Dancing with Wolves - A Re-Do of Life After KG

[TheDominator273]

With their season on the line, the Dallas Mavericks laid an egg as they got blown out 111-86 by the San Antonio Spurs. The Spurs were lead by Tony Parker who scored 25 points and chipped in 7 assists. Dallas Mavericks star PF Dirk Nowitzki was completely neutralized by Tim Duncan as he only managed 10 points, 3 rebounds and 1 assist in the biggest game of the year.

Now that the playoff field is set, lets take a look at the playoff tree and highlight some matchups.





The 4/5 and 3/6 matchups in the Western Conference should be GREAT series in terms of the matchups. The 4th seeded Utah Jazz are coming into the playoffs on a 4 game losing streak, while their opponent the 5th seeded Portland Trail Blazers are riding a 3 game winning streak. Both teams feature stellar guard play, and talented bigs. I think Brandon Roy, Lamarcus Aldridge and Greg Oden will be too much for the Jazz to handle and will move on to the 2nd round.

If that series has you excited, the San Antonio Spurs vs Phoenix Suns matchup has the makings of an all time great matchup. The Suns and their free wheeling run n' gun offense matchup with the stifling defense of the San Antonio Spurs lead by MVP candidate Tim Duncan. This series should go 5 or 6 games but in the end the Spurs will be too much for the Suns to handle and will move on.

Over in the Eastern Conference a matchup to keep your eye on is the Boston Celtics vs the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Celtics assembled a super team this off season, trading for Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen and they rode the wave all the way to the best record in the league. That said, they face off with the best player in the league in LeBron James who you can never count out in a playoff series regardless of who his supporting cast is. I expect LBJ to put up a hell of a fight, but the Celtics are simply too talented for the King to overcome and will be moving on to the 2nd round.

[TheDominator273]

We are four games into each playoff series, which means that every team has hosted their first two home games, and thus far we are having a number of fantastic series with only the Golden State Warriors having advanced following their 4-0 sweep over the Denver Nuggets.

The biggest surprise so far in the playoffs is the 7 seeds, as both the Houston Rockets and the Atlanta Hawks hold 3-1 leads over the 2nd seeded New Orleans Hornets and Chicago Bulls respectively. The Hawks are being lead by the scoring punch of Joe Johnson, who is 2nd in points per game in the playoffs with a 28.5 average. Johnson isn't doing it alone however as the Hawks have 5 players averaging double digits through the first 4 games of the series, which has been as closely contested as you can get with the first 3 games being decided by a single point each.

One more thing to keep an eye on, despite their 3-1 lead over the San Antonio Spurs, the Phoenix Suns are in danger of not moving on in the playoffs as their top two scorers in Shawn Marion and Amar'e Stoudemire are both fighting off injuries as both are listed as day to day with back spasms, and a hyperextended knee respectively.

[TheDominator273]

What an exciting 1st round we just experienced as we saw every series but 1 go at least 6 games, with 4 of them going 7. Ultimately, home court advantage was not much of an advantage as only the 1st seeded Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics moved on from the teams that held home court advantage in the series. In every other series the lower seed moved on and which sets up some interesting matchups in Round 2.





Golden State Warriors (1) vs Portland Trail Blazers (5)

In their round 1 sweep, the Warriors had an average point differential of 17 points as they not only scored the most points per game in the 1st round, but also allowed the 3rd least to be scored. By contrast, the Blazers had the 3rd best offense in round 1 and the 4th worst defense. Its hard to see this matchup going past 5 games as the Warriors look primed to roll into the conference finals behind their potent offense lead by Baron Davis.

Phoenix Suns (6) vs Houston Rockets (7)

This matchup on paper, is the best of the 2nd round as we watch Steve Nash and Amar'e Stoudemire take on Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming in a battle for Southwest supremacy. With as good as the Rockets looked in round 1, the series will hinge on whether Steve Nash at age 33 can step up his game, as I don't see the Suns moving on if he only averages 14 points and 8 assists as he did vs the Spurs.


Boston Celtics (1) vs Indiana Pacers (5)

The Pacers lack the star power to matchup with the Celtics and it will take Danny Granger and Jermaine O'Neal playing out of their minds to keep pace with the Celtics, who are lead by MVP candidate Kevin Garnett who has posted some monster numbers so far in the playoffs. The Pacers may steal a a game or two, but the Celtics should be moving on to the conference finals.

