Now that the Seeding Season Is over, Let the Real NBA Season Begin!

The real NBA season is finally here! I’m pretty excited, even if it is just the first round.

The first round of the playoffs is usually a warm-up to the later rounds when the serious playoff series begin.

Certainly, looking at the East, this is true.

The only real intriguing match-up is Miami-Boston and that is mostly a sort of “Which team who is heading to elimination anyway will make it to the second round?”

The Milwaukee-Atlanta series was an Andrew Bogut injury away from being interesting, while now it’s lost its luster.

But look at the West! There’s hardly a boring match-up over there.

Lakers-OKC is almost certainly a Lakers’ win, but isn’t it still interesting to see how the young Thunder play against the soon-to-be-dethroned NBA champs?*

Really, the only dud series over there is Portland-Phoenix and even that might have been a good one had Brandon Roy not torn his meniscus, in what will prove to be the final injury-nail in the Blazers’ coffin.

Look at the other match-ups, though.

Spurs-Mavs? Mavs should take this series, but you can never count the Spurs out, not with a coach like Pop and not against a team popular for coming up short, as are the Mavericks. But holding the past against Dallas is not fair as this is a much different team with the addition of three Wizards.

The final series over there is the best one in the first round: Utah-Denver. Who do you take? NBA.com is billing this as the series to determine who is REALLY the champs of the Northwest Division.

The two battled for it during the regular season, with Denver “winning” it after Phoenix beat Dallas on the final night of the regular season, giving Denver the title.

In terms of the two teams, Denver is the better team. What brings this series back to even is one huge match-up: Jerry Sloan v. Adrian Dantley.

If this was Sloan-Karl, I give the edge to Denver and wash my hands of this series. But with Karl unfortunately being out because of that bastard known as “cancer”, he’ll be sidelined until the second round, assuming Denver gets there.

And for me, that is a big assumption.

Watching the MTV of sports—ESPN—their experts picked Denver. I’m not so sure. As a matter of fact, I’m picking Utah.

It’ll be too bad if I am right. One, it’s unfair that the Nuggets get eliminated because their coach is battling a life-threatening condition. Two, as a Cavaliers fan, I still detest Carlos Boozer.

However it turns out, the winner should be the first team to get hardened by the playoffs and could make a serious run at the Western championship. Most certainly with the Nuggets who will be battle-tested and then have their general back for future rounds.

Over to my team, who today kick off the playoffs with a match-up with Chicago….I’m picking the Cavs to sweep. I don’t see how Chicago can take a game.

“Lebron and Shaq might be rusty!” “They might be out of sync because Shaq-Jamison-James have yet to play together!”

Seriously. May I tell you how this series is going to end up? Cavs come out today and break the Bulls spirit. You think Lebron James, still sour from last year’s playoff exit combined with his little feud with Joakim Noah, is going to come out rusty?

He’s going to come out and rip the heart out of the Bulls. It’s going to happen.

Besides Derrick Rose, where do the Bulls have any advantage? Nowhere else on the roster and not on the sidelines, especially giving the Paxton-Del Negro fight.

Sorry, Cavs sweep with all the games being a yawner.

Here is a rundown of my predictions for the first round, winners only:

East: Cavs, Magic (will be interesting to see Coach Brown v. Stan Van), Hawks and Heat.

West: Lakers, Mavericks, Suns, and Jazz (least confident pick of any)

However it turns out, I’m happy that the playoffs are finally here! And I am expecting one of the best NBA postseasons in recent memory.

Enjoy!

*For all Laker fans who like to jump on any board and proclaim their team unbeatable and anyone disagreeing as a prejudice hack, the Lakers are my favorite West team, beginning with the Magic Era.

If I had my pick of Finals match-ups, it’d be Cleveland-LA. I just don’t think the Lakers have the health or the drive to get it done.