The Bulls' First Quarter: OK, you've got my attention

Needless to say, with a star player unlikely to play for a majority of the season, hopes have not been real high for the Bulls this season. Sure, the team sits atop the division at the moment, good enough for a fourth seed in the Eastern Conference if the playoffs were to start today. Still, as admirably as Chicago's effort might be on a nightly basis during what has arguable been the softer part of its schedule, there's little reason to believe that the Bulls will be much of a threat to the defending champion Heat, let alone several other "contenders" in the East.

While I was merely going to be content to note that Chicago is at least leading its division once again and not think much of it, Yahoo's Adrian Wojnarowski went and reported a little story this week that suddenly gives Bulls fans quite the reason to begin dreaming about ripping that championship window wide open. If Kevin Love indeed wants out of Minnesota, then it is awfully hard not to recall what team he was quoted as admiring last year.

While Love does not become a free agent for another two years, a suddenly disappointing Bears season provides the perfect time to begin speculating about all of the players we'd be willing to part with to acquire this All-Star forward (translation: everybody except Derrick Rose). The idea of having two 24-year-old players of that caliber on the same squad should be enough to make any fan excited.

The Bears' Third Quarter: So much for that optimism

So much for 10-2, or 13-3 for that matter. Indeed, the last time the Bears were being discussed on this blog, my confidence in the team was apparently riding a little too high. While I knew both Houston and San Francisco would be tough games, and admitted Seattle should not be overlooked, I can't really say I thought this particular quarter of the season would have gone worse than 2-2. Instead, there was but one lone victory over these past four games and Chicago now sits in second place in the NFC North.

Today's loss to Seattle was fairly devastating because now going 4-0 to finish the year is essentially the only way this team wins the division. Beyond that, a defense that had looked so stellar so much of the year looked winded, tired and, well ... old today.

The fourth quarter's success will more or less be determined by Green Bay. I know I also said something about how the Cardinals shouldn't be overlooked in that last quarterly post (I don't know why either), but assuming Chicago can beat Arizona and both of the other divisional foes that aren't the Packers, the playoffs should still be a real good possibility. Nothing is assured, of course—especially not the job of Lovie Smith.

There's going to be an awful lot of tough questions this week, which I'm sure will inevitably lead the head coach to be even more condescending toward the local media. Going forward from today, however, the pressure is on Lovie to get results. In the end, I'm thinking that an 11-5 finish should still be good enough to get into the playoffs, although I remain skeptical about this team playing too far into January.

PHOTO TAKEN FROM HERE.

Final Thoughts on 2012 MLB Season: Picking the right year to get married

Following a Division Series round that saw all four series go the maximum five games for the first time in history, the remainder of this year's MLB playoffs were rarely any sort of must-see television. The Yankees never really showed up for the ALCS, the Cardinals appeared to stop showing up for the NLCS some time after Game 4 and then the World Series was over almost as soon as it started. Along the way, there were only two exceptions to my predicting just about every series (or Wild Card game) incorrectly.

In the end, it is Bruce Bochy and the damned San Francisco Giants walking away as World Champions for the second time in three years. The team's story this season is a relatively remarkable achievement, considering that it lost All-Star hero, Melky Cabrera, in the middle of the season. Still, when the Dodgers went out and took a handful of big contracts off the books of the Boston Red Sox, San Fran stayed the course, walked away with the division, and twice came back from the brinks of elimination in the playoffs before sweeping away Detroit in the World Series. To their fans, it might not be as joyous as finally ending their long suffering just two years ago, but coming back from a 2-0 deficit in the NLDS before coming back from 3-1 in the NLCS could make this year's achievement just as memorable.

For this Braves fan, however, it's another year that ends in bitter disappointment. And just as Bobby Cox's final year ended sooner than we'd hoped two years ago, this season saw Chipper Jones' career come to a close just when there was hope that the team might play for at least a few more weeks. Considering the concern I had about what I might miss during the evening of my wedding, that game and the entire World Series in general this year seemed to be a bit of a snore. I suppose not every year can involve a seventh and deciding game, and if a quick finish has to happen, it might as well be the year when other things were garnering my attention.

This year will be remembered as the one in which the playoffs expanded once again, and while next year the teams with the better records will go back to hosting the opening games, I now get to bitch about Wild Card teams having but a single play-in game after 162 regular season contests. It strikes me as patently ridiculous, but the new format's supporters seem content to argue that my concerns can be avoided simply be winning a division. That may be true, but it still misses the point that baseball is not supposed to be a one-and-done type deal.

