Despite the thrilling seven-game series that the Clippers and Spurs finished off two weeks ago, the first round as a whole was nearly useless, as five of the eight matchups didn’t go past five games. But the second round produced four nailbiting series, and even though only one went the distance (in extraordinary fashion), the semi-finals were just about everything the NBA fan base could ask for.
A look back on how the predictions faired in the second round…
Western Conference Semi-Final Predictions (Actual result in parentheses)
- 1 GS over 5 MEM in 5 (GS in 6)
- 3 LAC over 2 HOU in 7 (LAC in 7)
Eastern Conference Semi-Final Predictions (Actual result in parentheses)
- 1 ATL over 5 WAS in 7 (ATL in 6)
- 2 CLE over 3 CHI in 7 (CLE in 6)
Win percentage went up with the semi-final predictions, but I couldn’t nail down the number of games for any series. Totals for the 2015 postseason are now 8 out of 12 series correctly predicted. Trying to build on that moderate success, here are the previews and predictions for the NBA’s final four.
eastern conference finals
1 Atlanta Hawks vs 2 Cleveland Cavaliers
The NBA bracket has turned out to be chalk in both conferences to this point, making it the second year in a row that the top four seeds are the last teams remaining. The East will feature a LeBron James-led team for the fifth straight season. This time around for the King, the challengers will be the upstart Atlanta Hawks, who much like the Pacers last season, started out scorching hot this season, and have cooled off prior to their conference finals meeting. However, the Hawks are not last year’s Pacers. They are more like the poor-man’s Spurs. They fly around on the defensive end, and when they get the ball moving side to side on offense it is a beautiful thing to watch.
On the Cavaliers side, they have the best player in the world in LeBron, but they’ll need some role players to step up like they did against the Bulls if they want to outlast this Hawks team. With Kevin Love out for the season, and Kyrie Irving hobbled, guys like Tristan Thompson, Iman Shumpert and Timofey Mozgov really took their game up a notch against a strong Bulls team that looked to just run out of gas on their home floor in Game 6. Those lesser usage players have a tall task ahead of them chasing Kyle Korver around the perimeter, and dealing with the post duo of Paul Millsap and Al Horford down low. Although Irving is listed as questionable for Game 1 on Wednesday night in Atlanta, I don’t forsee him missing the game. There has been sufficient rest between series, and I think he’ll be fine for this one. If LeBron gets enough help from Kyrie, I think the role players follow suit and we’ll see LeBron in the NBA Finals once again.
Prediction: Cavs in 6
Western Conference finals
1 Golden State Warriors vs 2 Houston Rockets
The Rockets were counted out by every knowledgeable basketball mind in the business following their blowout Game 4 loss in Los Angeles a week ago, falling behind 3-1 to a team that was missing Chris Paul the first two games of the series in Houston. Now, they’re in the Western Conference Finals. If anyone had the stones to put money on the Rockets making a comeback in that series, I’m sure they became a whole lot richer yesterday afternoon as the Clippers made another underwhelming exit from the postseason. The Rockets will hope to ride the wave of momentum they’ve been on since coming back from 19 down in the late third quarter of Game 6 into Oakland on Tuesday night. Houston will need the best efforts of all players involved to take down the 67-win Warriors who have had only minor hiccups thus far in the playoffs. Considering “all players involved” includes Josh Smith, Pablo Prigioni and Jason Terry all playing major minutes, the Rockets have their work cut out for them.
Golden State has been an offensive juggernaut throughout the season. What many people don’t realize, is they were also the best team on the defensive end this year as well. Led by this year’s MVP in Steph Curry, the Warriors have the Rockets beat at almost every facet of the game on paper. Not only that, they also have the track record this season to prove it, sweeping the season series from the Rockets 4-0, winning by double digits in each game. I’m not so foolish as to think that regular season meetings completely dictate the outcome of a playoff series, but I’m thoroughly convinced that the Rockets have no chance in this series. Look for the Warriors to get a little rest before their first NBA Finals trip since they won it all in 1975.
Prediction: Warriors in 5
The Terrible Texan 
!!! Glad to see and read!
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