My Spring Fling

For most people in the Boston area, the arrival of spring this weekend was made known by temperatures north of David Robinson's jersey number. For me, it was the start of the NBA Playoffs that marked the change of season. Watching eight intense NBA games over two days...no better way to spend a weekend! I am consumed by the drama, excitement, and entertainment of the NBA Playoffs, enough in fact to make my girlfriend jealous of Ernie and the crew's ability to capture my undivided attention.

20 second timeout: If I had fans (thanks to my boy D'Andre for my first and only comment so far), I would would apologize to them right now for my lack of posts. Finals time for law school is approaching and David Stern unfortunately did not take this into account when planning the NBA Playoff schedule. Expect short posts over the next three weeks or so while I finish up the semester. Thanks for being patient!

Here are a couple quick observations from the weekend:

1. After watching Derrick Rose dominate the Celtics in Game 1, I started thinking about the impact of other No.1 picks in these playoffs. Of the 16 NBA Playoff teams, 9 have former No.1 picks:

• Pistons (2): Allen Iverson (inactive) & Kwame Brown
• Cavs (2): Lebron James & Joe Smith
• Magic: Dwight Howard
• Rockets: Yao Ming
• Trailblazers: Greg Oden
• Nuggets: Kenyon Martin
• Bulls: Derrick Rose
• 76ers: Elton Brand (inactive)
  
• Spurs: Tim Duncan

If Iverson weren't hurt, the Pistons-Cavs series could have featured a match-up that included 4 former No.1 picks! My award for oldest looking No.1 pick among this group goes to 21 year-old Greg Oden.

2. It looks like Lebron James will win his first MVP for carrying the Cavs to the best overall record this year. This got me thinking, how have previous MVP's fared in the playoffs the year they were recognized for their regular season success? I had to go back 6 seasons (2002-03) to find the last MVP (Tim Duncan) that led his team to the NBA Championship. It will be interesting to see if Lebron can reverse this trend and overcome the struggles the last two MVP's (Kobe and Dirk) have had in the NBA Finals.

3. We saw at least 4 road teams win Game 1 of the opening round this weekend (Nuggets-Hornets are playing as I am writing), the first time in NBA history that this has happened. My prediction is all of the teams that lost (Spurs, Celtics, Magic, and Blazers) will bounce back with a victory in Game 2.

4. Most people have written in the Cavs and Lakers to make the NBA Finals. I don't necessarily disagree with this, but I think the Cavs will have a tougher road than people expect. Sure they will dominate the Pistons, but I think they will then face big obstacles in the Atlanta Hawks and Orlando Magic. The Hawks have improved and matured since last year, when they pushed the World Champion Boston Celtics to 7 games. They are versatile, athletic, and tough enough to give Cleveland fits. The Magic beat the Cavs in the season series, 2-1, including a 116-87 thrashing in early April. With Orlando's three point shooting and Dwight Howard, I really can't hand the Cavs a pass into the NBA Finals.

I will be at Game 2 between the Celtics and Bulls tomorrow and will write about the Celtics playoff chances after watching them play. Hope to see Leah post soon and watch out for a guest entry soon!