That debate will likely continue as long as baseball retains this playoff format, and I fear that eventually I will grow to accept the one-game playoff—probably just as soon as Atlanta is the beneficiary.

NOTE: PHOTOS TAKEN FROM HERE AND HERE

The Bears' Second Quarter: Now it gets hard

Barring a scare from an unlikely Panthers squad, the Bears arrived at the midway point with the 7-1 record that it was supposed to have. The pic used for the graphic (taken from this Tribune gallery) is a pretty indicative reason why, as the team's defense has consistently manufactured turnovers and points. This past Sunday's "contest" with the Titans became a laugh-out-loud affair rather quickly.

So is this team really the Super Bowl contender that I had pegged them to be at the beginning of this season? Well, not so fast.

After a pretty weak list of relatively sub-.500 competition in the first eight games, the final eight will prove just how seriously Chicago deserves to be taken. The 7-1 Texans I picked to win that Super Bowl will come to town this weekend, and then the Bears head out west to play 6-2 San Francisco. Then Minnesota and Seattle both come to town with 5-4 records at the moment. That's just the next quarter. The final four games involve all three division rivals and a trip to Arizona with what is the only club below .500 right now.

With Atlanta still undefeated after its first eight games and playing in the far less intimidating NFC South, home field advantage throughout seems like a stretch, but a first round bye could still be a possibility. Still, for what it's worth, with my best man and my mother-in-law both being Packer fans, I could not help but openly speculate that the Bears could very well lose both games to Green Bay this season and still win the division—or better still if one loss in particular cost them the North.

2012-13 NBA Predictions: Flip a coin—maybe a couple times, but not too many

The last time that the NBA was discussed here, I was basically accepting the possibility that we could be looking at a few years of seeing a Heat-Thunder Finals. In the off-season, the Lakers ended up making some of the splashiest of moves, boasting an intimidating starting five that thus made them immediate title contenders. For the hometown Bulls, Kirk Hinrich will be back this season, so ... the early predictions I've seen are predominantly have Miami, Los Angeles or Oklahoma City winning it all.

I'm late posting my own predictions for the season mostly because it tipped off the same week I was supposed to be honeymooning. (Seeing some of the devastation Sandy left, I'm not going to elaborate too much about the intended New England visit being canceled, as obviously we're fortunate—especially considering how well the actual wedding went.)

James Harden was traded to Houston the same night I got married, more or less making the Lakers even more likely to be favorites to emerge in the West this June. Miami, meanwhile, simply went out and got even stronger, swiping Ray Allen from Boston without losing any of its own stars or role players. All of that said, we've got some Thank You notes to be writing to many people for said wedding, so without much commentary, here's my picks for how this NBA season will unfold:

2012 World Series Prediction: The record of a predicted loser

The predictions tag is certainly the one used most often here. And with the occasional exception, the team that I pick to win whatever sports championship at the beginning of the year very rarely goes on to do so in any of the four major sports.

Curiously, the outcome that has turned out to occur far more frequently is my originally predicted runner-up emerging instead. In fact, there have been at least five times in the six-year history of this blog: last season's Miami Heat, both the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Los Angeles Lakers of the 2008-09 seasons, and perhaps most lovingly hoped for, the 2009-10 Chicago Blackhawks. 

The fifth, final and furthest runner-up that instead won it all was the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals. Coincidentally, that was also the same year of the last World Series appearance for the Detroit Tigers, the same team that I not only have picked to lose throughout this postseason, but also picked at the beginning of this year to be on the losing end of this final series of the year.

So it should be relatively clear what I'm really expecting to happen at this point. One of these years, I'll remember that everything that happened in baseball's regular season goes completely out the window at the start of the playoffs.

I should confess that I will likely miss a majority of this year's World Series, seeing as I'll be on my honeymoon. I may attempt to DVR it, although I can't really imagine that I'd actually watch entire games when I get home. Needless to say, I've obviously got plenty of other things on my mind right now—I mean, Jesus ... did you see how many winners and losers I forgot to color in for those years past?—so let me just get on with the inevitable and hope that if I catch any of these games, they're actually good ones.

2012 League Championship Series Predictions: Final Four of familiar faces

Unless you count the defending World Champion  Cardinals, most of the unlikeliest teams to make the playoffs this year saw their feelgood stories end in the Division Series. Considering that I bought into the whole charm of the surprising seasons of the Orioles, Athletics and Nationals, I was somewhat surprised that all three failed to advance. However, considering that all four Divisional Series went the maximum five games for the first time ever, I really can't complain. What we're left with offers some hope for continued great baseball, although I still doubt that I'll really have much of a team to feel genuinely happy for. You have the three teams that have won the last three World Series, leaving the Tigers as pretty much the only fanbase that's been deprived of recent success.

