I think the Lakers will win tonight. I'm sick of Steve Nash and all his bs cause he's all good.

Sup ya'll

Spurs will likely close it out tomorrow, they need too, they need to rest up for the Mavericks.

Lakers I think will close it out in the second half tonight, LA vs. LA, poor clippers will lose their home court lol.

I like Cleveland winning in Washington, if not they should win back in the Q.

2nd Round

Mavericks vs. Spurs I like the Mavericks in 7 thanks to the fresh legs they have from sweeping the Grizzles

Lakers vs. Clippers Lakers in 6 or 7 Coaching by Phil Jackson is the Lakers MVP in these playoffs, not the play by Kobe

Pistons vs. Cavs, Pistons in 6, tested, but this is the Pistons here.

Heat vs. Nets, Heat in 5 or 6, Kristic aint gonna be able to contain Shaq and J Will, Wade, and Walker will do a decent job on the Nets big 3.

Conference Finals

Mavericks vs. Lakers Lakers in 7, Lakers always own the Mavs and match up well vs. the Mavs should be a thrilling series if it happens

Pistons vs. Heat Heat in 7 Lineups are close, but just look at Flip Saunders vs. Pat Riley that's the difference maker here, though i wont be surprised to see the Pistons win this series at all, even if it's in 5.

Finals

Lakers vs. Heat Who said we won't ever see Kobe and Shaq in the playoffs in the same game ever again? Now I maybe dreaming a bit here, but all those scenerios are far from impossible and have atleast some credibility.
Heat in 6 or 7.

Quoted for truth. Everytime I see Kobe I wish that his ankle would break - I know, it's sick, but meh.

"If he wants to go to the Octagon we can train for the Octagon." Scrub. They allow elbows in the Octogon, too, Kobe. Why get paid less when you can be a bitch on the court and get paid more?

Anyway, momentum says to me the Suns take it. This series is exciting, though. I don't want it to end, haha.

Lakers in the finals? What the hell? 0_o

THE LAKERS FUCKIN HAD IT!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH WHY DIDN'T THEY FOUL?????????

Damn, well we gotta see what happens on Saturday during game 7.

Looks like Hack-A-Shaq doesn't work, after all. Scott Skiles tried it with like, 2:11 left in the game (thanks to Wilt Chamberlain and his bad free throw shooting and off-the-ball fouls against him that made the game almost unwatchable, "Hack-a-Shaq" with less than 2 minutes left in regulation or overtime results in free throws for the person fouled off-the-ball, and possession for his team). Shaq hit on BOTH free throws. The Chicago Bulls have gone fishin'.

The fishin' boat that already has the Grizzlies, Nuggets, Bucks, Pacers, and Bulls on-board is making stops to DC and Sacramento tonight, hoping to pick up either the Bullets Wizards, Kings, or both. Mark my words, one of those two teams is going fishin' tonight!

Speaking of "Hack-a-Shaq", I just found this interesting link, listing the coaches who tried Hack-a-Shaq, and failed. But its last update was on June 1, 2004, shortly before the 2004 NBA Finals which the Pistons won. For those of you interested, here is The Hack-a-Shaq Hall of Failure.

Hey man that aint my actual prediction just a breakdown of a possible Kobe/Shaq finals, showing how that's far from impossible heres how I see the chances of the remaining teams to reach the finals:

West:
Spurs - 45%
Mavs - 25%
Clippers - 12%
Lakers - 9%
Suns - 9%

East:
Pistons - 65%
Cavs - 8%
Heat - 15%
Nets - 12%

Interesting. I wish someone elbow him in the throat, then kick him in the nuts as they walked over him.


Ghostdragon

Looks like the suns are taking this one up 25 with 4 min left so lets look the the second round. Mavricks and Spurs will be the best series in all of the playoffs i think Suns Clippers should be ok.Does anyone think Lebron can beat the pistons? Does anyone have balls to take the nets over the heat even though the nets did win 3 reg season games. Its the possible we can have a repeat of last years eastern and western conf finals. I don't think so i think 3 of the 4 teams will be their i don't think the spurs will beat dallas. The one thing dallas needed to do to become a condender is to improve their D and they have i feel dallas will make it to the finals as i said earlier. I think the suns will beat the clips in 6 dallas over spurs in 7 heat over nets in 5 and detroit over cavs in 5

Picks for round two:

