With round one of the playoffs in the rear view mirror the NBA’s best eight teams now battle it out for the conference final spots. But is there really a favorite in the league to already be pencilled in the conference final? Well, maybe Golden State for the West, but the East is wide-open.
I’m sure I will get some heat for that for “disrespecting” the Hawks as holding the top spot in the East with the best record, but after dropping two games to a very inferior Brooklyn team then losing its home opener in the second round to the Washington Wizards, it’s a fair argument to make.
The Hawks struggled to get by non-intriguing and ever aged eighth seeded Brooklyn with a 4-2 series win, but no win was as dominating as you would probably expect except for the final win to close out the series. The struggles and question marks flooded after the series win with most concerns involving Al Horford‘s hand and Paul Millsap‘s shoulder. If the two bigs can’t play at a 100% level each game the Hawks’ monumental season could be cut short in the conference semi-finals.
Switching over to the Hawks’ opponent, the Wizards have been phenomenal in the playoffs starting off 5-0 sweeping the once called equal Toronto Raptors convincingly then stealing a game in Atlanta to start off the quarterfinals. Good news: Washington has shown maturity with past experience in the playoffs and are considered as a real contender to represent the wide-open Eastern Conference. Bad News: John Wall‘s wrist/hand injury is not a wrap it up and go play type injury and is serious enough to keep him out for this series and the possibility of one(s) to come.
Ramon Sessions will need to grow up quick, but has some playoff experience filling the same role as he stepped in for Derek Fisher and the 2011-12 Lakers having a playoff career average of 20.5 minutes, nine points, and three assists per game entering the third game of this series. His first rodeo in the second game of this series he played 40 minutes and recorded 21 points and four assists and was 60% from behind the arc. Sessions played well enough to win (though they lost), but the Wizards will need more efficient and effective play from sharp shooter Bradley Beal and veteran Paul Pierce to get this series on their side.
The most intriguing series in all of the NBA playoffs is Chicago and Cleveland and both games to open up the series have been, well, kind of weird and lopsided so to speak. In game one Cleveland was just all out of whack and LeBron James played as he was being held back for some unknown reason and Chicago hit basically every shot having one of their better shooting performances of the year.
Photo Credit: Jeff Haynes/Getty Images
Game two was the same scenario just flip-flopped in Cleveland’s favor, but the x-factor was Iman Shumpert knocking down four threes early to finish he night with 15 total points. Shumpert finished the night with a +19 complementing every other starter with a positive +/- ratio (highest: James +31; lowest: Mozgov +6).
Consistent bench play could ultimately decide this series (could say this about any game/series) as both teams have key bench players that can produce enough offense and defense to help spur their team to victory.
Key Chicago Bench Players Game One: Taj Gibson: 28 minutes, eight points, five rebounds; Kirk Hinrich: 15 minutes, six points.
Key Cleveland Bench Players Game Two: James Jones: 22 minutes, 17 points, two rebounds; Matt Dellavedova: 36 minutes, nine points, nine assists
The East is wide-open, so the real question is who are you betting on?
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