The OAO NBA Playoffs/Finals Thread

[Dangerous A 0]

The Lakers/Spurs series is going at least 6 games, if not 7. The Lakers will go as far as Shaq takes them and who knows how far that will be with the reports of a sore knee. Malone will try to frustrate Duncan and intimidate him, but that probrably won't be effective. I don't understand the Bowen love over Kobe bit. If you look back at last year's series, Kobe averaged 32 a game against the Spurs in the series lost and the previous year he averaged 26 against Bowen. Kobe will do what Kobe does. For the Spurs, I think it hinges on Parker and Ginobili coming off the bench. They are the real Laker killers in this series because Duncan is going to get his, no matter which Laker is guarding him. It's up to Payton and Fisher to try to keep Parker from balling out of control and the Laker bench has to try to match the energy and playmaking Ginobili brings off the Spurs bench. This will be an excellent series.

[Ripper 0]

I still think Kobes shoulder has put his jumper off. That is going to be big.

[Spicy McHaggis 0]

Medvedenko will surprise you and you underrate Rush...

[Steviekick 0]

It's up to Payton and Fisher to try to keep Parker from balling out of control and the Laker bench has to try to match the energy and playmaking Ginobili brings off the Spurs bench. This will be an excellent series.

That is the key match up. The series will definitely go 6-7 games.

[Steviekick 0]

Those are the two most boring series to watch. They are both Eastern Conference series. 

I love watching Detroit play, but it was painful to watch.

 

Man, Detroit/Bucks series hasn't been boring nor painful to watch!

Hornets and Heat have yet to get my attention over 5 minutes though.

I meant painful as in the way that Detroit has pretty much dominated Milwaukee's game play.

[Guest TheArchiteck]

Oh ok....understood.

[Guest NaturalBornThriller4:20]

Dallas is OUT... Mark Cuban is going to do a lot of cleaning in the coming months.

 

My Kings are another step closer to the championship...

[Cuban Linx 0]

If the past few seasons are any indication Dallas will just add even more scorers to the team in the offseason, trading away anyone who actually plays defence in the process (if there's even anyone left).

[NoCalMike 0]

Dallas is OUT... Mark Cuban is going to do a lot of cleaning in the coming months.

 

My Kings are another step closer to the championship... 

OUR.....Kings......

 

 

They could definately use the rest though. By some miracle, I hope the Denver/Minnesota series goes to 7 games.

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

Kings Fans represent!

[bobobrazil1984 0]

Detroit vs. New Jersey! The Rematch! Let's get it on!!!

 

I'm a tad worried for my Pistons though, Rasheed was literally limping through this past game. Hopefully everybody else will pick up the slack.

 

Pistons in 6, is my prediction.

[Dangerous A 0]

I will be the first to admit that I had my doubts. If you go to page 1 of this thread, I predicted the Mavs in 6 because of the way the Kings ended the season. I am happy to see the Kings take care of the Mavs in 5. That was the best game of the playoffs so far.

 

Here is something to think about. The Kings lost the Pacific division on the last night of the season by losing to the Warriors on the road and 2 hail mary 3 pointers by Kobe against the Blazers. With the way things aligned with Sac getting the 4 seed and the Lakers getting 2, that also sent the Lakers on a collision course with the West's hottest team, the defending champion Spurs. Now the Kings ended up with a not-so-defensive-minded Mavs team that has been vanquished and will probrably face a T-Wolves team that has lost Troy Hudson for the rest of the year and Sczerbiak for an unknown time with a back injury. It'll be interesting to see if the Kings can make something of this. Problem they face is no homecourt against any of the remaining teams in the West.

 

NJ/Detroit will be a hell of a series. I think that should go 6 or 7 games. Kenyon Martin vs Rasheed Wallace is gonna contain a ton of 'tude. It'll be interesting to see which one throws the first shove/punch.

[NoCalMike 0]

I will be the first to admit that I had my doubts. If you go to page 1 of this thread, I predicted the Mavs in 6 because of the way the Kings ended the season. I am happy to see the Kings take care of the Mavs in 5. That was the best game of the playoffs so far.

