We’re Talk­ing About The Play­offs?

NBA Play­off Guide

East­ern Con­fer­ence

1) Boston Celtics vs. 8) Chicago Bulls

This is one of the most in­trigu­ing matchups in the NBA play­offs. Al­though the Celtics are the num­ber 1 seed, they are not the fa­vorites to rep­re­sent the East in the NBA Fi­nals. Many peo­ple be­lieve that the Cleve­land Cav­a­liers are the best team in the East­ern Con­fer­ence and that the Celtics were lucky to get the 1 seed. This matchup is in­ter­est­ing be­cause of the way the Chicago Bulls have been beat­ing teams re­cently. Al­though the Celtics have Isa­iah Thomas, an All-star, the Bulls have ar­guably one of the best play­ers in the NBA, Jimmy But­ler. But­ler is a two-way player who has the rare abil­ity to score from any­where on the court, while also tak­ing the re­spon­si­bil­ity of guard­ing the other team’s best player. In ad­di­tion to But­ler, the Bulls also fea­ture Dwayne Wade and Ra­jon Rondo; both are play­ers with play­off ex­pe­ri­ence who have won NBA ti­tles with other or­ga­ni­za­tions.

Pre­dic­tion: Chicago to win in 7 games

2) Cleve­land Cav­a­liers vs. 7) In­di­ana Pac­ers

The Cleve­land Cav­a­liers have far and away the most tal­ent of any team in the East­ern Con­fer­ence, but that does not mean they are a lock to win this se­ries. The Cav­a­liers, or Cavs, are limp­ing into the play­offs af­ter a less than stel­lar reg­u­lar sea­son cam­paign. The main thing that the Cavs have go­ing for them is the fact that they still have the best player in the world, Le­Bron James. In ad­di­tion to James, the Cavs also start su­per­stars Kyrie Irv­ing and Kevin Love. On the other hand, the In­di­ana Pac­ers have been play­ing much bet­ter bas­ket­ball since sign­ing Lance Stephen­son at the end of the reg­u­lar sea­son. The Pac­ers also have a su­per­star of their own in Paul George. In or­der for the Pac­ers to have a shot in this se­ries George will not only have to score at an in­cred­i­ble pace, he will also be tasked with try­ing to slow down Le­Bron James. 

Pre­dic­tion: Cleve­land has too much tal­ent and ex­pe­ri­ence to lose in the first round. Cleve­land Cav­a­liers in 5 games.

3) Toronto Rap­tors vs. 6) Mil­wau­kee Bucks

Al­though the top teams in the West­ern Con­fer­ence have more tal­ent, the first round matchup in the East­ern Con­fer­ence will pro­duce the best se­ries. This se­ries is go­ing to be spe­cial. Both the Rap­tors and Bucks are teams that are over­looked and des­per­ate to prove they be­long with the best of the best. The Mil­wau­kee Bucks are one of the youngest and most ex­cit­ing teams that no one has heard of. They are lead by 22-year-old Gi­an­nis An­te­tok­oun­mpo also known as the Greek Freak. At 6’11″ with one of the longest wingspans in NBA his­tory Gi­an­nis is primed to be one of the biggest stars in the NBA. The Bucks have a change to make this se­ries in­ter­est­ing be­cause of how hard they play on the de­fen­sive end of the floor. Al­though this team is young they are not afraid of any­one, es­pe­cially the Toronto Rap­tors. The Rap­tors fea­ture on of the best back­court tandems in the league with Kyle Lowry at point guard De­Mar DeRozan at shoot­ing guard. The late sea­son ad­di­tion of Serge Ibaka has so­lid­i­fied the Rap­tors in the paint and should make them a force to deal with as the play­offs un­fold.

Pre­dic­tion: Kyle Lowry will make a buzzer-beater for the Rap­tors be­fore the se­ries is over. Toronto Rap­tors win in 7 games.

4) Wash­ing­ton Wiz­ards vs. 5) At­lanta Hawks

The fi­nal matchup of the East­ern Con­fer­ence play­offs open­ing round fea­tures the Wiz­ards and the Hawks. As you would pre­dict with a 4-5 matchup this se­ries could go ei­ther way. The Wiz­ards are led by point guard John Wall and St. Louis na­tive Bradley Beal. The start­ing 5 for the Wiz­ards is as good as any start­ing line-up in the NBA. The Achilles Heel for the Wiz­ards is the lack of pro­duc­tion they re­ceive from their bench play­ers. The good news for the Wiz­ards is that they are play­ing the At­lanta Hawks who also strug­gle with their bench. The Hawks need point guard Den­nis Schroder to have a stel­lar se­ries in or­der to have a chance to win. If Dwight Howard could find a way to play like he did 5 years ago then the Hawks would win this se­ries. How­ever it does­n’t look like that is go­ing to hap­pen so the Hawks need every­one to step up in or­der to get past the sharp­shoot­ing Wiz­ards.

Pre­dic­tion: The Hawks will put up a good fight and should win a cou­ple of games, how­ever I think the Wiz­ards will ul­ti­mately win the se­ries. Wash­ing­ton Wiz­ards in 6 games.

Pho­tos by Nolan Berry.