NBA Playoffs: Eastern Conference Preview

Phil Fortuna


Goodbye regular season, hello playoffs! The NBA playoffs start off this Saturday starting with the Cavs taking on the Bulls at 3 P.M on ABC. All season long teams such as the Lakers, Cavs, Mavs, Magic and Nuggets have been talked about as championship teams. However, there can only be one so which one of these sixteen teams will bring home Larry O’Brien? Here’s a look at the first round matchups for the Eastern conference. The Western conference will be up later on.

1. Cleveland Cavaliers

8. Chicago Bulls

Okay, this is the series that you can almost guarantee Cleveland sweeping. This is the series where the underdog should settle on being happy to make the playoffs. This is the series where Cleveland will dominate! If any of those above statements is what you’re thinking than shame on you. Let’s take a look back at the regular season series matchup; both teams tied each other with two wins each. The most recent win was by the Bulls but the Cavs were resting LeBron James. Sounds like with James the Cavs win by blowout. Not quite, 3 out of the 4 games were decided by 7 or less points including a Bulls loss without Derrick Rose playing. I’m not saying the Bulls are going to shock the world by upsetting the Cavs in a 7 games series. Although you have to remember this is an upstart Bulls team that took a dominant Celtics team to 7 games in the first round last year, granted Boston didn’t have Garnett. Kirk Hinrich always steps up in the playoffs and Derrick Rose last year proved he was capable as a rookie to take over in the first round. Throw in the presence of Joakim Noah on the defensive end and on the boards along with the high energy rookie Taj Gibson, the Bulls could possibly be a potential nightmare. The X-fact for Chicago is swingman Luol Deng, he is averaging nearly 18 points and 8 boards a game, however he has a tendency to be inconsistent. If Deng doesn’t bring his A game all series it will be a struggle for the Bulls to compete. We all know King James will get his numbers, that he will take over but the main key for the Cavs is getting Chicago’s big men in foul trouble. Shaq will be back on Saturday giving the Cavs the best front court in the playoffs. You have Shaq, Big Z, Vareajo, J.J Hickson and Leon Powe to throw around down low. The big men Chicago has are Noah, Gibson and Brad Miller, if they can get 2 of those 3 guys in foul trouble it will force Chicago to play small ball allowing Cleveland’s size to be the difference maker. 


Prediction: Cavs in 6

2. Orlando Magic

7. Charlotte Bobcats

Last year’s Eastern Conference champs against a team participating in their first postseason in franchise history. Orlando won the season series 3 games to 1 with Dwight Howard being dominating and aggressive. The Bobcats were a pleasant surprise this season led by legendary coach Larry Brown and the rise of star player Gerald Wallace. The Bobcats don’t have a go to scorer like the 2004 Pistons championship team which is a positive but a negative. On the positive side they have guys like Wallace, Captain Jack, Ray Felton and D.J Augustine who have proven they are capable of scoring 20 plus points anytime. On the negative side when the game is on line and believe me there will be several situations they don’t have a guy that will say “give me the ball and get out of my way”. Despite replacing Hedo Turkey, a key guy for their finals run a year ago with a nearly washed up Vince Carter they managed to win 59 games. The key for Orlando will be ball movement which they are masters at. Vince Carter needs a good series in the worst way, not many are convinced he’s the perfect fit so he needs to start doing what Stan Van has been saying all season. DRIVE THE BALL‼! Vince quit settling for jumpers and get to the basket. Nobody is saying you have to go up for a dunk or a layup, by driving to the hole the inside defense will focus on you leaving Howard slightly guarded. Either score for yourself or get D12 the easy dunk and possible 3 point play. Next, Mickael Pietrus prepare yourself for a difficult time against the Bobcats. SVG will have you switching between guarding Gerald Wallace and Stephen Jackson. Both guys are aggressive at getting their shots off anywhere on the floor. The Bobcats need to capitalize on their backcourt, Jackson, Felton and Augustine. If the Bobcats want any shot of winning the series those 3 guys need to outplay Orlando’s Carter, Jameer Nelson, J.J Redick and Jason Williams. The backcourt in terms of talent favors the Bobcats but the experience factor is greatly in Orlando’s favor. The thing that’s going to hurt the Bobcats more than anything is the injury status of Tyson Chandler after getting hurt last night. He’s the only guy on the team that can somewhat play Dwight Howard, if Tyson doesn’t play then Charlotte will be force to rotate between Nazr Mohammed and the old guy Theo Ratliff. 