 

Here is something to think about. The Kings lost the Pacific division on the last night of the season by losing to the Warriors on the road and 2 hail mary 3 pointers by Kobe against the Blazers. With the way things aligned with Sac getting the 4 seed and the Lakers getting 2, that also sent the Lakers on a collision course with the West's hottest team, the defending champion Spurs. Now the Kings ended up with a not-so-defensive-minded Mavs team that has been vanquished and will probrably face a T-Wolves team that has lost Troy Hudson for the rest of the year and Sczerbiak for an unknown time with a back injury. It'll be interesting to see if the Kings can make something of this. Problem they face is no homecourt against any of the remaining teams in the West.

 

NJ/Detroit will be a hell of a series. I think that should go 6 or 7 games. Kenyon Martin vs Rasheed Wallace is gonna contain a ton of 'tude. It'll be interesting to see which one throws the first shove/punch.

The Kings definately need to play better in the next round. The Kings/Mav series almost says nothing either way, because the Kings really didn't play well except for maybe game 1, and part of game 5, so you COULD say that they won a playoff series playing half-assed, but on the other hand, the Mavs also didn't seem to be on top of their game either. Lets hope the Nuggets and T-wolves beat the shit out of each other for awhile.

 

Oh and the Nets/Pistons will be the shit. Wow, the eastern conference is back. It has been awhile since I was excited for an eastern conference playoff series.

[alfdogg 0]

I say Minnesota beats Sac, simply because I actually think they'll be better without Hudson and Wally. When those two came back, the Wolves seemed to face problems similar to although not quite as severe as Sac did when Webber came back. With them out, Minnesota should be able to play at the level they played at before, when they were one of the top three teams in the league.

 

I'll go with Pistons in 5 over Jersey. Tayshaun Prince is on FIRE, and I expect Rasheed to have his way with K-Mart, especially if his outside shot's falling.

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

I say Minnesota beats Sac, simply because I actually think they'll be better without Hudson and Wally. When those two came back, the Wolves seemed to face problems similar to although not quite as severe as Sac did when Webber came back. With them out, Minnesota should be able to play at the level they played at before, when they were one of the top three teams in the league.

That's funny; I see Minnesota losing for exactly the same reasons. The Timberwolves are going to have to beat Sacramento doing what Dallas did effectively, dominating on the offensive glass, and taking advantage of the Kings' weak perimeter defense and lack of shotblocking. And, while I think that Garnett, Cassell and Sprewell are much better than Nowitzki, Nash and Finley, the rest of Minnesota's lineup falls off precipitously after that, especially with Hudson and Szczerbiak out.

 

Basically, what it boils down to is that: 1) I think that Garnett, Cassell and Sprewell will have to beat the Kings by themselves in order to advance, and 2) I don't think they can do it.

[Guest Smell the ratings!!!]

1. The Spurs/Lakers series is basically the finals

2. Nets/Pistons will be awesome

 

that is all

[Spicy McHaggis 0]

I hate hate hate the Kings... there's no way they'll lose to Minnesota.

[Ripper 0]

I say Minnesota beats Sac, simply because I actually think they'll be better without Hudson and Wally.  When those two came back, the Wolves seemed to face problems similar to although not quite as severe as Sac did when Webber came back.  With them out, Minnesota should be able to play at the level they played at before, when they were one of the top three teams in the league.

That's funny; I see Minnesota losing for exactly the same reasons. The Timberwolves are going to have to beat Sacramento doing what Dallas did effectively, dominating on the offensive glass, and taking advantage of the Kings' weak perimeter defense and lack of shotblocking. And, while I think that Garnett, Cassell and Sprewell are much better than Nowitzki, Nash and Finley, the rest of Minnesota's lineup falls off precipitously after that, especially with Hudson and Szczerbiak out.

 

Basically, what it boils down to is that: 1) I think that Garnett, Cassell and Sprewell will have to beat the Kings by themselves in order to advance, and 2) I don't think they can do it.

