Color me bright red with embarassment as I was forced to eat a lot of crow watching the first round of the NBA Western Conference Playoffs.  I had the top seeded San Antonio Spurs failing yet again to live up to expectations and fall yet again to an eighth seed--namely the Utah Jazz; however I had the unfortunate luck of the Jazz playing the entire series like a deer stuck in headline and the spurs just running over them.  I also figured that since the Dallas Mavericks beat the Oklahoma City Thunder last season that the Mavs would have the advantage since they knew what to do to stop the Thunder's offense.  How was I supposed to know that after two close losses on the road that the Mavericks will simply just crumble and just give the series away of their own front court?  The same went for the Los Angeles Clippers/ Memphis Grizzlies series: I could not believe that a team that had so may big bodies to prevent transition layups and two of the league's best back court defenders in Tony Allen and Mike Conley could get manhandled by a Clippers team that essentially functions through two players--Blake Griffin and Chris Paul.

The only series I got correct was the one between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Denver Nuggets, but that one was a little too close for comfort.  L.A should have closed out the Nuggets in game five and had plenty of opportunities despite shooting rather poorly and with Denver making so many mistakes that allowed them to keep it close each and every time.  Unfortunately, the Lakers lost that game, which was played on their own home court by the way, head back to Denver where they subsequently got beaten and had to go back home to play a deciding game 7.  Although the Lakers ended up winning the series, it was not in any ways in splendid fashion considering they took on one of the worst defensive teams in the league.  That one series, at least, did not make look like a complete fool as for starters I  still do not have neither the Spurs nor the Thunder reaching the Conference Finals so at least I still have a chance of my post season predictions coming to fruition.

Here is my take on what will go down in the second round and hopefully, these will come to fruition and I will be later redeemed as a result.


(This is just an excerpt of a much more detailed piece. Click here to finish reading this post and so much more on JT's Hoops Blog)