Series to Watch

The Eastern Conference games should all be on NBA TV then no one would have to suffer through them. It's all chalk out there, each of the four lower seeds are outrageously over-matched by the higher seeds. There is no hope for those teams. Yesterday when the Bulls were staying with the Cavs the thought never crossed my mind that the Bulls could perhaps, possibly steal this game. The only thought which dully hummed in my mind was when Lebron would pull the Cavs away (turned out to be the fourth quarter). Might as well turn these games off.

The West is a different story entirely. All four match-ups are actually pretty good, even better than I thought they would be. My favorite two series in the West are Lakers-Thunder and Spurs-Mavs. The Mavs-Spurs series is really up in the air. The Mavs took the first game, but so far through game two the Spurs look pretty good, and it seems as though the light bulb just came on for Richard Jefferson, who is playing superb so far through the half.

The Lakers-Thunder series might be over in four or five games but those games are fun to watch. Kevin Durant is a superstar and he's proving it at the playoff level. He still has a tendency to take some bad shots but when he curls off that pick and hoists a jumper its money. He lets it go and your eyes go straight to the basket, prepared to witness the whack-oosh of microphone induced NBA swishes. And Kobe, I always count him out, but at the end of games he really does come up big. Six big points to close out that game yesterday.

The Phoenix-Portland series is actually better than I thought it would be. I know the Suns blew them out last night, but the blazers really are a bad match-up for the Suns. Andre Miller is killing Steve Nash in the post so they have to put Jason Richardson on him, and Marcus Camby and Lemarcus Aldridge are causing all kinds of problems for Suns' bigs with their size and length. I still think Phoenix will pull this one out, but games in this series are much more entertaining than I originally thought.

The Denver-Utah seriously is knotted up at one but I really haven't gotten a chance to watch the games. I know the last game was close and Deron Williams was excellent but with all of Utah's injuries I really don't see them having a real shot at beating the Nuggets. But if they keep stealing games you never know.