Rounding Up the NBA's First Round

So whatever happened to the all-world all-time greatest playoffs ever we were supposed to get in the Western Conference? Eight teams, all of whom won at least 50 games, were separated by just seven wins. Seven. The ESPN.com panel o' experts are 10 gentlemen who write about The http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifAssociation for a living, and know what they're talking about. They, and me, and everyone else, expected an epic: instead, we got domination. While nobody picked the Nuggets to upset the Lakers, I don't think anybody picked LA to sweep either. New Orleans in five over Dallas? Not only did nobody pick that, six of ten panelists picked Dallas to win the series! San Antonio over Phoenix in 5? Seven of 10 picked Phoenix to win the series, and the three who picked San Antonio had them in six or seven games. The Utah/Houston series is the only one going according to plan, as everyone but Jalen Rose (who said Jazz in five) picked Utah to win in six or seven.

10 experts, and like everyone else, they were way off on the first round out West. My question is: should we have seen this coming? Should we have known from the way the regular season shook out that things would be so one-sided? I just don't see how. Yes Denver was dysfunctional, and Phoenix just never looked like Phoenix, and Dallas looked...well ok the Dallas loss we should have seen coming. But the other two? Hard to say.

For me, the biggest shocker, or at least most impressive showing so far had to be from LA. It's pretty obvious now that as talented as the Nuggets were, the pieces just didn't fit. Still, this team won 50 games in the regular season, the most ever for an 8 seed. To put that in perspective, they would have been a 3 seed in the East. They have two of the league's top scorers in Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson (show of hands, who thought AI's old team would last longer in the playoffs than his current team? Anyone? Yeah me neither), a defensive player of the year finalist in Marcus Camby, an outside gunner and slasher in JR Smith, and some good role guys like Eduardo Najera and Something-or-Other-Kleiza. This is a good team. They did not luck their way to 50 wins. In the East they would be right there in the conversation with Detroit and Boston. Out here? THEY GOT SWEPT. I'm trying to show you how impressive this is. It's not that I thought Denver was better than the Lakers, just that this should have been a tough series: it wasn't. LA's average margin of victory in the first three games was almost 16 points. And even the fourth game, which the Lakers only won by seven, was never really in doubt. Be afraid of LA. Be very afraid. They're just getting warmed up, and poor Utah doesn't stand a chance in the next round. Kobe could average 40 unless Andrei Kirilenko has an all-decade type performance defensively.

San Antonio showed they have plenty left, and if we don't get a Lakers-Spurs conference finals I'll be surprised. That said, the Hornets are for real, and Chris Paul will not only be a handful, but New Orleans has plenty of athletic bigs to send at Tim Duncan. Should be a long series- then again, we thought that in the first round too.

My one and only comment about the East so far:
Scary: In the five games against the Raps Dwight Howard AVERAGED 22.6 pts, 18.2 rbs, and 3.8 blks.
Scarier: Dwight Howard has no post moves. None. Have you seen him in the low post? He turns and dunks or turns and lays it in every time, and yet he still averaged 22 a night in the playoffs. Can you imagine what the young man is going to do when he develops a turn-around jumper or god forbid a hook shot? Scary, scary, SCARY!