blogsketball

I woke up this morning and saw one of my favorite things—the trusty old if-the-playoffs-started-today brackets on nba.com. The playoffs are upon us. The invitations have all been sent out, the tables are set. We just need to figure out where everyone in the West is going to be sitting.

I don’t have a lot of time (the AJHL finals have been eating that up the last two weeks) to get into each matchup. I just want to look at two series right now, one from each conference.

Orlando (3) vs. Toronto (6)

Down the stretch, the Raps’ season has turned into a disappointment. The unwritten goal for the team was the second round of the playoffs, but I don’t see that happening this year. It pains me a little to say it, but Dwight Howard is going to get the best of Chris Bosh and a surprisingly effective as of late Rasho Nesterovic. The Raps have no answer for Hedo Turkoglu. Orlando has had too strong a season, and Toronto has plunged too deeply into mediocrity for them to make this competitive. A Magic sweep wouldn’t surprise me, but the Raps fan in me would at least like to see it go five.

I know it sounds crazy but…

Don’t count out the Dallas Mavericks. They’ve underachieved all year to get to a pressure-free spot and should they catch New Orleans in the first round, I wouldn’t be totally shocked if they were able to derail the  Mardi-gras that they’ve been having in NO this year. The Mavs might have enough experience to pull the rug out from under the young Hornets and sneak into the second round, where I’d fully expect them to wilt under the pressure that would come flying back onto their shoulders. So, don’t count them out in the first round. You can count them out anytime after that, though.