Maybe Detroit will invoke some more passionate enthusiasm from this particularly disappointed Braves fan in the next few weeks, but basically I'm presuming that it will not be so bad, after all, that I'm getting married the night of Game 3 of the World Series.

Final Thoughts on 2012 Atlanta Braves: Getting harder to build hopes up

This is an all-too-familiar sight, with an Atlanta legend heading for the showers one last time. Like Bobby two years ago, we're left feeling like another longtime Brave deserved so much better. And this year, that statement holds even more meaning because Chipper's final season ends in what I obviously felt—and probably feel even more strongly now—was a ridiculously cheap single elimination "playoff" game.

Furthermore, Jones should not be leaving after a game in which the fans that cheered him on for 19 seasons delayed the game for 19 minutes by littering the field with trash. Yes, the infield fly rule being ludicrously invoked in a key eighth inning play was utterly preposterous, and it unfortunately proved exactly what Chipper himself feared about the one-game Wild Card idea:

Now if you were to say the two wild-card teams will play a best two-out-of-three [series], I'd be OK with that. I think it's more fair from a standpoint that anything can happen in one game -- a blown call by an umpire, a bad day at the office … at least in a two-of-three game series you have some sort of leeway.

Still, it is important to remember that even had that call not been made, no runs would have been added for Atlanta. Rather, the Braves would have admittedly had another golden opportunity with the bases loaded and only one out. Considering that the team ended the night by leaving 10 men on base, scoring that inning was still no guarantee. Oh, and then there were the three errors. And when Jones made the first one, I had the feeling it was the start of something bad.

It appears that as a Braves fan, I'm developing a stronger sense for imminent disappointment.

2012 Division Series Predictions: Who's the favorite here?

There remains some bitterness and disappointment from the ending to the Braves season last night, but for a fan base so accustomed to such early exits in recent years, the playoffs go on as they always do. My initial World Series pick from the beginning of this year did not make the playoffs, but my runner-up did and I did, in fact, get two participants correctly matched up in this round. Overall, I got four of the six division winners correct here, with all four being pretty safe picks, in my mind (I suppose there were a good number of votes for St. Louis in the Central, but I digress). The remaining picks were generally as sad as they usually are with my track record of prognosticating any MLB season.

And that said, it won't stop me from venturing guesses about the remainder of this postseason. I no longer have a genuine rooting interest, but I'm relatively certain one will emerge rather quickly. A co-worker of mine is from Detroit, so the Tigers are in consideration. However, both Oakland and Baltimore are wonderful little underdog stories. I suppose the Nationals might be my least disliked team in the National League, although I already feel like I'd be bitter about any one of the four teams that isn't Atlanta winning it all.

Either way, the one thing that still keeps me excited is that this field strikes me as being wide open. Any one of these eight teams has as good a shot as any other, and no team strikes me as being unbeatable.

2012 Wild Card Playoff Predictions: One game is fucking stupid

Well, four major league teams have finished playing 162 games which involved countless series of three or four games over the past six months, and now it comes down to one game. Yep, sort of flies in the face of everything that baseball's about (Rotation depth? Whatever ...), but Bud Selig was so pleased with last year's thrilling finish to the regular season that he decided (NOTE: According to Ken Rosenthal, I stand corrected; Selig actually wanted the much better best-of-three format, but the 14 members of his Special Committee for On-Field Matters unanimously shot him down) to forcefully recreate it this year by adding one more team for each league in this year's playoffs with an idea that's bound to backfire in some future season. What happens when there's a tie for a division title or playoff spot, and a team has blown through its first two starters before a Division Series has even started?

For the time being, Selig looks fairly smart. Fans in many cities got to hold out a little more hope for a little longer than usual as this regular season came to a close. What happens today will leave two cities feeling rather justifiably shorted when the thrill of making the postseason ends in a single day. Fortunately for Selig, this year those cities will not be the louder voices in, say, New York or Boston.

I guess we will see how this goes tonight, and there's a strong possibility we could indeed see two highly thrilling contests that delight many a fan. However, as someone who has long felt that the Division Series needs to be extended to seven games, adding one more round with of even shorter length is adding mistakes upon errors. I'm already feeling sorry for the losers, although I've actually got a genuine rooting interest in this year's trial run, so that adds an element of possible personal pain too.

