The NBA playoff picture has shaken itself out, and predictably the LeBron James-led Miami Heat easily secured the top seed and are the heavy favorites to represent the Eastern Conference in the Finals.
The Heat will face the Milwaukee Bucks in Round 1, and the Bucks could potentially test the Heat in this series. They earned a 19-point victory over James, Dwyane Wade and co. in December, and took Miami to overtime on another occasion. The Bucks have two high-octane scoring guards in Brandon Jennings and Monta Ellis as well as one of the most ferocious shot blockers in the league in center Larry Sanders.
Still, James is likely to win the league MVP award, Dwyane Wade is a former Finals MVP, and Chris Bosh enters this game shooting the highest field goal percentage of his career (53 percent).
The New York Knicks earned a No. 2 seed, but could be on upset alert against the seventh-seeded Boston Celtics. Any Knicks fan would admit that Paul Pierce is a Knick-killer, and the statistics bear out Pierce's tendency to elevate his game against the Knickerbockers. His scoring goes from 21.4 points per game for his career to 23.4 against New York. This season, his scoring was upped by three points against the Knicks.
The Celtics also have a pair of players in Kevin Garnett and Jeff Green that may be able to slow NBA scoring champion Carmelo Anthony down. Garnett is still one of the league's elite post defenders, where Carmelo has done much of his damage this year.
The Indiana Pacers enter this postseason as a No. 3 seed and will face the Atlanta Hawks. Indiana has statistically been the best defense in the Eastern Conference, bad news for a Hawks group that scores around the league average in points per game. Pacers' point guard George Hill is an athletic defensive nightmare for opposing guards, and that should hold true for Jeff Teague and Devin Harris.
The Brooklyn Nets and Chicago Bulls round out the Eastern field as the fourth and fifth seeds, with the Nets a potential upset candidate. The Bulls have made it work without former MVP Derrick Rose this season and have prided themselves on stiff defense and tremendous rebounding. That will put pressure on Reggie Evans to combat the three-headed glass-eating monster of Carlos Boozer, Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson. The Nets were 1-3 during the regular season against the Bulls.
© Copyright 2024 Sports World News, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
