Friday, April 17
The Hundred Years' War, otherwise known as the NBA regular season, has finally concluded.
Now things get tough. The playoffs are upon us.
There are a number of new storylines for this year's playoffs. Among them:
Are the Warriors and Hawks really the teams to beat in their respective conferences since they possess the best records?
Are the Cavaliers' Big Three of LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love worthy of replacing the Heat's Big Three of James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, who led Miami to the NBA Finals the previous four seasons? Proving worthy means winning the championship. Nothing short.
How much does Dwight Howard have in him? If he's healthy, the Rockets could prove dangerous.
We'll have to wait a while to get those answers, but one thing hasn't changed. The Eastern Conference remains a joke compared to the Western Conference with the Nets and Celtics - two below .500 teams - making the postseason while Oklahoma City didn't.
There have now been 11 teams this century to make the playoffs with a losing record. Every one of them has come from the Eastern Conference.
The Spurs and Clippers could rank among the top four teams in the NBA. Yet the two are meeting in the first round. I've never seen a more high-caliber opening round playoff matchup and I've been watching the NBA since the mid 1960's when the Eastern Conference was the dominant conference.
The defending champion Spurs once again are peaking at the right time going 14-2 in their last 16 games. The Clippers, though, went one better winning 15 of their last 16 games.
I still don't consider Kyle Korver an All-Star. But kudos certainly are in order for the season he's had. Korver nearly became the first player in NBA history to shoot 50 percent from the floor, 50 percent from 3-point range and sink 90 percent of his free throws. He finished with a 48.7 field goal shooting percentage - and that's launching 449 shots from beyond the arch - made 49.2 percent of his 3-point shots and hit 89.8 percent from the foul line.
On the handicapping front, I'm entering the NBA playoffs on a 79-49-1 run on my past 129 premium basketball plays and 59-37-4 lifetime on my NBA Triple Stars. I have three underdog plays going today in baseball, including my Underdog Game of the Week. They can be found here along with my packages: /pregamepros/pro-bettor/bettor.aspx?id=7746#capper.