The NBA Playoffs get under way this Saturday, with the first round shaping up as follows: Miami taking on New Jersey, Detroit taking on Philadelphia, Boston taking on Indiana and Chicago takes on Washington in the Eastern Conference. In the Western Conference Phoenix will face Memphis, San Antonio will face Denver, Seattle take on Sacramento and Dallas take on Houston.

Most notably the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Los Angeles Lakers have failed to make the playoffs, which is a shock considering how much they were a part of it last year. Chicago have made the playoffs for the first time since 1998 which was Michael Jordan's final season, and Cleveland failed to make it for the second year running due to a late season slump.

Being a Bulls fan I would love to see them get somewhere worth mentioning in the playoffs, but to be honest I cannot see much past a Miami – Phoenix final. Any thoughts?

I have never spoke of it here so people wont know, but I'm a HUGE NBA mark, I used to play all through school and made the Plymouth Raiders pro team in 1996 but bone spurs in my ankles killed my future as a player in the UK league :(

 

My favourite team, and they have been since their debut in 1989, are the Orlando Magic. Gone are the glory days of Shaq, Penny, 3D, Grand and Anderson, gone are the exciting Heart and Hustle years and gone are the T-Mac years.

 

This year we started GREAT, 13-6 (after going a league worst 21-61 last season) but it all fell apart after trading Cuttino Mobley for the worthless Doug Christie midway through the season and injuries to Grant Hill (again), Hedo Turkaglu (sp?), Cato and suspensions of Francis (along with the fact that, while we were beating great teams, we were losing to NBA jobber teams) killed our playoff hopes this year and its heartbreaking.

 

Hopefully next season we will come together more and more importantly, have a good off season and good draft/lottery picks etc.

 

Onto the Playoffs...I see Miami vs Phoenix in the Finals, with Miami taking it.

I notice you mention Grant Hill and his injury. Surely as a fan for a long time you would have expected this? Hill had a couple of great full seasons early on, but ever since then he has been in and out with injuries. He started the season well, appearing to be over the worst of it all in the All-Star game. Of course injury will always come back to haunt him, it goes no other way.

 

One team that showed a fair bit of potential were the Bobcats, i know they are new and a jobber team, but Okafor showed Rookie of the Year form (although Ben Gordon will beat him to that) and Gerald Wallace proved he could still do the business. At least they didnt have the worst record in the league, that went to the Hawks with 13 victories and 69 losses :lol

I notice you mention Grant Hill and his injury. Surely as a fan for a long time you would have expected this? Hill had a couple of great full seasons early on' date=' but ever since then he has been in and out with injuries. He started the season well, appearing to be over the worst of it all in the All-Star game. Of course injury will always come back to haunt him, it goes no other way.[/quote']

 

Well, in 2000 when we signed him from Detroit along with TMac from Toronto, it was supposed to pretty much make Orlando a dream team capable of winning it all. Sad thing is, Grant was injured from the start and playing something like 45 games in the last 4 whole seasons, it never worked out, 4 surgeries on his left ankle killed his career.

 

This year though, he was playing awesome, the injury that ended his season was a deep shin bruise above that dreaded ankle injury, so they pulled him to be safe that he didnt reinjure the ankle, which was a wise move I guess.

 

Hopefully next season he will be better again and improve on this great year he had, for the most part.

 

One team that showed a fair bit of potential were the Bobcats' date=' i know they are new and a jobber team, but Okafor showed Rookie of the Year form (although Ben Gordon will beat him to that) and Gerald Wallace proved he could still do the business. At least they didnt have the worst record in the league, that went to the Hawks with 13 victories and 69 losses :lol[/quote']

 

The very first team to ever lose to the Bobcats were the Magic, lol, typical. We lost 3 of 4 games to them this year, which was our main problem, we lost to all the jobbers even thought we were beating all the contenders.

 

Rookie of the year will likely be Gordon, I'd love to see my boy Dwight Howard take it though, started all 82 games in his rookie yr out of highschool for us, the first guy to ever do that, and averaged a double double.

One rookie some people forget is Andre Iguodala. He has played extremely well for the Sixers this year, forming a powerful partnership with Allen Iverson. After seeing them in action the other day on sky, they looked formidable to say the least, and now with Webber as their centre/forward they will be tough in the playoffs.

 

Changing the subject slightly, i was very suprised at how the cavaliers crumbled in the final stretch of the regular season. After a very good start and some consistent play, it seemed as though James, Gooden and co ran out of steam.

I agree about the Cavs, it was surprising as hell to see them just collapse the way they did. With talk of LaBron requesting a trade, things dont look good in Cleveland.

 

But, to be fair, they were very unlucky that the Nets held a win over them, cos they both finished with the same record but the Nets went into the playoffs due to the wins they got over the Cavs during the season.