The Braves' Fourth Quarter: Feels a lot better than last year

I actually typed in that record when I first started toying with the graphic after the Braves clinched a postseason berth. Sure, I still held out hope that maybe Atlanta could steal the division, but the Nationals did not end up collapsing despite the high hopes many Braves fans had after the sweep of Washington in mid-September.

So while I absolutely hate the new single-game Wild Card format (and believe me, there will be plenty more griping about that in the next post), it's hard to complain when at least this year does not end with the conclusion of the regular season. I said in my predictions for the year that I thought Atlanta would be fighting Washington for third place, so you can imagine my surprise that both teams wound up jockeying for the top spot instead. (And let's not go into my World Series pick.)

I can't help but notice that this year's final fourth quarter graphic has many similarities to the one from two years ago. There's the team congratulating a hero at home plate after a wild win, and much like the final season of Bobby Cox then, we fans find ourselves hoping that the Braves can go out with a bang for the final year of Chipper Jones. Hopefully, this year's campaign stretches out much further than the 2010 playoff run.

The Bears' First Quarter: Some expectations met, others surpassed

After two straight years of tacking on some version of the "Better than expected" title to the first Bears quarterly update of the year, the 3-1 record is actually about where I expected them to be. Dallas was the only iffy spot in the first four games, but Chicago passed that test with flying colors.

If there is one aspect to the team that really is far, far better than I expected, it is most certainly the defense. After a couple of years of expressing concerns about how the age was going to begin showing, the Bears instead have one of the best defenses in the league at this point.

Now, as for that explosive offense many fans had been hoping for (and, dare I say, expecting), that still seems to be a work-in-progress. Again, there were encouraging signs last night against the Cowboys as Jay Cutler posted a passer rating above 140, Brandon Marshall was demonstrating why he should be considered a legitimate weapon and Matt Forte's injury wasn't as serious as many of us feared it might be.

Going forward, Chicago is in good position to be 7-1 at the midway point. The team plays four pretty beatable opponents in its next four games  (at Jacksonville, vs. Detroit, vs. Carolina, and at Tennessee). However, the Bears will need to take advantage of that stretch, because the second half of the year promises to be much, much more difficult. Still, for the time being, they are tied record-wise with the Vikings (!!!) for first place, although Minnesota holds the edge in divisional record right now.

2012 NFL Predictions: Other picks sure look a lot like 2011

Judging from initial predictions I've seen elsewhere, the Patriots and the Packers are once again predominant favorites to play one another in Super Bowl XLVII. It felt like I was oh-so-close last season when I also went with New England to win it all, albeit I had them playing a Saints team that certainly looked like a contender before falling to the upstart Niners in something of an instant classic.

Anyway, my gut tells me that there will almost certainly be a surprise or seven this year. Once again, it appears I will not be participating in a confidence pool, but I will be giving the bro-in-law's fantasy league another whirl. So commentary throughout the season is almost certainly going to be limited to the quarterly updates for a Bears team that many fans in Chicago have some understandably high hopes for.

How high are my hopes for that team? Well, seeing as many of the same predictions I've already seen have effectively declared the Bears to be a Wild Card team, I'm definitely optimistic. I made some improvement in predictions last year, but since I'm saying how other picks look remarkably similar, I'll try to take a chance or two with my own picks—probably not so much with division picks, but more so with playoff games.

The Braves' Third Quarter: Won't Get Ahead of Myself This Year

When the Braves passed this point last year, winning the division seemed far-fetched but a playoff berth seemed highly likely. And of course, we all know how that turned out. 

So this year, much to the surprise of this observer and many other, a division title is well within reach. Once again, Atlanta is atop the Wild Card race—albeit by a smaller lead than the team had last year. Still, there's also an extra playoff spot at stake. So, how confident should this Braves fan be?

Well, there's certainly a lot to like. Considering Atlanta is chasing a surprising Washington team that is supposedly going to be shutting down its phenom pitcher at some point before the race is over, I'm trying not to be satisfied with just a Wild Card berth. While Kris Medlen has seemingly come out of nowhere to become a near unhittable starter, the prospect of having to play a single-game playoff does not strike me as working in the Braves' favor. Hell, even a five-game series is a little risky. It seems as though Atlanta seems far better-equipped to win four games out of seven than three of five or the dreadful lone game that will determine who gets to move on to play a division winner.