Prediction: Orlando in 5

3. Atlanta Hawks

6. Milwaukee Bucks

NO ANDREW BOGUT‼ Atlanta if you realize that then exploit it as much humanly possible. Control no wait excuse me DESTROY the Bucks rebounding the ball on both ends of the court, feel more comfortable going to the basket, give Al Horford a few more shots and Josh Smith move to the inside move versus drifting on the perimeter, you have a better shot now but your still no 3 point shooter. I mean face it minus Bogurt the Bucks have Kurt Thomas, Dan Gadzuric, Primoz Brezec and Ersan Ilyasova. Those guys will come out aggressive for Milwaukee but they are not quick or athletic and aren’t offensive players. I loved Mikwaukee all year but c’mon Jennings as good as he is still way to inconsistent, their only offensive threat is John Salmons who averaged about 30 points a game against Atlanta this season. The Hawks are too talented, too quick and too athletic for the Bucks. Plus Atlanta has stat stuffer Joe Johnson and the high scoring 6th man Jamal Crawford. Add on Josh Smith and high shot blocking volume the sky isn’t sunny for the Bucks. 


Prediction: Atlanta in 4

4. Boston Celtics

5. Miami Heat

This is the toughest series in the East to get a grasp on and predict. Boston is no longer a force and the Big 3 hasn't been aging like wine. Miami has superstar Dwayne Flash Wade, who has been carrying this Heat team alone for some time now. The Big 3 has Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins to back them up. Perkins an excellent inside presence defensively has an improved offensive game. Rondo has been the best player on the Boston Celtics team all season. Remember the playoffs last year nearly averaging a triple double. Wade has Michael Beasley, he was suppose to be Wade’s sidekick somebody who takes a lot of pressure away from him. So far that hasn’t been the case as Beasley has been too inconsistent and looks like he doesn’t care. One game he’ll have 24 points and 10 rebounds then next game he has 8 points and 4 rebounds. Miami has nobody else to rely on offensively and if Beasley can’t get it together then Wade will be a one man show. When Wade has to go off on a scoring run there’s nobody on the team who can create from themselves and when Flash takes over, the player’s individual confidence goes down. 


Prediction: Boston in 7

A Change of Number, but Same Jersey in 2010?

Jossif Ezekilov 


In a tribute to Hall of Famer (and new Bobcats owner) Michael Jordan, Lebron James will change his number from 23, the number Jordan wore for the majority of his Bulls career, to number 6, his number with the US Olympic Team. While, Lebron had been talking about this before, no one thought he would actually do it. Of course, as this is King James, people are taking notice, much more so at least than whenAndray Blatche switched his number from 32 to 7.


Players switch their jersey numbers voluntarily very rarely, and when they do, it’s for a specific reason. Kobe Bryant, for example, changed from number 8 to number 24, as a sign that he was turning over a new leaf in his career. Tracy McGrady went from his iconic number 1 to number 3 to raise awareness for Darfur.


This tribute is a fitting one for MJ, and a very noble one for the guy who has seemingly adopted “King”  as his first name. Some cynics would venture to say that it’s all a marketing ploy, that Lebron is using this just to boost his merchandise sales. The argument isn’t totally illegitimate: Bryant’s jersey sales surged when he changed his number. But why would Lebron do this? It actually goes against the rules of marketing. His jersey is one of the highest selling in recent years, so why would he change something that has been proven to make him money? Furthermore, his logo, featured on all Lebron merchandise including his highly successful shoe line, centers around the number 23; changing that practically goes against marketing rule no. 1. So call me a Lebron lover, but I think his intentions aren’t market driven.


Some have ventured that this may be a sign that Lebron will stay in Cleveland since he could switch to number 6 on a new team next season if he wanted to move. It’s intriguing, but I’d venture to say that this in and of itself is no indication.

Do You Believe in Magic?

Charlie Klein

Throughout the entire Eastern Conference Finals, the Orlando Magic were out to prove a point. That point being that they were the better team and with their 103-90 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers last night at AmWay Arena in Orlando.