I think the Pistons have a great chance of winning it again this year. Who were on a great run of 11 and 0 untill losing to the Bobcats. With players like Ben and Rasheed Wallace and Hamilton we have a good chance!

Detroit started crap but have finished very strong. They have a chance, but its slim at best I'd think. They will get trampled by the future NBA champion Miami Heat team.

Yeah Heat are awesome this season with Shaq. It shows how much the Lakers missed him with them being pretty mediocre this season. Piston will go far I believe.

The thing is with the Lakers, their trading of Shaq was one-sided. Its always going to be very tough to find anyone as good as him, and by bringing in three mediocre players that was never going to do it. Kobe is still a fantastic player, but without the dominant big man he is unable to really shine.

Miami however have excelled, Wade is a superb young player who is going to be a superstar for years to come. I fully believe he will outlive the stardom of LeBron, and this season with Shaq he has shown incredible power, strength, talent, skills, and pretty much everything else. The Heat will go to the finals, after beating the Pistons on the way.

As mentioned before, the Pistons started their season poorly, and although they have played well and managed to get the second best record in the East, they also lost some silly games along the way. I doubt they will be able to repeat this year.

 

Now that the regular season is done, talk of the MVP award is abound, who do you think will get it? My moneys on Steve Nash, who has worked wonders in Phoenix making them the team they are today. Adding him last summer was a stroke of genius, and he has proved invaluable to their playoff push.

I used to be a huge basketball fan years ago but havent really watched it much since.my favourite team are Orlando Magic and my favourite player is Penny Hardaway.wow so chicago bulls are decent enough again??I remember them being absolute bollocks not too long ago??

Since the last championship in 1998, the Bulls have struggled to get a decent team together and actually get a decent season record, not being able to finish at .500 or higher since then. This year Chicago have put together a young team, including 4 rookies, and Coach Scott Skiles seems to have found a very potent formula for the team to actually win. Ben Gordon, Loul Deng (injured), Andres Nocioni, Eddy Curry (injured), Tyson Chandler, Chris Duhon, Othella Harrington and Antonio Davis have all played outstanding this year, and have helped Chicago reach the playoffs for the first time since 1998, they also embarked on a 9 gamne win streak during the regular season, the best since 98, and also finished with a 47-35 record, the best since 98.

I used to be a huge basketball fan years ago but havent really watched it much since.my favourite team are Orlando Magic and my favourite player is Penny Hardaway.wow so chicago bulls are decent enough again??I remember them being absolute bollocks not too long ago??

 

Penny was traded to Phoenix in 1999 and then to New York sometime after that. Injuries have killed his once great career and he know a role player averaging like 5 points per game or something.

 

MVP will be Nash, Stoudmire or Shaq.

damn, thats bad to hear about hardaway.I still wear my orlando top with hardaway on the back it just about fits me perfect now as years ago it was huge on me.Is there far more white basketball players now??anytime I flick through the channels there seems to be alot more of them.......

damn' date=' thats bad to hear about hardaway.I still wear my orlando top with hardaway on the back it just about fits me perfect now as years ago it was huge on me.Is there far more white basketball players now??anytime I flick through the channels there seems to be alot more of them.......[/quote']

 

I have a bunch of XL Magic jerseys ranging from Shaq/32, Hardaway/1, Scott/3, TMac/1, Horace/54 etc, they still get worn but only around the house or at the beach and stuff.

 

I am going to grab a Francis/3, Howard/12 and Hill/33 next season, hopefully in white as I prefer the white strips.

Hedo Turkaglu (sp?)' date=' [/quote']

 

Hidayet Turkoglu

 

nickname is Hido/Heedo

 

p.s. i know this because i'm turkish ! ;)

So has anyone been keeping up to date with these? Phoenix and Miami swept Memphis and New Jersey in 4 games, whilst Seattle and Detroit took a bit longer, taking out Sacramento and Philadelphia in 5. San Antonio have also done the same, taking out Denver who actually took a 1 game lead before falling 4-1. Chicago are losing to Washington after Gilbert Arenas hit a last second jump shot to win game 5 last night, the series is at 3-2. Houston and Dallas is another series thats tough to call, out of the first four games the road team were victorious tying the series at 2, before Dallas won at home the other night to go ahead 3-2 in the series. Boston are losing to Indiana by 3 games to 2, so things are still full of excitment in the NBA.

 

I was dissapointed that the Sixers couldnt win both their home games, but the Pistons were just too strong. Iverson is an amazing player but surely he must be dissapointed that his team were not able to do better. Chicago have been falling behind to the Wizards in every game, and the only thing that gave us the victories were the inspired comebacks. However they were nowhere to be seen in Washington, putting the Bulls in a rough position going into Friday's Game 6.

 

Oh yeah, Emeka Okafor was named Rookie of the Year, whilst Chicago's rookie Ben Gordon was named the 6th Man of the Year, the first rookie to eanr that honour.