It will be an extremely nerve-racking finish, I imagine. The photo used for the graphic was one I chose from perhaps the best victory the team has had this year, an astonishing comeback from a 9-0 deficit against the Nats in July that represents the sort of never-say-die attitude a fan would hope the Braves can summon again as they finish the year. That 11-10 victory was a remarkable feat, for sure, and the sort of win that one would hope the team is looking back on fondly and citing as a moment they came to believe they could still be playing in October rather than thinking about other games that got away.

At the moment, Atlanta is one of four teams within about two games of one another for those two additional playoff spots. Still, keeping last year in mind, the number of contenders doubles if you don't rule out the clubs within 10 or so games. So are the playoffs still possible? Sure. But I'm not assuming anything's a given by any means.

Who knows, maybe the Marlins I originally picked to win this year's World Series will turn it around and surprise everybody. OK ... maybe some things are safe to assume.

Final Thoughts on 2011-12 NBA Season: Obligatory Post No. 2

Alas, the long national nightmare is over and a member of Michigan University's famed "Fab Five" has finally won an NBA Championship. So congratulations are in order to you, Mr. Juwan Howard. You finally did it and this is truly your moment. Good show.

Oh, and maybe some other guys. Total team effort, of course.

***DEEP BREATH***

Look, this year could be a difficult one for a lot of Bulls fans to accept because for so long throughout this season, there were moments when many fans wanted to believe Chicago could win a seven-game series against Miami in this year's playoffs. And we waited and we waited all year long before every hope was disintegrated in the closing moments of the very first game of the playoffs. Brutal. Championship window closed significantly, if not entirely.

The playoffs continued nonetheless, and while many of us once again were seduced by the seeming superiority of the basketball being played in the Western Conference, the Oklahoma City followed up their Game 1 Finals win with absolutely no answer for LeBron or any other Heat role player for the next four games. Oh, Miami-OKC sure could be a marvelously entertaining conclusion to future postseasons too in the tradition of Lakers-Celtics, but this year ended up being a little too one-sided. Despite the laughable-in-retrospect scares from Indiana and Boston, Miami took charge in this year's NBA Finals and let the Thunder play the part of the heartbroken.

Again, this was the Finals most people had at the beginning of this year, and I resisted ... probably in part to hold out hope for the beloved Bulls. Going forward, however, I assume Heat-Thunder now becomes not just the Finals I will more than likely join in predicting, but maybe also wanting to see in the sense that there's two legitimate superstars now competing on the highest level in LeBron and Kevin Durant. Derrick Rose, bless his knee, will need some help to enter that conversation.

Ultimately, when you consider that we weren't entirely certain that the season was ever going to even tip off, the Heat-Thunder Finals provided all the more reason to believe that the future for the league is probably going to continue to get brighter and brighter.

Final Thoughts on 2011-12 NHL Season: Obligatory Post No. 1

Seeing as it's July, I should probably go ahead and bang out these two usual footnotes to the conclusions of the winter sports seasons. I'll start off with the Los Angeles Kings, since they wrapped up their title first.

The picture to the right there is probably one of the most wonderful little reasons to feel genuinely happy for this team. The other, however, is simply the fact that they went out there and flat-out fucking earned it. Seriously. New Jersey deserves some credit for winning as many games as the entire Western Conference did against L.A. in the previous three rounds, but the Kings seriously just went out there and took the damn thing.

Ordinarily, yes, I generally loathe pretty much any sports championship team that comes out of Hell-A. The Kings, however, are not the Dodgers nor the Lakers. As demonstrated by the local media's screwing up such basic concepts as the team's logo to how to pronounce a star's name to forgetting the last time the team made it this far, there is some temptation to think "they don't really deserve it." The "they" being the residents that were just now getting word of the bandwagon. No, Chicago never had any of those.

In the end, however, how can a Hawks fan not be happy for Daryl Sutter? And how can you not appreciate the way the entire club played right from the beginning of every game. The Kings took the first three games of each best-of-seven series in all four rounds. There was rarely a moment they didn't seem to be completely controlling the puck. And during those moments that they were on the defense, then how can you not look at Jonathan Quick's play and want a goalie like that playing for your favorite team?

There is no denying that for the longest time, I've wanted an eight-seed to win it all. It reinforces that belief that anything's possible in the NHL playoffs, but I never would have expected an eight-seed to do it quite like the Kings just did. That was a level of dominance that you would normally expect from the top teams.

Moreover, the Kings winning the Cup might also send a message to certain general managers about taking gambles during the season. Kings GM Dean Lombardi called his trade deadline acquisition of Jeff Carter a "Hail Mary," and it won him the Cup. 