The Orlando Magic have ended the second longest drought between NBA Finals in league history. It was 14 years ago that a Magic team led by Shaquille O'Neal and Penny Hardaway won the Eastern Conference but then lost to the Houston Rockets. What makes their success that remarkable is that the Magic are six years removed from having the worst record in the league. Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel said that the Magic were, "back from the basketball dead."

For the Cleveland Cavaliers, it is an unfitting end of the season that no one saw coming. The Cavaliers had the NBA's best record, NBA MVP LeBron James, and NBA Coach of the Year Mike Brown. The people in Cleveland, as well as pretty much everywhere else, believed that finally this would be the year that would end the city's 45 year championship drought. What proved to be this team's undoing was the fact that they only had one star player. James could not carry them throughout a seven game series in which the rest of the team was exposed for what they really were, role players. It seems crazy now to think that a team with Wally Szerbiak, Anderson Varejao, Ben Wallace, Boobie Gibson, and Delonte West would be thought of as the team to beat in the Eastern Conference. All of those players are only in the NBA because they do one thing really well, and if they were not doing that, they would not be in the NBA. Against weaker opponents in the Eastern Conference the Cavaliers were made to look like world beaters, but when they came up against an actual team, they had no chance.

The Cavaliers could take a lesson from the book of the Magic. Build a team around three main players, not just one. The Magic made an awfully prescient decision by choosing Dwight Howard over Emeka Okafor in the 2004 NBA Draft. They also gave a controversial contract to Rashard Lewis. People wondered why they were willing to give him a big contract when he had no playoff experience. Hedo Turkoglu, who was brought in 2004, won the NBA Most Improved Player award last season and look at him now. The Magic also made a great draft choice in selecting Mikael Pietrus from France. Pietrus in this Eastern Conference Finals outscored the entire Cavaliers bench. The Magic even lost their All-Star point guard Jameer Nelson (another fine draft pick) and were able to overcome it by the trade for Rafer Alston in addition to the fine play of Courtney Lee, their 2008 first round selection. The Magic present difficult matchups for opponents. Lewis and Turkoglu are both 6'10'' and are knock down shooters. Dwight Howard is simply a monster in the middle who has finally learned how to use his size to his advantage.

The 2008-2009 Cleveland Cavaliers could go down as one of the biggest farces in NBA history. I myself always wondered how they were as good as they had been playing. I was one of the people who believed that the Cavaliers would win this series in five games, and we were all so wrong. The city of Cleveland will have to wait another year for its first championship in basketball, while the city of Orlando can look forward to adding its first championship versus the Los Angeles Lakers.

We Are All Witnesses...

Charlie Klein

Everyone will remember where they were when LeBron hit that shot. LeBron James hit a three point shot with time expiring to give the Cleveland Cavaliers a 96-95 win over the Orlando Magic last night in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

The silence inside the Quicken Loans was such that one could hear a pin drop after Hedo Turkoglu knocked down a running lay up with one second remaining on the clock.With seven seconds remaining on the shot clock with 13 seconds remaining in regulation, Cavalier Sasha Pavlovic fouled Turkoglu, which resulted in a fresh shot clock for the Magic and allowed them to take what everyone assumed would be the last shot of the game. The Magic bench celebrated like they had won the game, and at that moment, who among us was to deny them that expression of joy? That person was LeBron James.

With one second remaining, Cavalier Mo Williams inbounds the ball to James, who catches, and launches a three point shot attempt whose only imperfection was that it caught a slight touch from the rim before sending Cleveland into complete pandemonium. Williams described the discussion of who would get the ball, "Option B was LeBron,” he said. “Option C was LeBron. Option D was Big Game James.” Even James expressed admiration the shot, calling it "the biggest shot I’ve made in my career. To hit a shot like that at the buzzer, at home, wow."

At their postgame press conference the Orlando Magic did not have much to say. Magic center Dwight Howard, who himself has earned the nickname Superman, said "It’s a tough shot. I’m shocked that anybody would make that shot." Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said, "That one obviously hurts quite a bit. We should have defended it — I should have defended it — differently. Hedo did as good a job as anybody could do on that." What Van Gundy forgot is that one cannot guard against amazing.

James' shot drew comparisons to "The Shot" made by another 23 Michael Jordan which ended the Cavaliers' 1989 NBA Playoff run. James was clearly cognizant of the history he had made, commenting, "That guy’s not in the league anymore. The other 23 is on the good side now."