Washington Wizards (6) vs Atlanta Hawks (7)

This series should be full of fireworks, as the top two playoff scorers face off in Joe Johnson (33 ppg) and Gilbert Arenas (27 ppg) square off. Both star players are going to get theirs just as they did against two very good defenses in the Bulls and Nets respectively, which means the series is going to come down to which team's role players will step up. In my opinion, it sill be the Hawks. Josh Smith has been efficient so far in the playoffs, something he wasn't through the regular season, and the young big man combo of Zaza Pachulia and Al Horford have a good combination of defense and rebounding which will allow the Hawks to get out and run in transition. This one should go 6 games at least but I expect to see Atlanta come out on top.

[zenheadbutt]

The graphics in here are nice.

[TheDominator273]

The Conference Finals are set, and they are not looking like what was expected at the beginning of the playoffs. While in the Western Conference we had one series won in 5 while the other won in 7, it was expected that the first seeded Golden State Warriors would be the ones who won in 5 games over the 5th seeded Portland Trail Blazers, however it was actually the Phoenix Suns who won games 2-5 to take out the Houston Rockets in 5 games while the Warriors took 7 games to dispatch of the Trail Blazers.





While over in the Eastern Conference we saw the Washington Wizards dismantle the Atlanta Hawks in 5 games, and in the shock of the playoffs, the regular season's best team the Boston Celtics fell to the Indiana Pacers in 6 games. The Celtics were heavy favorites heading into the series, but they really missed the shooting of Ray Allen, who has not played since the end of the season due to a knee injury. The upset leads to an interesting matchup of a high powered offense in the Washington Wizards facing off against the stingy Pacers defense. The old adage of "defense wins championships" will be put to the test in this series.

[TheDominator273]

Another "1" bites the dust as the Phoenix Suns dismantled the Golden State Warriors in just 5 games behind a strong series from the former back to back MVP who averaged 21.8 points and 8.4 assists per game over the course of the series. Nash wasn't the only player with a big contribution however as Shawn Marion chipped in 22.6 points and 13.4 rebounds.

The Warriors had contributions from many players, but it was the disappearance of Monta Ellis after the first three games that was ultimately their demise. After scoring 28, 18 and 28 points in the first three games, Ellis only managed 12 and 9 in the final two games as the Warriors lost by 7 and 8 points respectively in those matchups.





Over in the Eastern Conference, we were spoiled with yet another game 7. Unfortunately the game didn't provide any suspense as the Wizards dominated from start to finish en route to a 99-85 victory, punching their ticket to their first NBA Finals appearance since 1979. As he's done all playoffs long, Gilbert Arenas continued to be stellar in this series, posting a ridiculous 30.3 points, 6.1 rebound, 8.5 assist and 1.8 steal per game stat line against a very good Pacers defense. If Arenas continues this level of play and Steve Nash continues to show why he's a former MVP, we are in for a spectacular NBA Finals.

[TheDominator273]

Prior to the NBA Finals starting, the NBA held its annual NBA Honors Ceremony in which they announced the winners of numerous awards, including MVP, 6th Man of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, and Rookie of the Year.

[TheDominator273]

We have a new NBA Champion! The Phoenix Suns captured their first NBA title in franchise history with a 104-96 victory over the Washington Wizards in a thrilling Game 6 at the Verizon Center in our nation's capital.


Steve Nash throws an alley oop to Boris Diaw


Entering Game 6, the home team had held serve in every game, but the series was highly contested with the average margin of victory being 6 points for the entire series. 'Agent Zero' Gilbert Arenas has cemented himself as one of the most exciting players in the NBA after a phenomenal performance in the Finals as he tried his best to will the Wizards to victory, unfortunately for Arenas and Co, the Suns were operating like a well oiled machine behind the floor leadership of Steve Nash.

Nash, who would win the Finals MVP trophy, dissected Arenas and the Wizards defense all series long. The pick and roll duo of Nash and Amar'e Stoudemire could not be stopped, and when the Wizards managed to send help on Stoudemire on the roll, Nash continually found the open shooter and made them pay.


Gilbert Arenas finishes in traffic


Still, despite Nash's brilliance, the Wizards held the lead until 8 minutes left in the 4th quarter when a Leandro Barbosa transition 3 pointer would give the Suns their first lead of the night, one which they would not let go of. Arenas did everything he could to extend the series, scoring 42 points in the game, but Nash and the '7 Seconds or Less' Suns could taste the title and opened up a lead as big as 10 points which proved to be insurmountable.



Steve Nash hits the clinching free throws