2010 Playoff Predictions

This NBA season has been a wild one thus far, full of injuries, trades and fights, equaling to wins and loses, and leading to some teams being the best they can be and coming out on top and others playing beneath their skill level, low on the ranking scale. However, soon it all comes to a close, and as the regular season becomes the past, the Playoffs become the present. Though there are only twelve days until the first round of the tournament begins, nothing is certain, and standings are still yet to be set in stone. Therefore, my following predictions are to be taken with a grain of salt, as I do not have ESP (insert not-so-hilarious ESPN joke here), and cannot see into the future.

West:
As of right now the standings for the Western Conference are as follows:
Lakers
Mavs
Nugs
Jazz
Suns
Thunder
Spurs
Blazers

Therefore, first round matchups will look like this:
Lakers VS. Blazers
Mavs VS. Spurs
Nugs VS. Thunder
Jazz VS. Suns

The way I see it the Lakers will trump the Blazers, who have been battling a handful of injuries all year, the Spurs will overpower the Mavs simply due to Playoff surprise, the Nugs will beat the Thunder, who really only have Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook to lead the way, and the Suns will outdo the Jazz, with no one being able to stop the great Steve Nash.

This leaves us with:
Suns VS. Nugs
Lakers VS. Spurs

At this point the Nugs and the Lakers will come out victorious, leaving the Suns and Spurs to kiss the championship goodbye, and making way for a great series to begin.

Nugs VS. Lakers

In all honesty, I would love the Nugs to win this one. Hell, I would love for them to win it all. And I think in theory this is more than possible. However, with the absence of George Karl, and clearly by no fault of his own, the team has seemed shaky recently, still struggling with the reality of their coach battling cancer and having to adjust to a new leader. Therefore, I have the Lakers coming on top in the West, something I doubt anyone would be surprised about.

East:
As for the East, the lineup is:
Cavs
Magic
Hawks
Celts
Heat
Bucks
Bobcats
Raptors
(But just because I'm a Chicago girl, I'm going to go ahead and predict that the Bulls will pull ahead of the Raptors, and grab the eighth seed).

And the series will go:
Cavs VS. Bulls
Magic VS. Bobcats
Hawks VS. Bucks
Celts VS. Heat

Personally I'm going with the Cavs beating out my hometeam (even I have to be realistic at some point) as we've been struggling tremendously in the last few weeks, the Magic will overthrow the Bobcats, though they have been showing improvement overall, the Bucks will lead over the Hawks (if I have a surprise team in the West, I certainly need one in the East) giving Brandon Jennings quite a rookie season, and the Heat will knock out the Celts (come on, I hate Boston) making for one excited Dwyane Wade.

At this point we would be left with:
Cavs VS. Heat
Magic VS. Bucks

Though I like all four teams, I would have to go with the Cavs and the Magic coming out on top, making the semi-finals a repeat of last year.

Cavs VS. Magic

It has to be said that the Magic are a great team, and are fully capable of winning this one (as demonstrated by last year) but in my opinion the Cavs are way too hungry to let that happen twice in a row. With a changed Magic roster, and an increasingly talented Lebron James, my money is on the Cavs.

THE FINALS:
Cavs VS. Lakers

Besides wanting to be right (yeah, I'm one of those people), I sincerely hope that this will indeed be the final matchup, as I can't think of a more exciting final around. Between Kobe and Lebron, the drive of both teams, and the reputation that preceeds them both, it is going to be one hell of a show. Though I will not go as far as to predict the series score, I do believe its going to be a tight one, and that ultimately the Cavs will come out on top. The Cavs will win the 2010 NBA Championships.

And there you have it. There are my predictions for the 2010 Playoffs. Let the race to the ring begin.