The Most Wonderful Time of the Year: The Conference Finals

They are who we thought they were.

-Dennis Green

Young Aaron A. brought this up in an email. This year's playoffs is mirroring what the NCAA hoops tournament is nearly every year. The early rounds are filled with chaos and upsets followed by the cream rising to the top in the later rounds. We had a first round that saw three lower seeds advance (Portland, Washington, and Brooklyn) and another three take the higher seed to a game seven (Golden State, Memphis, and Atlanta). Now we have the four teams most people believed would be here.

The Clippers have been an embarrassing enterprise for the last 30 years. All that has come to light has brought national attention, but many people already knew about their owner's past indiscretions, especially in LA. Unfortunately for him that his team got good causing him to be exposed. The Clippers on the court went down, crying and flailing as usual to a team with just two offensive options, albeit extraordinary options. The word on the L.A. street is that they were hosed by the referees. Now, we all know NBA referees are terrible because most of what they call, fouls, have a high degree of subjectivity (sadly this is also the case with traveling and palming). However, in the most pivotal game in the series, game five, the Clippers essentially choked by coughing up a 13 point lead with just over four minutes left in the 4th quarter. I cannot have their coach whining about one call that should have been a foul anyway. Oklahoma City had to sacrifice Ibaka for the series, which is a real bummer.

I was one of the few that held on to Indiana for no other reason than the Eastern Conference is sorry. That was one of the weirdest series I have ever seen/heard of (I did not watch most of it) with each team winning by blowout on each other's court. The Wizards did not earn more benefit of the doubt than Indy. At least Indy has shown at some point in the season they were capable of being a consistent winning team even if this has not been the case as of late.

I thought Portland would get two or three games based mostly on youth, talent, and tempo. However, San Antonio was not interested and absolutely embarrassed Portland's attempt at defense. El Heat dispatched Brooookkklynnn exactly how I thought they would. Dominant early, give one back, and polish them off in five...

Eastern Conference

(1) Indiana Pacers vs. (2) Miami Heat

Wow. I mistakenly put "(1)" in front of Miami. Perhaps my unconscious is working to tell me that they should be. Nonetheless Indiana is still the one-seed, which is hard to believe at this point. With all the consternation in the Pacers' locker room, they will ball out this series. Their whole motivation at the beginning of the season was to oust the Heat in the East. This is the one team they will absolutely show up for every single game. Hibbert will look like Wilt in short stretches. It will be an interesting chess match if Indy can dominate the paint to an extent that Miami has to play a style and lineups they do not prefer. They would rather play lots of shooters and spread the court, not get into a half-court, ground and pound game. I'm not sure if Miami channeled this, but this could be their last run together as there is most likely going to be some major tweaking and perhaps youth infusion. I cannot wait to see Lance versus D-Wade for a long series, which will be taken by Miami in six.

Western Conference

(1) San Antonio Spurs vs. (2) Oklahoma City (see end of video clip)

First Westbrook last playoffs, now Ibaka. Losing Ibaka is a huge blow from an offensive standpoint. While Ibaka is their most dynamic defensive player with his amazing shot blocking capability, Perkins is a good one-on-one post defender and Collison and Adams are solid. Though Ibaka is hit or miss offensively, he is a reliable mid-range shooter and finisher in the paint. Collison is not that bad on offense. We forget he was the main offensive guy during his time at Kansas, so he is more than competent offensively. The Spurs are a machine, but Oklahoma City is the one team that has them figured out. My guess is that OKC's length gives San Antonio problems as they are not a particularly long team themselves. Westbrook, Jackson, and Fisher are the only rotation players under 6-7. The Spurs have a harder time getting clean perimeter looks and OKC has enough bigs to at least bother Duncan and Splitter. I really do not know how OKC will make up the scoring for Ibaka, probably just more shots for Durant and Westbrook (lol). I get the feeling the Spurs will take it in seven because of the loss of Ibaka.