The NBA playoffs get started on Saturday afternoon. To set the tone, TheSportsNotebook is running a Tale of the Tape of all 16 teams in the field. Or, to be more precise, we’re running a concise summation of each team’s tale of the tape, so you can read a summary of what they’re about and who they do it with, rather than wading through statistical data.
We’re in the final hours before the beginning of the 2012 NBA Playoffs. TheSportsNotebook has spent the last two days previewing all eight first-round matchups. Today we tie it all together. Below are links to each preview post. In parentheses next to each team are the Las Vegas odds for each on making it the Finals and winning the championship. And while TheSportsNotebook has already made picks on each of the first-round series, here’s my last call on who’s going to win the whole thing…
A year ago Dallas went through Oklahoma City in the NBA’s Western Conference Finals, as the Mavericks claimed their first championship. Now it’s Thunder who have great expectations this spring, seeded second in the West, but a familiar foe is awaiting them in the 2-7 spot on the draw. Dallas visits OkC on Saturday to begin their first round series, and TheSportsNotebook previews the matchup…
Memphis and the LA Clippers will meet in the first round of the NBA’s Western Conference playoffs, slotted in the 4-5 bracket, with the Grizzlies holding homecourt advantage. TheSportsNotebook previews what looks like the best matchup of the opening round…
San Antonio and Utah are on the opposite ends of the NBA’s Western Conference bracket, but each come into the playoffs on a roll. The Spurs have won nine straight coming into Thursday night’s meaningless game against Golden State and passed Oklahoma City for the top seed in the West. Utah, after falling three games below .500 at the end of February, found their footing and delivered a four-game win streak as a finishing spurt, including an overtime win over Dallas and a clutch win over Phoenix this week that nailed down the last playoff spot. Now the Spurs and Jazz are dance partners in the 1-8 spot of the West playoffs, and TheSportsNotebook previews the matchup…
The NBA doesn’t offer the same hopes for Cinderella darkhorse postseason runs that college basketball does—unless you want to count Dallas winning it last year as the #3 seed in the West, which is about as big as a shock as you usually get. But the last time a compressed schedule was played was in 1999 and that was a year when everything blew up in the playoffs, and the 8th-seeded New York Knicks made the Finals. So perhaps we should pay attention to those races at the bottom for the last playoff berths and the jousting in the middle for homecourt advantage in the opening round.