What a shocker this season Eastern Conference has been with the six game ousting of the number one seed Chicago Bulls by the eighth seed Philadelphia 76ers.  Even without the presence of their stars Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah, the Bulls still had a strong enough roster to take the series; however, the players that needed to step up--namely Loul Deng, Carlos Boozer, Rip Hamilton and CJ Watson--refused to show up resulting in the Sixers to pull off the surprising upset.  Much credit has be given to the Sixers considering the fact that their roster is little or nothing ton speak of with no real go to players nor the greatest offensive executing team either.  The Sixers will be facing another team that many had given up for dead in the Boston Celtics and it will certainly be a war as both teams are known for their heady and physical defensive play--expect seven ugly low scoring games in this series.

The other Eastern Conference Semi-final will be a real crowd-pleaser as it will feature the uptempo style of the Miami Heat against the strong and physically imposing Indiana Pacers.  The Heat will certainly not be able to roll over the Pacers as they did to the New York Knicks.  In the first round Miami simply abused New York to the point that it was not even fun to watch the games any more.  I had the faint hope that New York would pull off the upset citing the historial facts that the Heat had never beaten the Knicks in a playoff series and the last time they faced each other, it was also a shortened lockout season and Miami was the top seed while the Knicks barely reached the eighth spot.  So there was a little nostalgia when I chose the Knicks to upset the Heat, but Miami  soon just swept those dreams away by simply squashing New York.

Both match-ups will prove to be quite the doozies as they will showcase four of the grittiest and toughest teams in the league.  It will be anybody's series as pound for pound, player for player all four teams match up with each other rather well meaning that seeding does not mean anything now.  Philly proved that by beating the team with the league's best record as well well as Boston did beating the Atlanta Hawks who won two more games than they did in the regular season.   So prepare yourself for some real no holds barred knuckle down drag out fights as only two teams will survive.  here's my take on what will happe



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