( As yesterday pic blatantly swacked from ESPN and only the pic )

OK lets face it yesterdays post was just a warm-up for this post, the Eastern Conference is very top heavy but after that it’s really a joke and I’m not just talking about those teams from NYC and Miami even the other playoff teams would probably lose to Davidson ( I told you the kid Curry could shoot ) It’s possible the best 2 teams in the league are here in the East and probably the single best resides here, no matter how much it pains me to admit it. The Celtics could do more than survive in the Western Conference and their 22-4 record against the West should be proof of that. However we won’t need to worry about that for a month or so so lets gear up and get ready for what should be the single greatest playoffs EVER. The East will be boring until the end, the West should have absolutely great match-ups from the start, some of these first round match-ups could be as good or better than some of the best conference finals in recent years. So lets not waste anymore time talking about the obvious let’s get it in.

WESTERN CONFERENCE

1) Los Angeles

8) Denver

First hopefully Carmelo has hired a driver to drive him to and from the games and of course out and about after they lose. I mean I guess he went out drinking because he was depressed he scored a season low 11 points, so hopefully he doesn’t resort to that Baltimore Love Thing after they get run out of the series early. ( Next thing Melo needs to do is cut La-La loose how can you justify keeping her on the payroll if she couldn’t even pick you up from jail, thats not gangsta at all ) The Nuggets can score and score quick but just as good as they are on offense they are 10 times worse on D, it’s painful to watch. I think I even overheard Zach Robinson and Eddy Curry making fun of the Nuggets D. So yeah like I said they can score in bunches but ummmmh so can this one guy on the Lakers, you might of heard of him, Kobe Bryant. Add Gasol and well thats it the other players, who still happen to be pretty damn good, don’t matter NONE. I can see the Nuggets going off in one game and stealing one, A.I. has done it before in higher stakes so he could steal one again, but just one game after that Carmelo needs to concentrate on giving La-La the boot, let’s see if he can even win that fight.

LAKERS IN 5

4) UTAH

5) HOUSTON

Remember just about a month ago everyone was talking about the Rockets and their 22 game winning streak, yeah I figured you didn’t it. I’m not trying to take anything away from that streak cause really it was amazing and shouldn’t be overlooked but it seems like forever ago and now it’s playoff time which means T-Mac is about lose in the first round again. For awhile I thought this year T-Mac might be able to win a series but then they drew a match-up against the Jazz, so I’m gonna have to go ahead and say thats not happening. Now if they could of played the Mavs or Nuggets then maybe T-Mac could of finally crossed that barrier, but they didn’t so he won’t. The Jazz are stacked with Deron Williams, Carlos Boozer and the perfect fit for the team Kyle Korver that boy can shoot from any where on the floor and with Boozer down low Williams driving and opening the court for him he is a deadly weapon. Houston won those 22 games by playing great D and the Jazz biggest weakness is probably their D but it’s not big enough of a difference for them to slip up and lose this series. Notice I haven’t mentioned AK-47, Andrei Kirilenko, and yeah I did it on purpose I don’t know what happened to this guy but someone put his game, especially his D, on the side of a milk carton cause he has been mailing it in like a Lloyd Banks verse.

3) San Antonio

6) Phoenix

This is the toughest match up to call by far. You got to think the Suns are dying for payback, they had that series won last year and were on their way to the championship until David ” I make the rules that I want, not by logic and reasoning ” Stern nixed any thoughts of that happening and swung the momentum back in the Spurs favor. I’m still up in the air with how Shaq fits with this team, and still curious how the Suns planned on improving their D by trading their best defender. The Spurs however don’t seem quite like the Spurs of the last couple of years, but they do that sometimes, they play slow bland and boring making you mistakingly think they have lost something. The key for the Spurs is Manu Ginobili as long as he stays healthy the Suns will have their hands full stopping him and Parker. I’m not convinced Shaq will play a huge role, unless he has been hiding what he has left and saving it for the playoffs. He is too much of a liability going up and down the court, he can still use that big body to rebound but Parker and Manu won’t be intimidated to drive to the rim and float shots over him. The thing is Amare is one of the few players who plays Duncan really really well, and I don’t think the Spurs will have an answer for Amare and I look for the Suns to get their revenge and pull off the small upset but it’s gonna be a fight.

SUNS IN 7

2) New Orleans

7) Dallas

I’m already to start knocking people out who are saying Kobe should win MVP because they are the # 1 seed, mother skunks the Lakers and Hornets have the same exact record. As I said before, if before the season started you said Kobe would lead the Lakers to where they are no one would really argue if you said Chris Paul would do the same you would of gotten laughed out the room. Anyway I digress everyone seems to already assume the Hornets don’t have a shot at winning the West because they are new here, but my guess is those are the same people that have been ignoring them all year and thus can be the only explanation for them voting Kobe MVP, opps I went back to it didn’t I ? OK OK so the Mavs vs. the Hornets the new best point guard in the league vs. the old best point guard in the league ( emphasis on OLD ) I admit I thought the Mavs were dead and buried especially when Dirk ” not the Diggler ” went down. They hadn’t beaten a team with a record over .500 since the Kidd trade and they just lost their best player, but somehow Dirk came back early and came back ready and they have looked much better. Have they looked good enough to beat Paul, David West, Tyson Chandler, Peja, and the underrated back up pg. Pargo ? The short answer is NO the long answer involves me talking about why Chris Paul is the MVP a whole lot more. So I guess I’ll spare you guys of that but soon enough people are gonna have to start respecting the Hornets cause they didn’t get to where they are by luck and or mistake, they really are that good. If they do lose I’m subscribing to the Bill Simmons theory of Bonzi Wells infecting the team with the dreaded loser disease that could be the only reasonable explanation.

HORNETS IN 6

If you feel different about any of these or the picks from the Eastern Conference ( picks can be found in my last post ) then by all means let me know.