Dallas defeats San Antonion in 7
Phoenix defeats LA Clippers in 5

Detroit sweeps Cleveland
Miami defeats New Jersey in 7

Although LeBron James has reached yet another milestone in his career (winning a playoff series on his first trip), his team is toast. Only a team such as the Heat, Mavericks, Spurs, or perhaps the Suns can even hope to defeat the Pistons in a playoff series. As for Miami vs. New Jersey, the Nets have a chance at avenging their loss to Miami in last year's first round of the playoffs. And if you look at the last eight games between the two teams, it should be crystal clear that both teams are going to push this series as far as they can. In the last eight games between the two teams, the Heat swept the Nets in the playoffs last year, and the Nets won 3 of the four regular season games this year against the Heat. Of course, you can credit that to the fact that the Heat made that five-team, thirteen-player trade deal during the off-season, so their roster isn't the same as the one they had in the playoffs last year.

Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs...hmm...this playoff series looks to be one for the ages. The two teams faced each other twice in the playoffs, San Antonio winning both times. However, the Mavs are much different now than they were when they lost to the Spurs those two times they met in the playoffs. The lost Steve Nash through a free agency defection to the Suns, and waived Michael Finley under the new Amnesty Clause of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, the latter of which ended up defecting to the Spurs, which leaves Dirk Nowitzki as the last of the Mavs' "Big Three" remaining on the team. New head coach Avery Johnson, who played for the Spurs during an eleven-year stretch with three different stints (and won the 1999 NBA title with the Spurs), is very familiar with long-time Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich's style of play. Thus, Johnson put his foot down and placed a huge emphasis on defense on the team. For approximately 5 or 6 years, the Mavs were primarily known as a run-and-gun team, relying heavily on trying to outscore the opposition. But at the same time, they also ended up allowing an average of close to 100 points per game. With "The Little General" leading the sidelines, the Mavs have improved their defense. This series will be Dallas' big chance to prove to the world that they can play defense decent enough to win a championship.

As for the Clippers and Suns, well...the Suns have the same strengths and weaknesses against the Clippers that they had against the Lakers. I doubt the Clippers can beat the Suns at a fast-paced game. However, with Amare Stoudemire and Kurt Thomas both injured, the Suns are pretty much stuck with a small roster, with this year's Most Improved Player award winner, Boris Diaw, stuck playing Center. Now, this can work to Phoenix's advantage, as it allows them to score a shitload of points in a hurry, especially when they're down by a shitload of points, and can also enable them to get Chris Kaman and Elton Brand in foul trouble. Or, a small line-up can backfire on Phoenix, as their lack of size can cause them to give up points in the paint and rebounding, as well as losing shot-blocking in the paint. If the Clippers are to win this series, they must essentially employ the same strategy the Lakers did; slow the game down, and get the ball to their bigs. Whoever controls the pace of the game throughout this series will most likely advance to the Western Conference Finals. By the way, congratulations are in order to Steve Nash, who won the MVP award for the second consecutive season.

My predictions:

San Antonio over Dallas in 6
Phoenix over L.A. Clippers in 5

Detroit over Cleveland in a sweep
Miami over New Jersey in 7

YES!!! Suns pwnd the Lakers! And now they are gonna open another can of whoop ass on the other L.A. team!

Not likely I have the Clips taking down the Suns. Clippers bigs are way better then the Lakers bigs and look how close that series was? Clippers in 6

Also note that the winner of the Dallas/San Antonio series automatically gets homecourt advantage in the Western Conference Finals, by virtue of BOTH teams having a better record than the Suns and the Clippers. So why do the Suns, with the third best record in the Western Conference at the end of the Regular Season, have a 2 seed while the Mavs have a 4 seed with the second best record in the same conference? Well, the Mavs are in the same division as the Spurs, and it goes without saying that the Spurs won that division. A team that does not win their division cannot get any higher than a four seed, since the top three seeds go to the division winners. In light of the Clippers getting homecourt advantage over the Nuggets in the first round, despite the fact that the Clippers had a six seed and the Nuggets, by virtue of winning their division, got the 3 seed, the league may change the playoff seeding rules to where the seeding is completely determined on Regular Season records. There's been a lot of talk about that lately. So if that was the rule in effect, the Mavericks would have a 2-seed.

