(Image courtesy of The Knicks Blog)
Well the NBA season is fastly coming to a close and after some surprisingly
round 1 results we have some interesting matchups in the conference semifinals.
Eastern Conference Semifinals
Miami Heat (1) vs Chicago Bulls (5)
Well Miami
didn’t get the matchup they wanted. The
Heat are a dominant team that is going to win the Eastern Conference barring
injury, however the team that physically is going to give them the most
difficulties is the Chicago Bulls. On
paper this doesn’t make much sense, the Bulls are missing Derrick Rose, Kirk
Hinrich, Luol Deng, and Joakim Noah is playing through planter fasciitis. (Also aside, Derrick Rose can come back
whenever he is ready and no one has the right to question that.) However after watching the Bulls win a series
against Brooklyn they had no business being in considering all the injuries,
this team is clearly not going down without a fight. This team which again is a bad offensive team
at this point is going to struggle to score points consistently against a top
notch Miami defense. However this team
is going to contain Miami with its patented Tom Thibodeau defense as it plays
the same style of game that ended Miami’s streak. Chicago offensively though doesn’t have the
firepower to score points against Miami, o and Miami has the best player in basketball
in Lebron James, Miami in 6.
New York Knicks (2) vs Indiana Pacers (3)
This series
is going to be interesting in it’s a matchup of strength vs strength. The Knicks were the 3rd best team
in basketball offensively over the course of the regular season and they
accomplished this by taking and making the most threes of any team in the
league, while making them at the league’s 5th highest
percentage. Indiana was the best
defensive team in the league and had the fewest amount of threes made against
them of any team in the league with the league’s 2nd best rate
defending them. The Knicks are going to
run into problems though if they keep playing offense the way they did against the
Celtics. The Knicks extremely iso heavy
and midrange jumper heavy offense scored at a rate that would have ranked last
in the NBA over the course of the regular season. Some of that is due to playing the great
Boston defense, but problematically for the Knicks the Pacers defense is ever
better. However maybe the matchup that
will decide the series is the Knicks’ 18th ranked defense vs the
Pacers’ 20th ranked offense.
The Pacers offense which is dependent completely on its starting 5 to
function has struggled mightily at times this season. The Knicks which defended great against a
weak Boston offense will need that success to continue against the Pacers. The Knicks are dealing with a Tyson Chandler
that clearly isn’t 100% something that should be a major blow to the team’s
defense and maybe more importantly their offense. Overall I think the Pacers are going to pull
this series out, the Pacers’ physical play especially with David West punishing
the Knicks for going small, gives the Pacers a slight edge in the series. Pacers in 6
Western Conference Semifinals
Oklahoma City Thunder (1) vs Memphis
Grizzlies (4)
Well this
series is being looked at quite differently than it was not too long ago. The Grizzlies now went from strong underdogs
to strong favorites on the strength of a great round 1 performance and an
injury to Russell Westbrook. This
Oklahoma City team is going to have great difficulties matching up against a
Grizzlies team that has been surprisingly dominant offensively in these
playoffs. Mike Conley, Marc Gasol, and
Zach Randolph have all been dangerous weapons who have gotten to the free throw
line almost at will and dominated the offensive glass. However where the Grizzlies do their best
work is with their phenomenal defense that is going to focus its defense
extremely heavily against Durant as OKC doesn’t have Westbrook and will likely
have to play Perkins extended minutes.
Kevin Durant is a good enough offensive player and Oklahoma City’s
defense theoretically should be good enough to win at least 2 games in this
series. However the Grizzlies are
operating at full strength right now and their dominant defense should be more
than enough to deal with OKC without Westbrook.
Grizzlies in 6
San Antonio Spurs (2) vs Golden State
Warriors (6)
Personally I
just don’t see the Warriors really providing any difficulties for the Spurs. The Spurs are a great team offensively and
defensively that theoretically might have the advantage at every postion on the
floor during the series. The Spurs
defense should be able to bring Steph Curry back to Earth and challenge his
shot. They Spurs defense is smart enough
to rotate well and will not be giving up the open shots that the Warriors were
able to get against the Nuggets. The
Spurs offense won’t have the floor spacing problem that the Nuggets did either
and if they Warriors attempt to pack the paint then the Spurs will beat them
with perimeter shots. The Spurs are
without question the better team and the combination of Duncan, Parker, and
superior coaching should be way too much for the Warriors to handle. Spurs
in 5
Stay Hungry
My Friends
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