The 82 game regular season wrapped up on Wednesday night and starting this Saturday, April 17th the second season begins. Eight teams will begin play for the right to represent the East in the NBA Finals. The following is a brief look at each team along with their current odds to win the conference.
Cleveland has been the class of the Eastern Conference all season long. They finished the regular with the best record in the league at 61-21 including a 35-6 record at home. Led by Lebron James, who is almost a shoe-in to win another MVP award for this season’s performance, they are once again the odds-on-favorite to represent the East in the NBA finals.
Orlando won the Southeast division and earned the second seed in the East with a record of 59-23. Unlike the Cavaliers, they did not rest their players down the stretch and finished the season by winning nine out of their last 10 games. Their leading scorer(18.3 points) and rebounder (13.2 rebounds), Dwight Howard along with Vince Carter and Jameer Nelson lead a very potent attack that is more than capable of winning the East for the second year in a row.
Atlanta Hawks 10-1
Atlanta battled the Magic all season long for the division title, but ended up six games back with a record of 53-29. Securing the third seed guarantees them home court advantage for the first two rounds which plays to their strengths considering they were 34-7 at home and just 19-22 on the road. Joe Johnson is the team’s leading scorer, averaging 21.3 points per game and Al Horford is their big man underneath, averaging almost 10 rebounds per game.
The over-the-hill gang proved that they still have some gas left in the tank by compiling a 50-32 record to lock up the fourth seed. Led by Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, and Kevin Garnett, they will have to rely heavily on their playoff experience to make a deep run in this year’s postseason. Along with Rajon Rondo, they still have enough talent to give any team a scare, but will need everyone playing at a high level just to get by the Heat in a very difficult first round match-up.
Miami Heat 40-1
Miami is not getting any respect from the odds makers in this tournament, but they come into the postseason as one of the hottest teams in the league. They finished the year with a 47-35 record, but they are 9-1 in their last 10 games and playing as well as anyone right now. One of the main reasons for this recent success has been the elevated play of Dwyane Wade. He finished the year averaging 26.6 points and 6.5 assists per game and is the main reason the Heat ended up as the fifth seed.
With the addition of John Salmon, formally with Chicago, the Bucks were able to turn their season around and ended up making a strong push towards the playoffs. In his 30 games with Milwaukee he has averaged 19.9 points per game to lead the team. With a solid supporting cast that includes rookie Brandon Jennings, the Bucks should be able to give Atlanta a run for their money in the first round.
Not too many people are giving Charlotte a chance in their first round match-up against Orlando, but one thing that head coach Larry Brown brings to this team is wealth of playoff experience and the ability to get his players ready to play. Stephen Jackson and Gerald Wallace will have to carry the load for the Bobcats, but if they get some solid production from the rest of the roster they may be able to steal a game or two on the road against the Magic.
It took Chicago all 82 games to seal a place in these playoffs, but none the less they are in as the eighth seed. They finished with a record of 41-41, one game ahead of Toronto. Unfortunately as a prize they get to face a well rested LeBron James in the first round. Last year they were able to take Boston to seven games before losing in an unbelievably exciting first round series, but something tells me that will not be the case this year.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.