And even if Phoenix does eliminate the Clippers, they are in for a fight, as the Mavericks and the Spurs are about the only two teams capable of eliminating the Suns from the playoffs. Dallas has stepped up their defense, and as we saw in last year's Western Conference Finals, the Spurs are more than capable of beating the Suns at their own run-and-gun game. The Mavericks are also capable of that.


Also, as I noted earlier, the Suns' bigs don't really have a shot against the Clippers' bigs. Also factor in that the Suns are short-handed in the bigs department, and that means the Clippers clearly have a size advantage over the Suns.

Yes back from holidays.

Well that Spurs Mavs series sure looks to be a good one, two texas giants going at it. Stackhouse jacked up a heavily contested three? You could get a better shot than that.

I think Detroit will beat the Cavs in 5 easy.

Im rooting for Miami to beat up on the Nets, although it should be a good series since New Jersey won the season series i think.

And the Clippers and Suns series will be a fun one too, but although i want to see the Clippers win, id say the Suns will clean up in 6 games.

I'm glad they took the Lakers out. I didn't want to see all those stupid Lakers flags going up. Lakers SUCK all the way.

suns beat clippers in 5 or 6

spurs beat mavs in 7

spurs beat suns in 6 or 7


spurs beat pistons in 7.......hey gotta go with my spurs!!!!!!!!GO SPURS GO!!!!!!!!

Same here. I'm from San Antonio, myself.

cool......game 2 pistons/cavs

and best of all spurs/mavs tonight on TNT

I'm really excited to see the Spurs/Mavs series and Heat/Nets series. I think Detroit and Pheonix will easily win their series.

Richard Jefferson is VERY questionable for tomorrow night's Nets/Heat game. I think he sprained his right ankle in Game 1. This could hurt the Nets tomorrow night, but if he misses the game tomorrow, he should be back for Game 3.

Just when you thought the fines and suspension talk of the First Round was over with...think again.

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was fined a grand total of $200,000 for two separate incidents that happened recently. Half of that fine accounts for his officiating complaints posted on his blog at blogmaverick.com (you can view the blog entry in question here. The other half of the fine accounts for stepping on the floor during Game 1 of the Mavs/Spurs series this past Sunday. Now you wonder, why is he getting slapped with a $100,000 fine for complaining about the officiating, when players are getting $15,000 fines for doing the same thing? Well, turns out that, like Shaq, Mark Cuban is a repeat offender, especially when it comes to complaining about officiating. In fact, one of his complaints about the officiating was that the league's director of officials wouldn't be able to manage a Dairy Queen. And when that fast food chain took offense, Mark Cuban, himself, decided to work one day at Dairy Queen, and a shitload of Dallas Mavericks fans lined up on the streets to get their favorite Blizzard from their favorite team's owner. Since buying out the Dallas Mavericks in 2000, Mark Cuban has been fined a grand total of over $1 million by the league, mostly for his comments about the league and its officiating.

Clippers just tied the series 1-1 in a convincing fashion...This will be a damn good series.

let the man speak god its like the nba saying mr. cuban we need a donation and if you don't give it to us let the refs fuck up at the nexts mavs one so you can get pissed and we can fine you. Let mark cuban speak their minds. In fact let all the guys who dislike the refs speak their minds. Hitting them no but saying they fucked up when they clearly did. Sure we all make mistakes including refs. So just let who ever wants to say the refs suck speak their mind cause its not going to make a difference. Its better then them pending up their anger and taking it out on a ref. (I do like refs i m just saying let the players speak their minds its better for their souls). Cuben is wealthy so money isn't wat hes worrying about but y should a man speak his mind and be fined for it. It makes no sence. Anyways as far as the series been going. The Mavs have a clear adv over the spurs they should have won game one and easily won game 2. With avery johnson coaching you can tell the difference. I didn't watch either heat net game yet but from what i m hearing the nets need to stop shaq if they have any chance of winning. Clipps all they have to do is keep the suns under 100 points and the suns need to score more then 100. Detroit well no comment detroit is doing wat i though they do and is destroying the cavs. Its funny because expect detroit cavs all series are tied at 1-1.

Mavs owner Mark Cuban never ceases to amaze me. He could potentionally be the ownfall for the mavs if he keeps this on court behaviour up.

The clippers owned the suns in game 2. Should be a good series, espn experts predicted a sweep or win in 5 games.

Mark Cuban deserves to get fined. He gets his props for bein a pretty good owner. But he's so damn annoying and he ticks me off. O, and I have the Clips beatin the Suns tomorrow.