2008 NBA Playoff Thread

[Esternogligen]

Final Standings and Seeding

Eastern Conference

(1) Boston 66-16
(2) Detroit 59-23
(3) Orlando 52-30
(4) Cleveland 45-37
(5) Washington 43-39
(6) Toronto 41-41
(7) Philadelphia 40-42
(8) Atlanta 37-45 (lol)


Western Conference

(1) L.A. Lakers 57-25
(2) New Orleans 56-26
(3) San Antonio 56-26
(4) Utah 54-28
(5) Houston 55-27
(6) Phoenix 55-27
(7) Dallas 51-31
(8) Denver 50-32

First Round Matchups

Eastern Conference

(1) Boston vs (8) Atlanta
(2) Detroit vs (7) Philadelphia
(3) Orlando vs (6) Toronto
(4) Cleveland vs (5) Washington

Western Conference

(1) L.A. Lakers vs (8) Denver
(2) New Orleans vs (7) Dallas
(3) San Antonio vs (6) Phoenix
(4) Utah vs (5) Houston

There ya go.
Who ya got?

[ameliaprincesa]

My predictions... not that they're based on anything other than gut reaction, but I think it'll be Boston or Detroit (most likely Boston) against either San Antonio or New Orleans. I'd like to say the Mavs would beat out NO in the early matchup, but I don't think they have it in them. I hope they do though. I'd love to see two Texas teams in the semi-finals in the West.

[Speed]

DEE-TROIT

SUCKS

MY

BALLS!

[Esternogligen]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (ameliaprincesa @ Apr 17 2008, 06:57 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

My predictions... not that they&#39;re based on anything other than gut reaction, but I think it&#39;ll be Boston or Detroit (most likely Boston) against either San Antonio or New Orleans. I&#39;d like to say the Mavs would beat out NO in the early matchup, but I don&#39;t think they have it in them. I hope they do though. I&#39;d love to see two Texas teams in the semi-finals in the West. [/b]

Sorry, but the Spurs wont be making it past the first round.
Suns were 3-1 against you guys in the regular season series, and we will have our revenge.

However, I&#39;m not even sure if I want my Suns to win this year.
If they do, people will say we couldnt win until we got Shaq.
BS, we were good enough to win last year, and we still dont need Shaq.
I&#39;m getting really sick of all the bandwagon Shaq/Suns fans.

What&#39;s even more BS is that the Warriors, with a 48-34 record and being such a good matchup against the KobeBryants, are sitting at home while Bibby and the Hawks are in the post season with a 37-45 losing record. <_<

[Speed]

I don&#39;t think the East is going to be as bad as everyone thhiks. Boston, Detroit, Cleveland, and Philly all have better records vs. the West than they do against the East.

[Esternogligen]

By the way, Boston will not win the Finals.
That&#39;s why it&#39;s up to the Western teams to knock out the KobeBryants before the Finals.

[Speed]

Well, with round 1 being vs. Denver, I&#39;m sure that the Nuggets can find plenty of enticing white women to roll out to distract Kobe.

[Esternogligen]

... if Melo&#39;s not in jail during the series.

[Speed]

I wish I got our local FSN affiliate in HD so I didn&#39;t have to hear SCREAMIN A. SMIF AT HALFTIME!!!

[ameliaprincesa]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Esternogligen @ Apr 17 2008, 09:31 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

Sorry, but the Spurs wont be making it past the first round.
Suns were 3-1 against you guys in the regular season series, and we will have our revenge.[/b]

Well... I hope you&#39;re right Estern. Spike says that the Spurs are struggling this year. I have a bias though, so I can&#39;t see too logically when it comes to my own teams. I SA. In my head, they&#39;re gonna win it all, but... realistically, I think there are a lot of teams that are stronger than them... all of which are coming out of the West.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Esternogligen @ Apr 17 2008, 09:31 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

However, I&#39;m not even sure if I want my Suns to win this year.
If they do, people will say we couldnt win until we got Shaq.
BS, we were good enough to win last year, and we still dont need Shaq.
I&#39;m getting really sick of all the bandwagon Shaq/Suns fans.[/b]

I&#39;m also a HUGE Shaq fan. That man is amazing! How he gets 300+ pounds moving is unbelieveable to me. I will root for the Suns (if they can make it past SA) in later rounds. I&#39;m not a big believer in one man making a team, but... if they do win it all, I think a lot of the credit will go to Shaq because, realistically speaking, he would&#39;ve filled a spot on their team that needed something different. I don&#39;t believe they were lacking with Marion, but... they just needed a SHAQATTACK. Not better... just different.

AND... finally... did you see that double OT win?!?!? I didn&#39;t... so don&#39;t talk shit. I watched the highlights.

[Speed]

Brendan Haywood is a punk bitch

[ameliaprincesa]

Is he related to you, Speed?

[spike]

Dude, fuck the Suns. Looks like Chris Paul will have to take out the Spurs.

[ameliaprincesa]

I still can&#39;t tell if the Suns are choking or just running out of steam late in the game. If it&#39;s the latter, maybe they just need a different coach for substitutions or something. I felt the same way after last year&#39;s playoffs. I hope they get it together for the next couple of games. I love good basketball!

[Esternogligen]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (ameliaprincesa @ Apr 23 2008, 07:54 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

I still can&#39;t tell if the Suns are choking or just running out of steam late in the game. If it&#39;s the latter, maybe they just need a different coach for substitutions or something. I felt the same way after last year&#39;s playoffs. I hope they get it together for the next couple of games. I love good basketball! [/b]

It&#39;s so strange.
Analyzing the games you&#39;ll see that both teams are equally skilled, but the issue has been poor coaching on the Sun&#39;s end leading to us not matching up with the Spurs well at all.
D&#39;Antoni didnt figure on putting Diaw on Parker until Game 4 when he should have done that after halftime in Game 3 so we could pull out a win.

They&#39;ve also got Bowen on Nash since he wont complain as much about elbows to the chest, so we now have to rely on Diaw to dish it outside to our finishers like Bell and Barbosa.
I recall some analyst saying that Diaw would be the key to a Suns Championship if we happen to win this year, but I dont feel all that confident putting faith in him; he doesnt exactly show up for all the games.

Oh, and remember when I said Boston wont win the Finals?