The second seeded Cleveland Cavaliers defeat the first seeded Los Angeles Lakers. Lebron James nets his first NBA championship and gets his buddy, Zydranus Ilgauskus a championship as he promised. For the second straight year, Kobe and the Lakers are defeated in the finals. The Celtics fail to repeat. http://dabullz.com/2009/01/02/january-2009-playoff-predictions/ Complete playoff predictions in the link.
December playoff predictions: http://dabullz.com/2008/12/01/dabullzcom-power-rankings-12-01-08-and-playoff-predictions/
I don't understand how your playoffs work... there are no upsets in the first round in the East, but there are upsets every other rounds...
Whoever prevails in each series is determined by each team's Dabullz Rating. To read up more on the methodology: http://dabullz.com/power-rankings/methodology/
Boston over LA I can understand... You do know Cleveland's schedule has been piss easy so far right? That's why they have such a great record. They are only 7-5 against teams above .500. Check the Celtics/Lakers records on teams above .500.
Nah, LeBron, as great as the man is this season, probably isn't going to maintain his historical statistical pace, and certainly the Celtics and Lakers have more depth than the Cavs. LeBron can't rely on old guys like Wallace and Big Z, who is now out for a month.
No way will the Cavs keep this up. Their schedule has been a cake walk so far, and when they play worthwhile teams, they struggle. I'm just waiting for them to play some real competition before I judge what they're going to do this season.
In 2005-2006, the Heat did horribly against the best teams in the league, yet they still won the championship. For whatever reason, teams seem to be able to pick up their level of play against good teams in the playoffs, even if their record in the regular seaosn against the elite teams was crap, but had a good record overall as the result of beating the teams they were supposed to beat.
So about Cleveland...this is why I'm not sold on them. They just lost to one of the worst teams in the NBA today.
Boston and LA have lost to poor teams like the Kings, Warriors, Pacers, etc... BOS and LA both lost last night also. If I had to pick one team to win a 7 game series right now, I think i'd pick CLE. Also, I think the Hornets are really starting to get it together in the West.
The Lakers have poor losses but they also have some good wins. They've beat the Blazers (twice), Nuggets (twice), Rockets, Mavs (twice), Hornets (twice), Suns (twice), Celtics and Jazz. All those teams are in the playoffs right now, so I'd say that's a pretty solid amount of "quality" wins.
Too early to say of course, but.... I like Celtics to take the East again, and Celtics-Lakers to go all 7 games this time; whoever wins game 7 wins. As said above, the Cavs don't have enough depth to insure being in the East Finals, let alone to be in the Champ. LeBron James would have to do even more than Jordan did for the Bulls and that's hard to imagine. But not totally out of the question. Odds are of course you will have a Celtics-Cavaliers East final, but you can not rule out a Pistons-Celtics or a Magic-Celtics or a Hawks-Celtics East final yet. The Pistons are going to be much better in the playoffs than almost anyone on this internet board thinks, the main reason for that being that the Pistons are trying out here in the regular about half a dozen ways of getting their team set up for the playoffs. They're not worried about a regular season loss here or there; they have bigger fish to fry. If Iverson's ability to help a team win a Championship has been ruined by him playing the wrong position for years and years, they will dump Iverson and set themselves up for the big names who be available especially in 2010. By the all Star Break, the Pistons will know which way they should go; they will be choosing the best way to play from all their tested set-ups and rotations. So this will definitely be a better team in the playoffs than in the regular season. Dumars always is living and making decisions for the playoffs, not the regular. For the West, it's much too early to know who will be against the Lakers in the West final but I'd say Hornets are very closely followed by the Spurs and Trail Blazers. Can't rule out the Jazz or the Rockets either, really. It could be anyone (but not the Nuggets of course) against the Lakers for the West final.
lol...he's maintained his pace for his entire career, what makes you think he's stopping now. Celtics definitely don't have more depth than the Cavs and their lack of depth is now getting exposed. Lakers have some depth, but it's overrated to a degree. Odom is inconsistent and soft, Sasha can dissapear and he sucks defensively, Farmar see Sasha, Ariza is solid but he can't shoot to save his life. The Lakers bench primarily depends on how good Odom is...if he's at the top of his game then he adds another dimension to the lakers, if he isn't that bench is avg. at best. I still think the rockets have the best bench in the NBA (too bad we have a bitch "leading" our team....oh well that's another discussion)...... I can see both the Magic and Hawks beating the Celtics in a 7 game series...either way I think the Cavs are coming out the East this season. Pistons aren't going anywhere. My top picks out west are the Lakers, Spurs, and Hornets. I can see the Lakers struggling against these 2 teams, because their defense and toughness is still lacking. Spurs have some nice additions that they didn't have a year ago and the Hornets pick and roll offense could give the Lakers some problems in a 7 game series.............
Cleveland has to maintain homecourt advantage to come out of the East IMO. LeBron has been a fucken beast this year on both ends of the court, but in the playoffs teams are going to come up with schemes to take the ball out of his hands and force him to work harder for buckets. The Celtics shut him down a couple of times last year in their 7 game series, and at some point a team is going to through something at Cleveland defensively to slow them down on offense. Similar to what's happened to the Celtics after their loss to the Lakers. The Lakers created a blueprint to stop them on offense and teams have been using the same defensive schemes to slow the Celtics. Rajon Rondo has been a turnover machine the past few games and he's the key to disrupting the Celtics on offense. Doc might want to put the ball in Pierce's hands more until Rondo gets back to playing mistake free basketball. I also like the Magic's chances in the East and wouldn't be surprised if they make it to the Finals. They have a nice 8 man rotation and a lot of options on the offensive end.
I think the cavs could come out without homecourt, but I think they'll have homecourt so they probably won't have to worry about that. I think the Cs have a harder time keying in on Bron, because with Mo Williams the cavs no longer have to run Lebron at the top of the key every play. A lot times he's finishing plays now and catching the ball in different positions so it isn't as easy to double and triple him. The cavs offense was sorta an eyesore to watch with Lebron creating everything, but Mo Williams completely changes the dynamic of their team.......If the Cs don't make a trade or pick up a couple pieces, I seriously see Atlanta or Orlando beating them in a 7 game series.