The Wolves have a guy in Trenton Hassell that can stay in Pejas face all day and is a sick defender(another guy from the bulls I believe), Sam Cassell Has historically made Bibby his bitch in the post, Sprewell/Christie cancel each other out honestly.

 

I think Brad Miller will be the key to this series. How he plays will determine how the kings can go. Because KG is about to destroy that Kings front line on the boards and on offense.

[Guest TheArchiteck]

Monday.....8pm

Palace of Auburn Hills

Nets

Pistons

 

Its on!!!

 

 

Man i'm excited about this series. Bad blood carried over from Detroit being swept last playoffs. During the regular season, NJ celebrated to just hit 70! With the after game comments from NJ about that "fluke" win even added more to the fire. Its going to get pretty intense. It will be a lot of techs called in this series!

 

I think Miami is going to clean up and move on to face the Pacers. I think the Heat will give them a little battle. Maybe in 5 or 6...they aren't getting swept.

[alfdogg 0]

Man i'm excited about this series.

I'm assuming you're not a Nets fan.

[Guest Redhawk]

Imagine the ad campaign for a Minnesota-NJ finals:

 

"KG! K-Mart! It's gonna be fu-GAY-zy, tonight at 7!"

[Spicy McHaggis 0]

Maybe KG will have some more gangstas to deal with.

[Fökai 0]

Heat now up 3-2 in the series.

 

Wolves with an early lead 21-17, and this is looking to have a few brawls before all is said and done. Refer to my new custom name for motivation.

[Golgo 13 0]

This Nuggets/Wolves game is a fucking disaster thus far (for me anyway).

 

Edit: Or maybe not. It's suddenly back down to 12 at the end of the half.

[Paul Stanley 0]

Wolves Win, come on Kings.

 

 

poor Marshmallow, and i want to punch Jon Barry in the fucking heart.

[Guest El Satanico]

Glad to see KG finally get past the first round. I always liked him and hopefully this will put an end to him being underappreciated.

 

 

Yes I know he's considered a star player, but he's never seemed to get the "super star" treatment.

[Golgo 13 0]

Bull. Jon Barry never actually said anything that was wrong and tonight he did nothing more inflammatory than playing around with the crowd. If you must go after someone on the Nuggets first, then go after Francisco Elson who made a far bigger jackass of himself during the series.

[The Czech Republic 0]

So I'm thinking that these are the worst NBA playoffs that I can recall. Seriously. Sweeps and 4-1s in almost every first round series with top seeds advancing across the board? I hate the Lakers, I'm bored by the Pistons, I'm tired of the Spurs and the Nets.

 

You need to have some upsets or else there's no compelling story to the playoffs. The Lakers have a lot of guys. The Pistons play defense. The Spurs are good.

 

Okay.

 

So much for Jerry West taking the Memphis Grizzlies to L.A. for a rematch. The major-media-market Knicks and Celtics pulling off the token upsets? Not this year. Forget Carmelo Anthony taking the Nuggets past the perennial preliminary chokers that are the T-Wolves. And the often nationally televised Mavericks, the most entertaining and popular team in the NBA, with inarguably the most interesting cast of characters of any 16 postseason candidates? Gone. Splendid. If the Big Shock of the first round is the New Orleans Hornets in 7, then the NBA and their carriers deserve the crappy ratings. So far it's just "Kobe was IN the court, now he's ON the court!" Screw you, whoever you are that gives us that gem night after night after night.

 

And if it sounds like I'm too much into the large-scale entertainment aspects of the playoffs and not rooting for a team like I'm supposed to, so what? It's the NBA, the kings of style over substance.

[Guest El Satanico]

Well he did get slapped in the balls before his comment. Also isn't he foreign? What he said probably isn't such a big deal where he's from.

[Guest TheArchiteck]

Man i'm excited about this series.

I'm assuming you're not a Nets fan.

You sir, assumed correctly.

Pistons all the way.