Round 1 matchups in the western conference are now offical Phoenix Vs Memphis San Antonio Vs Denver Seattle Vs Sacramento Dallas Vs Houston
These are great match-ups out West. I think all 4 match-ups are a toss up at this point. Each season series was 2-2 except for the Sonics-Kings. A possible round 2 match-up between the Suns and Mavs would be exciting. Steve Nash goes up against his ex-teammates. I think the Grizzlies could potentially pull off a 1st round upset. The Grizzlies are better than their record indicates, and they are FINALLY healthy. They have the players to match up well with the Suns. Stromile Swift or Paul Gasol is athletic enough to guard Amare, Earl Watson is fast enough to guard Nash, I think Dahntay Jones would be a nice player to use on Nash as well. Plus Battier and Posey can match up with Marion. The playoff experience they had last year will also benefit them. Last season they got swept because they didn't have an ounce of experience.
The Mavs and Rockets are both very fortunate. They will have less travel fatigue than the Suns/Grizz, that should help whichever one goes to the second round. San Antonio always seems to get stuck with a difficult first round match-up (like the Suns two years ago). I will be interesting to see how good their defense will play when trying to stop the fast break. We really only know that they can defend well in the half court. I think that all of the teams on the left will advance with the exception of the Texas series. Mike James will force Terry (the mavs' x factor imo) to play defense. Damp will have his hands full guarding Yao, and being guarded by Mutombo at times. A lot also depends on if they choose to put Finley on Tmac, there are a lot of variable match-ups in this series.
Memphis are a team the Suns have struggled again, I reckon D'Antoni and co. would have preferred the Nuggets. Happy to avoid Denver and Houston, though.
Dallas and Houston should be good, there will probably be a great mix of fans being both Texas teams.
Watching Spoon and Padgett trying to guard Dirk is going to be laughable. At least the Mavericks will be able to send guys like Josh Howard, Quis Daniels and Stack at Tracy. Houston will really have no answer for Dirk. He could likely average 30-33 for that series. Still a great match-up though, one I'm looking forward to. The Suns/Grizzles series Is one that many people have pointed to and said that the Grizzles can give Phoenix problems and honestly I don't see It happening. The Grizzles have been on a big slump lately (although they got a good win last night) they have had problems beating good teams and got blown out in quite a few of them. The Grizzles have no real go to guy that will make the big shots when It counts. Gasol is too soft to contend Amare or Marion on the inside and Joe Johnson seems to have a habit of killing them from outside. This series would likely go to 5 games but not any further. Swift's health is a question mark.
Look for the Rockets to play Tracy a lot of minutes at PF and use three guards. (out of Sura, Wesley, Barry, and James). Tracy has the length to contest Dirk's shots and he's quick enough to guard him. It will definitely be interesting to see how the Rockets deal with him. The Mavs don't have much of a post up game and the Rockets should use that to their advantage by going small to match up better with them. They usually play pretty well with a small lineup.
