NBA Playoffs Round 1 Recap

2016 NBA Playoffs Blog

Round 1 Recap:

            The end of April this year also brought us the end of the first round of the NBA Playoffs. The top four seeds (out of 8) in the East won their series’ in dominant fashion this weekend which makes for a high seeded second round. Injuries to Chris Paul and Blake Griffin took a devastating toll to the Los Angeles Clippers team and while up 2-0 before the injuries, lost the series 4-3 to the Portland Trailblazers producing the only upset in seeds in the Western bracket. The teams who prevailed in round one in the West are: (in order by seed) 1) Golden State Warriors 2) San Antonio Spurs 3) Oklahoma City Thunder and 4) Portland Trailblazers. The one seed, Warriors, won in convincing fashion over the Houston Rockets in the first round, but it came at the cost of All-World point guard Steph Curry who sprained his right knee in game 3 of the series. The injury wasn’t fatal, but it will set him back about two weeks, which would be around game four of the second round of the playoffs. The two seed Spurs swept the Memphis Grizzlies in the first round and casually strolled into the second round where they will meet the more challenging Oklahoma City Thunder, who beat the Dallas Mavericks in round one.

            As for the Eastern bracket, the remaining teams are: 1) Cleveland Cavaliers 2) Toronto Raptors 3) Miami Heat and 4) Atlanta Hawks. The first seeded Cavaliers swept the Detroit Pistons in an easy, but dramatic, series as there was a lot of bickering anticipated to carry over to the Cavaliers second round matchup with the Atlanta Hawks. The East is a weaker conference than the West, with not as much competition in the regular season, and probably not going to have a good series in the East until the conference finals. The Cavaliers should stroll into the conference finals in their matchup against the Hawks. On the other hand, it could be a hard fought series between the Miami Heat and the Toronto Raptors. With the Heat’s franchise player, Dwayne Wade’s career winding down, people are excited to see what this series has in store. It could be a tight one forcing a game 7, or will the Heat roll over and let the Raptors walk on into the conference finals.

Round 2 Predictions:

Western Conference

1] Warriors vs. 5] Trailblazers

Should be a victory for the one seed Warriors, with Steph Curry coming back around game four, the Warriors are in the driver seat to get to the Finals.

2] Spurs vs 3] Thunder

In my opinion, this series could either be a dominant sweep by the Spurs, or the Thunder are going to shock the league and upset the Spurs to take on the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals.

Eastern Conference

1] Cavaliers vs. 4] Hawks

The Cavaliers can look to make it to a second straight Eastern Conference Final series if they can get past the Hawks in this round.

2] Raptors vs. 3] Heat

Dwayne Wade looks to make a final push late in his career to get back to the Eastern Conference Finals and have a shot a going to play for a world title.

-Thomas Beck