Kori Ellis
04-21-2006, 01:40 AM
We've got the winners
By Chris Sheridan
ESPN Insider
It was well past midnight on the East Coast by the time all the NBA playoff matchups were finally set, and now there will be just two short days of downtime before the real season gets started.
The defending champion San Antonio Spurs will go up against Ron Artest and the Sacramento Kings, who won't be a pushover if their 10-point victory on the Spurs' home court just two weeks ago was any kind of a preview.
The defending Eastern Conference champion Detroit Pistons will get an opponent, the Milwaukee Bucks, generally regarded as the postseason's most legitimate pushover candidate, although the Bucks took the Pistons to overtime in their first visit of the season to The Palace and were up by 17 in the third quarter of their second visit before crumbling down the stretch.
The East playoffs will have three heavy favorites -- Detroit over Milwaukee, Miami over Chicago and New Jersey over Indiana -- along with one series that should be more of a toss-up: the playoff-tested Washington Wizards vs. the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first postseason game of LeBron James' NBA career.
The West offers slightly more intrigue, at least on paper. The Spurs will be solid favorites over the Kings, and the same goes for Dallas over Memphis, but the Phoenix-L.A. Lakers series has the Kobe Bryant factor at play, and the Los Angeles Clippers-Denver series offers the oddity of the sixth seed, the Clips, having home-court advantage over the third seed by virtue of having a better regular-season record.
"This is the most wide-open I've ever seen the NBA playoffs," TNT analyst Charles Barkley said. "If the Clippers make it to the Western Conference finals, I wouldn't be shocked -- and if Denver makes it to the Western Conference finals, I wouldn't be shocked."
ABC, the league's network rights holder, got first choice of which games to televise and selected Wizards-Cavs for the Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET time slot and Lakers-Suns for the same slot on Sunday.
The playoffs begin Saturday with Wizards-Cavs at 3:30 p.m. ET, Sacramento-San Antonio at 5:30 p.m., Bulls-Heat at 8 p.m. and Nuggets-Clippers in the uncoveted 10:30 p.m. slot.
Sunday's games are Pacers-Nets at 1 p.m. ET, Lakers-Suns at 3:30, Bucks-Pistons at 7 and Grizzlies-Mavericks at 9:30.
Here's the briefest of looks at each series, along with the Sheridan picks (I went chalk, big-time).
EAST:
Bucks-Pistons: Detroit's experience will be the determining factor in each fourth quarter, but the Bucks have the right combination of size, speed and shooting to keep up with the Pistons. Detroit in 4.
Heat-Bulls: Miami has too much size and too good a player, Dwyane Wade, to be threatened much. But Chicago has been playing playoff-type games for two weeks. Heat in 5.
Pacers-Nets: The Nets are pretty high on themselves these days, but Indiana never goes down easy in the playoffs. We'll tab Jason Kidd as the difference-maker here. Nets in 7.
Wizards-Cavaliers: LeBron takes the big stage for the first time, but is everyone going to underestimate Gilbert Arenas again? Cavaliers in 7.
WEST:
Spurs-Kings: Two of the game's best defenders and loosest cannons, Bruce Bowen and Artest, could make this a combustible series, and the Mike Bibby-Tony Parker point guard matchup is nifty. Spurs in 5. :lol @ Bruce being a loose cannon
Suns-Lakers: Kobe Bryant scored 39, 37, 51 and 43 in the Lakers' four games against Phoenix, three of which were losses. If you had to pick only one series to watch, this would be it. Suns in 7.
Nuggets-Clippers: Anyone who bets against Sam Cassell will eventually part ways with his money, although the Clips haven't been in the second round since 1976. Clippers in 7.
Grizzlies-Mavericks: There is no one on Memphis who can defend Dirk Nowitzki, and the Grizz still have zero career playoff W's. Mavs in 6.
By Chris Sheridan
ESPN Insider
It was well past midnight on the East Coast by the time all the NBA playoff matchups were finally set, and now there will be just two short days of downtime before the real season gets started.
The defending champion San Antonio Spurs will go up against Ron Artest and the Sacramento Kings, who won't be a pushover if their 10-point victory on the Spurs' home court just two weeks ago was any kind of a preview.
The defending Eastern Conference champion Detroit Pistons will get an opponent, the Milwaukee Bucks, generally regarded as the postseason's most legitimate pushover candidate, although the Bucks took the Pistons to overtime in their first visit of the season to The Palace and were up by 17 in the third quarter of their second visit before crumbling down the stretch.
The East playoffs will have three heavy favorites -- Detroit over Milwaukee, Miami over Chicago and New Jersey over Indiana -- along with one series that should be more of a toss-up: the playoff-tested Washington Wizards vs. the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first postseason game of LeBron James' NBA career.
The West offers slightly more intrigue, at least on paper. The Spurs will be solid favorites over the Kings, and the same goes for Dallas over Memphis, but the Phoenix-L.A. Lakers series has the Kobe Bryant factor at play, and the Los Angeles Clippers-Denver series offers the oddity of the sixth seed, the Clips, having home-court advantage over the third seed by virtue of having a better regular-season record.
"This is the most wide-open I've ever seen the NBA playoffs," TNT analyst Charles Barkley said. "If the Clippers make it to the Western Conference finals, I wouldn't be shocked -- and if Denver makes it to the Western Conference finals, I wouldn't be shocked."
ABC, the league's network rights holder, got first choice of which games to televise and selected Wizards-Cavs for the Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET time slot and Lakers-Suns for the same slot on Sunday.
The playoffs begin Saturday with Wizards-Cavs at 3:30 p.m. ET, Sacramento-San Antonio at 5:30 p.m., Bulls-Heat at 8 p.m. and Nuggets-Clippers in the uncoveted 10:30 p.m. slot.
Sunday's games are Pacers-Nets at 1 p.m. ET, Lakers-Suns at 3:30, Bucks-Pistons at 7 and Grizzlies-Mavericks at 9:30.
Here's the briefest of looks at each series, along with the Sheridan picks (I went chalk, big-time).
EAST:
Bucks-Pistons: Detroit's experience will be the determining factor in each fourth quarter, but the Bucks have the right combination of size, speed and shooting to keep up with the Pistons. Detroit in 4.
Heat-Bulls: Miami has too much size and too good a player, Dwyane Wade, to be threatened much. But Chicago has been playing playoff-type games for two weeks. Heat in 5.
Pacers-Nets: The Nets are pretty high on themselves these days, but Indiana never goes down easy in the playoffs. We'll tab Jason Kidd as the difference-maker here. Nets in 7.
Wizards-Cavaliers: LeBron takes the big stage for the first time, but is everyone going to underestimate Gilbert Arenas again? Cavaliers in 7.
WEST:
Spurs-Kings: Two of the game's best defenders and loosest cannons, Bruce Bowen and Artest, could make this a combustible series, and the Mike Bibby-Tony Parker point guard matchup is nifty. Spurs in 5. :lol @ Bruce being a loose cannon
Suns-Lakers: Kobe Bryant scored 39, 37, 51 and 43 in the Lakers' four games against Phoenix, three of which were losses. If you had to pick only one series to watch, this would be it. Suns in 7.
Nuggets-Clippers: Anyone who bets against Sam Cassell will eventually part ways with his money, although the Clips haven't been in the second round since 1976. Clippers in 7.
Grizzlies-Mavericks: There is no one on Memphis who can defend Dirk Nowitzki, and the Grizz still have zero career playoff W's. Mavs in 6.