The NBA regular season has finally come to a close and we can get onto the NBA Playoffs now. At the beginning of the season everyone was talking about how we should just be able to fast forward to the NBA Finals because we all knew who was going to be playing. It was going to be the defending NBA champs (Cleveland Cavaliers) vs. the Golden State Warriors…essentially a rematch of last season. As Lee Korso would say, “Not so fast, my friend!”
The final standings looked something like this:
| Eastern Conference | ||||
| Rank | Team | Wins | Losses | Games Behind |
| 1 | Boston Celtics | 53 | 29 | 0 |
| 2 | Cleveland Cavaliers | 51 | 31 | 2 |
| 3 | Toronto Raptors | 51 | 31 | 2 |
| 4 | Washington Wizards | 49 | 33 | 4 |
| 5 | Atlanta Hawks | 43 | 39 | 10 |
| 6 | Milwaukee Bucks | 42 | 40 | 11 |
| 7 | Indiana Pacers | 42 | 40 | 11 |
| 8 | Chicago Bulls | 41 | 41 | 12 |
| Western Conference | ||||
| Rank | Team | Wins | Losses | Games Back |
| 1 | GS Warriors | 67 | 15 | 0 |
| 2 | SA Spurs | 61 | 21 | 6 |
| 3 | Houston Rockets | 55 | 27 | 12 |
| 4 | LA Clippers | 51 | 31 | 16 |
| 5 | Utah Jazz | 51 | 31 | 16 |
| 6 | OKC Thunder | 47 | 35 | 20 |
| 7 | Memphis Grizzlies | 43 | 39 | 24 |
| 8 | Portland Trail Blazers | 41 | 41 | 26 |
If you can see the Cleveland Cavaliers collapsed at the end of the season and actually ended up in second place behind the Boston Celtics. You can also see that there is basically two real legit teams in the Eastern Conference while you can make the case for pretty much every since team on the Western Conference side. If I was not such a Golden State fan I would totally cheer for the Thunder or the Grizz to make it to the finals against whoever comes out of the Eastern Conference because I think they would still win.
Today marks the start of the NBA Playoffs and here is what is on tabs for today:
Indiana Pacers @ Cleveland Cavaliers on ABC at 3:00PM ET – Look for this game to be pretty decisive as I would have rather seen the Bulls take on the Cavs in the first round because they are 4-0 against the Cavs so far this season. It almost makes you wonder if there was actually some logic in the Cavs tanking the end of their season.
Milwaukee Bucks @ Toronto Raptors on ESPN at 5:30PM ET – This is another one sided game although they both finished second in their respective conferences. The Raptors are 13-2 against the Bucks in the past four seasons. Kind of puts things into perspective. I think that the Bucks need to take this first game if they want to have a chance of taking this series.
Memphis Grizzlies @ San Antonio Spurs on ESPN at 8:00PM ET – All of the Western Conference games should be pretty competitive and I am excited to see this series in particular because both teams have been playing poorly over the past few weeks with San Antonio being 5-5 in the past 10 games and the Memphis 3-7. Neither team has a ton of star talent but they play “real” basketball which should give us a great match-up.
Utah Jazz @ LA Clippers on ESPN at 10:30PM ET – The late game tonight is going to be a fairly competitive one with the Los Angeles Clippers hosting the Utah Jazz. With Griffin, Redick, Paul, and others look for the Clippers to take this game pretty handily. It would not surprise me to see them go down to the Jazz but I seriously doubt that happens the way they have been playing as of late.
