NBA Playoffs Preview: Eastern Style

As the regular season finally closed and players who did not make it to the post season are cleaning out their lockers, here comes two months of natural fulfillment and enjoy. There will be vast amounts of bandwagon fans cheering for teams who did not care about during the season. Sixteen teams will play for the Larry O'Brien Trophy, but only five teams have a realistic chance of winning it all. As for me, I favor the NHL playoffs over the NBA version, but the NBA will have higher television ratings long as it is the Heat and Lakers finals. Let the games began, and let the team X all day statuses on Facebook and Twitter flow like water.

Chicago v. Indiana: This series could be the quickest series in the first round. Good news for us is that Derrick Rose's MVP ceremony would not be as awkward as the 2006-2007 MVP winner but it is sad that Stan Van Gundy declared the MVP race over weeks ago. This series should be a sweep for Chicago, me and most people who watch the NBA will be shocked if the series go past five games.

Miami v. Philadelphia: Contrary to popular belief, seeking the path of least resistance is harder than finding a path of success. As for Miami who wanted to win multiple championship, will their first playoff test in the first round. Philly is a tough team who are built the same way as the Heat, some believed that they are happy to be there and will bow out to the Heat. I am doubt that will be the case, although the talent levels are vastly different; it will be a fun series and the Sixers have a good chance to win two of their home games. That mean the Heat should win this series in six games.

Boston v. New York:  This will be a great series. A team that built over time verses a team that built overnight. Today like the day after the trade, and I still disagree with whole deal. The Knicks will not win a championship this year, in fact, after they made the Carmelo Anthony trade, the Knicks only move up one playoff spot. The only redeeming feature of this trade and the dumb Boston trade is that the Knicks will push this series to a seventh game. The Celtics will win in seven games.

Orlando v. Atlanta: One of these days’ people will finally tuned out Stan Van Gundy and realized he and this Orlando Magic team are overrated. Like the creators of Disney movies, they make sure the good guy get some type of lucky break, and for this Magic team their break in the first round is the Atlanta Hawks. Atlanta is an athletic team who can run up and down the court and will give the Magic problems, but it should not be a problem in the short term the long term is another story. Magic will win this series in seven games.