As for the prediction records, James Murphy and John Buccigross, both from ESPN, finished with records of 10-5, although Murphy had four series this postseason predicted in the exact number of games while Buccigross only did that once. I, meanwhile, had pretty much the opposite score, going 5-10 with only one "exacta" for another year of really awful predicting on my part.

The Braves' Second Quarter: Hanging Around

It looks as though I have some catching up to do here, so I'll quickly touch on how things are going for the Bravos. While I had predicted this would be a third-place ball club at the beginning of the year, the teams they're chasing are completely different from what I had originally anticipated. And seeing as we're at the halfway point now, the usual looming trade deadline moves are being considered by multiple teams around the league. The Braves are certainly in contention for one of those playoff spots, so where might Atlanta be looking to improve?

With Brandon Beachy now being shut down for the year to undergo Tommy John surgery, that more or less nullifies the currently division-leading Nationals (!) having to ultimately sit down Steven Strasburg. With Miami dealing for Carlos Lee, that fourth place team's dealing shows that there's still some fighting expected in the East.

The second quarter for the Braves was a pretty tough one, as the team fell behind Washington and New York. Atlanta remains within shouting distance, but has really been struggling to get back atop the division. While Dan Uggla will be starting at second base for the National League in the All-Star Game (and has been widely considered to be undeserving of the selection), Brian McCann is missing out for the first time since he came into the league and both Chipper Jones and Michael Bourn (both of whom seemed to be worthier than Uggla) lost out on the fan vote for the extra spot (eventually given to the Cardinals' David Freese).

The team retired John Smoltz's jersey number in what will probably be the second-to-last ceremony of this type for a couple years (I'm thinking Chipper will get honored at some point next season), but the question that remains is whether fans are going to be getting something that has unfortunately become a lot less frequent than it used to be: postseason baseball.

NBA Finals Prediction: "Look at these fucking hipsters ..."

I believe I was one of perhaps like four people who did not initially predict that Miami would be meeting Oklahoma City for the NBA Championship this season (see here ... or here, for example), and I attribute that reluctance to the doubts I had about the Thunder. Talented as all hell, sure, but still need another year or two of coming up short before they get to the Finals. Or so I thought.

Most of us who are not still blinded by the rage caused by the debacle known as "The Decision" can admit that LeBron James has arguably been the best player in the league for a number of seasons now, but these playoffs have allowed another player to possibly take over that title along with the Larry O'Brien Trophy: Kevin Durant.

While I typically say how the NHL playoffs are more entertaining than the NBA playoffs right around this time of year (or so it seems), this year has indeed provided some quite stellar basketball the past few weeks. It is now only appropriate that it come down to the Heat and the Thunder.

Just to be clear, Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals pulled in the highest rating ever for an NBA game on cable, and now with this level of starpower for all the marbles, we're talking about possibly the highest ratings of this century.

NHL Stanley Cup Final Prediction: In which the lowest seed ever wins the Cup

And so it comes to this. Had you asked me to write down all the possible head-to-heads for the Stanley Cup when these playoffs began and then order them in descending likelihood, I have to wonder how far this would have been from the bottom. I'd like to believe it would be closer to the middle somewhere, but I can say with tremendous certainty that it definitely would have ranked fairly low at the beginning of this season.

You're usually lucky if you get one Cinderella in the Final, and here we've technically got two.

The Devils were definitely a stronger kind of a six-seed, seeing as they did still finish the year with more than 100 points and were sort of a universal favorite to beat the Panthers in the first round. Still, very few people had them getting much further than that, let alone play in the last series of the year.

And the Kings? They had their handfuls of believers in those first two rounds before a clear majority caught on that they've been in a different gear ever since this postseason started. It's not the series many of us were expecting, but that sure as hell doesn't mean it won't be interesting.

NBA Playoff Confrence Finals Predictions: Another edition of Age & Wisdom v. Youth & Explosiveness

In the quest to crown a new NBA Champion, we are down to the final four teams. And while the Heat are certain to command a lot of attention just by still being around, the series that is likely going to feel more like the "must-see" television will be the Western Conference Finals. Indeed, I did want to use this image to indicate the marquee matchup that we're looking at, but the truth is that the Spurs and the Thunder are more than just one-dimensional teams. All four teams really are, although Miami's two at this point is barely an exception.

Anyway, the Thunder had been predominant favorites to win the West throughout the season, but it now appears that with Spurs still waiting to experience their first loss in these playoffs, many of us are acknowledging that San Antonio has reasonably established its legitimacy as the team to beat. Can the Thunder live up to their young potential? Or will the Spurs' wily veterans prove that with age comes wisdom?

