Boston vs Atlanta

 

There isn't much to say in this series. The only doubt in here is if Boston will sweep the Hawks or not. Looking at the regular season records of both teams, everything appoints to a sweep (Boston 66-16; Atlanta 38-44). But the differences are much bigger than it appears to be.

 

First of all, Atlanta doesnt have any kind of experience at this level. Just Joe Johnson and Mike Bibby have played playoff matches before and if during the regular season, the team wasnt consistent and suffered a good number of letdowns and unbelievable losses after being up by a big margin of points, now imagine what can happen in a e playoff series against the best team in the league, with just two players with previous playoffs experience in the roster.

 

On the other side, Boston doesnt have playoffs experience as a team, but most key players have already several playoffs matches on their pockets. For example, Sam Cassell has already two rings on his finger and the big 3 (Garnett, Allen and Pierce) have separately went to conference finals. The team during the regular season have already shown the necessary intensiveness for this type of matches.

 

If we take in account what happened in the regular season, I have no doubts that Boston will easily win this series. The Celtics have won the three games between these two teams in the regular season. Even in the last match in which the starters didnt play for more than 30 minutes, Boston still won that game, outscoring the Hawks by 25-15 in the 4^th quarter of the game, after the two teams being tied at the end of the 3^rd quarter.

 

The X factor of this series will be what Kevin Garnett can do against Atlanta and what Joe Johnson cant do against Boston. In fact Garnett in the three games against the Hawks has averaged 23.7 ppg (30-48 62.5% FG) and 13.7 rpg in just 34 minutes per game. At the same time, Joe Johnson in the same matches has just averaged 15.3 ppg (16-51 31.4% FG) in 41 minutes per game.

 

With this, can Atlanta at least win a game and avoid the sweep? Because more than that would be a great sign for what Atlanta can do the future and a bad sign for Boston for the rest of the season.

 

Detroit vs Philadelphia

 

Even though there is a big difference between the two teams and from what they will achieve in this seasons playoffs, Philadelphia will come from this series with some momentum and good feelings towards Detroit. Even though this series in the regular season have ended 2-2, the Sixers have won the last two games, including one at Detroit.

 

Philadelphia has shown in the last months of the regular season that they are fearless, including on big games on the road, being the only team in the league who was capable to have beaten Boston and Detroit on the road this season. This team is young and extremely athletic, which causes problems to Detroit in certain matchups.

 

Detroit in these last weeks of the regular season has introduced their backups in the field with great sucess, as not only theyve won games, as these backups have shown that they can be useful to Flip Saunders if he needs a backup plan in the playoffs. In the last three seasons, Detroit in the first round of the playoffs has never allowed more than one game to their opponents. This trend will be tested, as these Sixers are more dangerous than any of other first round opponents of Detroit in the past first round series.

 

It will be extremely hard for the Sixers to win on the road in this series, but at home it will also be tough for them to get defeated. Philadelphia has managed to upset a lot of top teams on their home during the regular season.

 

 

Cleveland vs Washington


For the third consecutive season, there will be a series between the Cavs and the Wizards. In the other two the Cavs of Lebron won them by 4-2 two seasons ago and by a sweep of 4-0 last season. But this season it wont be that easy, as its the Cavs who are short handed right now and not the Wizards. Pavlovic will be out and the most important is that Lebron is limited with an injury, which puts him away from being at 100% right now. Of course he will still dominate some games thanks to his talent, but he will be in some pain during them.

 

We all know how important is Lebron in Cleveland and besides that we are still yet to understand if the trades made by the Cavs in mid-season really improved the team. Looking at the results we are yet to see improvements, as the Cavs dont win three games in a row since early March and for example they went 3-7 ATS in their last 10 matches in the regular season.

 

On the other side, the Wizards now with Arenas coming out of the bench are a complete and tough to beat team. I really think there may be an upset in this series. The Wizards have chemistry, as we have seen that during the regular season, with the team being competitive even with having an injured star all the time and now that everybody is at 100%, the Wizards will be even more competitive.

 

The series ended 2-2 in the regular season and both teams winning their home games, which reflects how close this series will be. This series promises to have a lot of games and for me it will be a surprise to see this series ending before game 6 or even game 7.

 

 

Orlando vs Toronto

At least one of these two teams will have the chance of going further in the playoffs than they did last season, where they were eliminated in the first round. Last season Orlando got sweeped by Detroit and the Raptors lost 4-2 with the Nets, so one of the teams will do better than they did last season. The favoritism on this series is clearly for Orlando, however the difference wont be so big as the records of the two teams in the regular season pretend it to be. Orlando finished the season with a record of 52-30 and Toronto with a record of 41-41, but we all know the Raptors have way more potential that what their record shows.

 

The series ended 2-1 for Orlando, who won a game at Canada, but this series will be really close. In the matchups between these two teams we saw two things: one of them is that Orlando cant stop Chris Bosh. And the other one is that Toronto cant stop Dwight Howard. However there may be a new X factor. The Slovenian Nesterovic is playing at his best level ever and he may be capable of creating a slight edge for the Raptors in the paint. The PG duel will also be very important. Nelson is a good point guard, but he is yet to prove that he is top class level, while Toronto has two completely different point guards. Calderon would be the better option, as this guy ended the regular season with numbers of one of the best superstars in the league, shooting above 50% FG, 40% 3pts and 90% FT. Thats amazing and if Sam Mitchell gives him a good number of minutes, he can make the difference in this series as he tends to make the correct decision in the clutch situations. Just like in the Cavs vs Wizards series, I predict this one to be very close and with lots of games.