| Keeping an eye on the progress of NBA Playoffs |
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| Written by Matthew Russell | |
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Let me start this by telling everyone that I would love to write about the NCAA tournament, but since I have to write this on Monday night and the paper goes out Thursday, anything I write would be completely useless. So to the NBA we go. Obviously, the Dallas Mavericks are the championship favorite, with Phoenix and San Antonio trailing shortly behind. While the west looks to be a three team race, there are some very interesting match-up problems for these top tier teams in the first or second round. If the playoffs started right now, the Mavericks would draw Golden State in the first round. The Warriors are a prefect 2-0 against Dallas so far this season. Tell me former Mavericks coach, Don Nelson, is not licking his chops over the chance to knock out his former team in the first round of the playoffs. It is probably better for the Suns if they draw the two or three seed in the west rather than the top seed. The Suns have defeated both the Mavericks and the Spurs this season, but have been unable to beat the Jazz a single time this year. I would imagine that no team would like to draw the Allen Iverson, Carmelo Anthony duo of Denver in the first round. Each is capable of putting up Herculean scoring efforts, and Iverson has shown himself to be a capable passer at the point guard position (he is currently tied for ninth in the NBA with 7.4 per game). The entire Western Conference field is dangerous this year. The two teams I didn’t mention happen to be Houston and the L.A. Lakers. With Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming, the Rockets are a very legitimate threat. We’ve all seen the headlines with Kobe Bryant exploding for absolutely mind-boggling scoring efforts, and this year he leads a team that is overall better than the one he had last year. The Eastern Conference trails the west this year as any of the top three teams in the west would be considered the favorites were they to reach the Finals. Don’t count some of these Eastern Conference teams out too soon. The Cleveland Cavilers are quietly one of the Leagues’ hottest teams right now. Perennial Eastern Conference power houses, Miami and Detroit, are still around as well. The Pistons have been playing great basketball since the addition of Chris Webber, and, thus far, look to be the favorite from the East. Miami is gaining some steam now as the Diesel, or Shaq, is reminding the entire league that he is not completely used up yet and that he is still one of, if not the best center in the league. The Washington Wizards are another team that could really do some damage in the Playoffs. They are currently sitting at third in the conference. The Chicago Bulls are another team that could be dangerous. With Ben Wallace, Ben Gordon, and Kirk Hinrich, these bulls are a far cry from the world beaters that Michael Jordan led, but shouldn’t be written off just yet. After watching the last Dallas vs. Phoenix game, I can only wait and hope that this season the playoffs will be as good as they were last season. |
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