Before we get to my own picks, I actually had time to compile a few other records of predictions thus far in these playoffs.

Final Thoughts on 2011-12 Chicago Blackhawks and 2011-12 Chicago Bulls: Where it all fell apart

The hopes were oh-so-high, and they came crashing down oh-so-quickly. All too quickly. As this little graphic demonstrates, it's an eerily similar pattern to the fates of three Chicago teams this past year, and for this fan, it hurts a little more when you recall that the Atlanta Braves imploded and lost a postseason berth on the final day of the regular season.

Oh, sure. Maybe I should have broken these two teams in separate posts, but really, the endings for both teams arrived much sooner than expected, separated only by a couple weeks. One set of hopes ended in April while the other's were extinguished in May when there were once again notions both could be playing in June. Two first round exits for both Chicago clubs, and now the question that needs to be asked is, "Will either one is going to be any closer to a championship next season?"

Sure, we could sit here and harp about the injustice of having to watch some thug knock the Blackhawks' top scorer out for the remainder of the playoffs on yet another unquestionable cheap shot. Or we could bemoan what might have been had the Bulls not lost both Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah, but again, what might have been or what was supposed to be is rather pointless now. You have to wonder whether these teams are going to be considered contenders when next year begins.

The Braves' First Quarter: Encouraging signs?

I guess if something's going to dull the still healing wound that is both the Blackhawks and Bulls being eliminated much earlier than I'd anticipated, it might as well be good news about the Braves. Last year's disappointing finish began a pretty painful series of finishes to the respective campaigns from the Four Bs. So perhaps we're all due for a new cycle.

I don't want to get too far ahead of myself, but it is important to remember that there are now two wild cards for the postseason, so sitting in first place after the first 41 games is certainly a good place to be. Still, my preseason picks to get into the playoffs from this division are currently in the bottom two spots instead, but I highly doubt that will stand for all that much longer. Nonetheless, the Braves rebounded quite nicely from starting the year 0-4 by winning something like 10 of their next 11.

It is largely a surprise to me that the it's the team's offense that has been propelling the success more than the pitching. The picture for this quarter's graphic comes from a wild win that happened the night of my birthday, no less. It was a wild back-and-forth with the Phillies that ended with Chipper hitting an 11th inning walk-off homer. If Atlanta continues to produce runs at this rate and the pitching indeed becomes more solid, then who's really to say what the limit is?

If the Braves can stay healthy, it certainly appears they can stay in the playoff conversation too.

NHL Stanley Cup Playoff Conference Finals Predictions: It's funny because I thought I couldn't do worse than last year

Sure enough, I did not get a single one of my picks right last round. While I have not been keeping up with the picks of others as diligently as I used to in the past, judging what I glanced at, it's not as though I'm the only one who did not foresee the first two rounds of the NHL playoffs unfolding like this.

The top-seeded New York Rangers have to be feeling pretty good about living up to the hype so far, and indeed the team's fans have to like the remaining competition. However, I've been among the many who've been fooled into thinking somebody's going to start lighting up Jonathan Quick and Mike Smith, the two goalies pictured in this post, sooner or later. So far, we've all been totally wrong and, as a result, when two of the best goalies in these playoffs meet in the Western Conference Finals, the winner's team won't just be playing for the Stanley Cup, but the winning goaltender will very likely be accepting the Conn Smythe.

It's been one of those rare years where every seeming underdog goes out and proves us observers and prognosticators wrong, but just for shits & giggles ...

Round Two NBA Playoffs Predictions: Suddenly less fun than previous round

The first round of the NBA Playoffs is not yet over, but the second round has already gotten underway. So I'll have to take a moment off from moping about the Bulls' bad fortune (and uncertain future) to begin making predictions for that next round.

No sense in being all salty, as surely I'll get some solid basketball viewing enjoyment from some other city's teams at some point here in the next couple weeks. In all honesty, it seems logical to assume that only another pair of catastrophic injuries to critical players can stop the Miami Heat from once again representing the Eastern Conference in this year's Finals. As for the West, well ... I'm still not so sure. Essentially between the top two seeds, but the possibility of that Western Conference Finals matchup is enticing.

Still, who's to say what can happen now? The eighth-seeded Philadelphia 76ers advanced despite being a pretty bad basketball team with a half-full arena, so maybe the clock has not yet struck midnight for that Cinderella (albeit one pretty ugly Cinderella). Maybe something in this round will have me less bitter come the start of the next one.

