Houston in 7
San Antonio over Seattle in 4

Conference Finals
Detroit over Miami in 7
Phoenix over San Antonio in 6

NBA Finals
Phoenix over Detroit in 7

 

[SamusAran86]

Nice predictions there Buckeye...



I wont be makeing any predictions of my own, but I hope that the Bulls and Suns make it to the finals... Ill be rooting for both teams

 

[NewGamePlus]

I don't know much about basketball, but is it that incredibly common for the first place teams to dominate the rest and take the whole thing? Unless a team is perfect at every aspect of the game and that balance outdoes the rest, then I would think that all the rest of the teams would have a pretty good shot at the leaders. They've each got to have something that poses a good challenge to the leaders.

Here's my first round predictions (and I know nothing about basketball, mind you):

First Round
Miami over New Jersey in 5
Chicago over Washington in 7
Detroit over Philadelphia in 6
Indiana over Boston in 7

Phoenix over Memphis in 4
Dallas over Houston in 6
San Antonio over Denver in 7
Sacramento over Seattle in 7

 

[Pianobone]

As long as Kobe learned his lesson, I'm happy. See what happens when you poo-poo on Shaq?

 

[SamusAran86]

As of this morning, the current playoff standings

(1) Miami vs (8) New Jersey Heat lead series 2-0
(4) Chicago vs (5) Washington Bulls lead series 1-0
(2) Detroit vs (7) Philadelphia Pistons lead series 2-0
(3) Boston vs (6) Indiana Series ties 1-1

(1) Phoenix vs (8) Memphis Suns lead 1-0
(4) Dallas vs (5) Houston Rockets lead series 2-0
(2) San Antonio vs (7) Denver Nuggets lead series 1-0
(3) Seattle vs (6) Sacramento Supersonics lead 2-0

The Nuggets played a good game against the Spurs in game 1, blowing them out at the end. This series could get interesting.

The Heat are just handing it to the Nets.

The Suns which lead big early, could never seem to put the finishing touches on the game, haveing to bring some of the starters back in towards the end of the game to seal the deal

and just what happened to the Mav's... they got spanked in game 1, and made it close in game 2, but still left with a loss...

Todays game 2's should be interesting. Lets go Suns/Bulls


[rant]Why is there so much time between games... the playoffs wont end until june... most teams have had 3 days off between games.[/rant]

 

[NewGamePlus]

[rant]Why is there so much time between games... the playoffs wont end until june... most teams have had 3 days off between games.[/rant]

It could have something to do with the fact that hockey playoffs were expected to take place at the same time as basketball playoffs (hockey starts one week earlier). So they could have designed the schedule to compromise between the two sports for the minority of fans who happen to like both, and now they just appear to have a lot more extra time left over since there is no hockey.

 

[Major]

It's because of tv scheduling, but it has nothing to do with hockey. There are eight first round series, so even if they tried to have four games on the same day (on a weeknight), they wouldn't be able to air all four games on the same channel. There are three games tonight, but they can only air two of them on TNT. The Bulls game is on NBATV, which I don't even get. Luckily it's also on Comcast Sports Net in the Chicago area. Anyway, the simple way of saying it is, the more games that are scheduled for the same night, the less games will be aired. It goes a lot more quickly after the first round.

 

[NewGamePlus]

Four games CAN be scheduled on the same day, but at most, a person would be able to watch only two of them the whole way through. In the first round of hockey playoffs, they usually air two eastern conference matchups at the same time during one 3hr period, and two western conference matchups at the same time during another three hour period before or after the other one. Usually ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC do the hockey playoffs, so they schedule it well (with SOME boneheaded exceptions). If basketball were done on ESPN, I would expect it to be the same way, but otherwise, it might be hard to do it with one channel, or with two that usually have other regular programming.

*Vega watches as everybody reading his post has now drifted off to lullaby land*

WAKE UP!!!!! mg:

 

[Major]

2-0 Bulls!

But yeah, hockey is different since they show the games simultaneously on ESPN and ESPN2, and because it's a lot less popular than basketball, especially when there's a series between two canadian teams, not many americans are going to watch it.

An update...

(1) Miami vs (8) New Jersey - Heat wins series 4-0
(4) Chicago vs (5) Washington - Series tied 2-2
(2) Detroit vs (7) Philadelphia - Pistons win series 4-1
(3) Boston vs (6) Indiana - Pacers lead series 3-2

(1) Phoenix vs (8) Memphis - Suns win series 4-0
(4) Dallas vs (5) Houston - Mavericks lead series 3-2
(2) San Antonio vs (7) Denver - Spurs lead series 3-1
(3) Seattle vs (6) Sacramento - Supersonics win series 4-1

 

[SamusAran86]

San Antonio has taken care of Denver with a 4-1 series win

Washington has taken a 3-2 series lead over Chicago

2 Game 6's will be played today with a chance for Dallas and Indiana to be able to close out the series. Or will they go to game 7?

Hopefully tomarrow the Bulls will win and push there series to game 7


Im a little worried that the Suns are going to have too many days off before they meet Dallas/Houston. Thats the really bad part about a team sweeping a series in 4, and the competition lasting 6-7 game series lasting over 2 week time