BuzzerBeater Forums

I am glad that Bulls won Heat....I think that last year they would have won the title if Rose hadn't been injured...It's a different team with Rose...unfortunately I don't think that Rose is going to play the same again...he will be scaring in every lay-up and in every dunk because one more serious injury in the same leg and his career is over

Playoff picture...

Eastern Conference
Milwaukee Bucks (8) vs (1) Miami Heat
Chicago Bulls (5) vs (4) Brooklyn Nets

Boston Celtics (7) vs (2) New York Knicks
Atlanta Hawks (6) vs (3) Indiana Pacers

Western Conference
Houston Rockets (8) vs (1) Oklahoma City Thunder
Memphis Grizzlies (5) vs (4) Los Angles Clippers

Los Angles Lakers (7) vs (2) San Antonio Spurs
Golden State Warriors (6) vs (3) Denver Nuggets

Some interesting match-ups: if Derrick Rose returns for the playoffs he matches up against Deron Williams in the 1st round, James Harden is up against his old team in OKC, and finally, Memphis and LAC are two genuine title contenders with 56-26 records but only one can advance...

second round:
Heat vs Bulls
Knicks vs Pacers

Thunder vs Grizzlies
Lakers vs Warriors

Alright let's have a crack here

Heat vs Bulls
Knicks vs Pacers

OKC vs Grizz
Spurs vs Nuggets


Can't see many major upsets apart from the Bulls. The Grizzlies have better bigs and Cp3 chokes or gets injured every playoffs so they should be right and it's not really an upset..

Warriors Nuggets will be the most entertaining series, unless Harden blows up against his old squad.

Knicks Boston should be a cracker but I think the Knicks will finally get a playoff series win here.

The Lakers won't get past the Spurs without Kobe... be realistic Koop :P. CAUTION: OVER-ANALYSED WALL OF TEXT AHEAD.

I remember being pissed off when I saw Harden get traded:

OKC traded the beard?! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!

But looking back at the trade it turned out quite alright for both teams. Kevin Martin couldn't quite match Harden's production for OKC but he played the role of 6th man just fine. Plus he's cheaper for OKC, which is good for them because they're not a big market team. Meanwhile Harden put up Kobe-esque numbers, and whilst his decision not to re-sign for OKC might hurt his chances of an NBA title in the short-term, in the long run he makes more money and now has a chance to win a title at some point in his career as 'THE STAR' instead of being a 6th man. Speaking of which, I know that Sefolosha has great defence which is why he starts but I would've liked to have seen how a starting line-up with Westbrook, Durant AND Harden would've played out. Me thinks it would've wreaked havoc on the opposing defences.

I can't help but compare LeBron and Durant to Magic and Bird respectively. LeBron James, despite being 6'8", is the primary ball-handler for his team similar to how Magic was a point guard despite being 6'9". Ok so LeBron is a 'point forward' and more of a scorer, but still he does run his teams offence. Kevin Durant meanwhile just shot 50-40-90 and 28.1 PPG for the season. The first person in NBA history to do so, and the only other person to date to have averaged 28+ PPG as well, was Larry Bird. Of course, Bird also played point forward, whereas Durant doesn't, having Westbrook... but you can definitely see some similarities between Magic-Bird and LeBron-Durant, right?

Either way, the two players both had MONSTER seasons and it would surely be a great NBA Finals series if it was a Heat-Thunder rematch, which is the most likely finals match-up, though realistically it could be any one of 5 teams from the West making the finals, whilst the Knicks still have a fighting chance in the East.

There's more I wanted to add to this post, but I don't want this wall of text to be tl;dr.

Last edited by Jay (OTT) at 4/19/2013 5:09:42 AM

Im hoping Harden can rip it up and knock out OKC first round!

FEAR THE BEARD!

If he does, im buying 5 t shirts!

Bulls V Nets 10am aest today on ESPN.

Me hopes that the Nets play more like they did when they were NJ and Bulls make it through to rd 2 V Heat. Ever since the Heat acquired Bosh and James, no team has matched up better against them.

No Rose, Noah playing limited minutes, and Gibson already in foul trouble tonight. Should be a simple series for the Nets

Beat Nets 3-1 this season and one of those was without Noah. Just too sloppy today.

Cant see Rose playing anytime during the playoffs. Will most likely just go through a full pre season and start g1 of next season.

GSW and Denver is going to be a great series!

Would insurance still cover for Rose being out the whole season despite playing in the playoffs? Or does it only cover the regular season. Maybe thats one of the reasons why the Bulls aint playing Rose, that and the fact that he won't be 100%.

Combination between D-Will and B Lopez was a clinic today. Boozer needed Rose there cos he was carrying the scoring load himself. With Noah hurt, the Bull's interior defensive energy was non existent.