The Bulls' Fourth Quarter: Gosh, what could possibly go wrong?

Hey, look ... I'm not going to lie. The Bulls' regular season ended weeks ago and with today being the first Sunday in May, the team unbelievably might have a Final Thoughts column coming much sooner than expected. And if it happens within the next couple weeks here, as long as I'm behind, I might as well combine the Final Thoughts for both the Bulls and the Blackhawks into one post, because they're goddamn splitting images of disappointment. Welcome to summer, Chicago!

Realistically, every single time I have taken time out to focus on what the Bulls' record was at the quarter-marks of this shortened season, the question was always the same: Are they really going to be able to beat the Heat? Same question all year long.

So with the Bulls having indeed secured home with an impressive 50-16 record for the regular season, how was I feeling as we entered the playoffs? No more confident than I did last year, hence, the chosen image of the fingers (taken from here). Sure, the Sixers sounded like a far more favorable matchup than the Knicks in the first round, and maybe even the Pacers could be a bit more of a thorn in the side for Miami in the second round. 

But realistically, the team sort of stumble a bit in April to close out the year. Not only did the Bulls drop a game to the hated Heat, but they also got positively blown out by Oklahoma City, the likely team in waiting even if Chicago somehow got by Miami. 

Such talk of hypothetical Finals matchups is now, of course, silly. But they were fun to entertain back when, you know, the playoffs hadn't started yet.

Round Two NHL Stanley Cup Playoff Predictions: Favorites Fall So Soon

So, much like those NBA picks I just published, thoughts and commentary here will be forthcoming. Same goes for how everyone has fared on their picks thus far, but for now, we'll just get to an overall recap of my predictions for this next round.

Round One NBA Playoffs Predictions: Let the real Heat-hating begin

After managing to throw together a 66-game regular season, the playoffs have finally arrived. Seeing as I'm trying to post these picks from the middle of Futt Buck, Texas, (on my phone, no less) thoughts will be non-exsistent this round. I still have to post the NHL picks too, after all.

Round One NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs Predictions: Can't talk, hockey (for the next two or so months)

Yeah, so I would normally include the couple paragraphs build-up before the jump and then go to the graphics to accompany the picks, but I'm strapped for time right now and ... well, there was a little additional work that prevented me from offering the usual take on each series I was predicting the outcome for, but I would say that the picks this year were definitely on the safer side. Indeed, I couldn't bring myself to go against any of the teams that had more points in the regular season, so there's two predicted outcomes with lower seeds that, more or less, everybody else is picking.

So far, that logic is not looking especially sound, albeit only a game or two into any series. Still, probably because this is the first time in many years that I am living in a house with cable (or maybe because of the additional coverage provided by NBC's new channel, formerly known as Versus), the playoffs have effectively captured my undivided attention. This past Thursday night, with two opening games going into overtime—at the same time the Bulls and Heat were about to go into overtime—was an unbelievably thrilling night to be playing with the remote. And I have been—and likely, will be—staying up until damn near midnight watching the late games on the west coast. I never caught "March Madness," but I can't seem to shake whatever the hell I've got now.

The Blackhawks' Fourth Quarter: A six seed never felt so good

You know, if I'm looking back on these quarterly graphics many years down the road, I might wonder why I had an image of a celebratory Patrick Kane when the team had finished fourth in the division. Was that good enough to make the playoffs that year? I might wonder. There's probably going to be a wee bit of outcry for the league to change how they determine postseason seedings after how things turned out this year. Or maybe Gary Bettman will be able to use this as leverage to get the players union to reconsider that realignment deal. Or maybe nothing will change.

I'm almost certainly still going to be talking about this throughout the playoffs—of which, the Blackhawks, thankfully, will be a part. Despite that hideous purple tint to the record, that's still a 101-point team. Better yet, they completed this last quarter of the year completely without their captain, who's likely returning just in time for the first round of the playoffs.

And the weirdest thing of all is that I actually rooted for this near the end of the year. With the "Where-the-fuck-did-THEY-come-from" Blues clearly in line to win the division and the Predators comfortably locked into that apparent four-spot, why in the world wish for a first-round matchup with the team the Hawks lost four of six to this year—especially when you can have Detroit do that instead? Nashville would have been a disastrous opening round opponent, but instead Chicago draws the much more favorable matchup with Phoenix. Sure, fourth is a helluva lot lower than I had this team finishing when I made picks at the beginning of the year, but all things considered, it does not seem out of the question for this team to still make a legitimate run at the Cup.