Round Two NBA Playoff Predictions: Suddenly Great Expectations

While basketball has been perhaps my least favorite of the four major sports for quite some time now, I cannot deny that 2014 has thus far provided probably the most competitive and watchable games of any year I can remember. In addition to a surprisingly entertaining NCAA Tournament in March, this first round of the NBA Playoffs—typically little more than a four teams sleepwalking into the next round—offered up no less than six must-see series of nail-biting, buzzer-beating action. While I went a respectable 6-2 on my picks for the last round, I wasn't even close on the number of games any of the series would last (oh, sorry ... except for Bulls-Wizards, where I was on the money but had the winner wrong).

With the exception of Miami's polite routing of Charlotte, I could have very easily gone 1-7 instead. As it turned out, five underdogs fell just short after forcing a Game 7. I remain glued to the Stanley Cup Playoffs every passing night, but I cannot deny that I have been keeping a far more watchful eye on the NBA than I have in years past. This has been a remarkable start to the playoffs, and I can only assume that it is about to take another step up to offer even more compelling and astonishing finishes over the next two weeks. 

These picks of mine are presented in a sort of descending order of confidence, but really, I've got my doubts about all of the outcomes at this point. If you had the complete opposite for all four, I wouldn't put up too much of an argument.:

Washington Wizards over Indiana Pacers in six games

All year long, I was saying how you could just wake me when it was Pacers-Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals. And yet, here we are with me fighting the temptation to predict that the top seed in the conference will be ousted by the upstart Wizards in, say, five game. Indiana struggled to get past an Atlanta Hawks team that had a worse regular season record than teams in the Western Conference that didn't even make the playoffs. So you can only imagine the trouble they're bound to have with a Washington team that quickly humbled the otherwise heavily-favored Bulls in the first round. Indiana showed some solid defense in their Game 7 victory over Atlanta, but the offense throughout the series was woeful. The team chemistry is sorely lacking, whereas the Wizards have a healthy attack inside and out with athletic big men and some sharp-shooting guards. I've been waiting for about a month for the Pacers to snap back into the dominant form they showed in the first month of the season, but I give up. They'll be dancing in the streets in DC.

Miami Heat over Brooklyn Nets in seven games

Let us make no mistake here that the defending champions seemed to flip their proverbial switch right at the outset of the first round. However, we also need to keep in mind that was the Bobcats. Brooklyn owned Miami in the regular season, winning all four meeting, but I just wrote in the Final Thoughts for the Bulls how regular season results should have no bearing on playoff success. I think certain aspects of the Nets' success can carry over into the postseason, as Brooklyn has enough experience and weapons to possibly exploit some areas where the Heat might be vulnerable. Kevin Garnett and the surprising Mason Plumlee could give Miami problems in the paint, and Paul Pierce has a tendency to shine in the playoffs (although LeBron has not lost to a Pierce-led team since 2010). Still, I am not convinced that the aging stars on the Nets are anywhere near what they were in their prime. And even if Dwayne Wade isn't 100 percent, that doesn't bode well for a series in which they're trying to derail a team led by the best player in the game. I've gone back and forth on the six or seven game length of this series before settling on the max, but either way I'm still expecting the champs to live to fight another day.

San Antonio Spurs over Portland Trail Blazers in seven games

I didn't give Portland enough credit, and they've got more than enough guys on their squad to give the Spurs a helluva series. At the same time, San Antonio's outright dominance in the Game 7 thrashing of the Mavericks was a reminder that those aging Spurs are not going to be an easy out for anybody. Much like the Wizards, the Blazers have a potent combo of size in the post and capable shooters on the outside. This matchup is going to be a very good test to see if San Antonio would be able to keep up with whichever other team advances to the Western Conference Finals. In the end, I suspect that the Spurs will advance thanks largely to their superior defense. Damian Lillard may forever be considered a hero in Portland for his game-ending, series-clinching three-pointer that beat the Rockets, but he'd be wise not to get too full himself and shoot the Blazers right out of this series. You can bet that San Antonio would be more than willing to oblige and let him do so.

Los Angeles Clippers over Oklahoma City Thunder in seven games

No fucking idea. Seriously. I can't be satisfied either way. Even as I type this now, I'm thinking of reasons I should remove that Clippers logo and replace it with the Thunder one. Namely, the matchups favor Oklahoma City, with presumed MVP Kevin Durant having perhaps the most favorable. However, it's going to be interesting to see how often OKC employs a small ball game to keep up with L.A.'s high-scoring offense, considering DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin will be very real obstacles. The factor that ultimately convinces me to pick Los Angeles is the same one that led me to pick against them the past couple years: coaching. Doc Rivers is a vast improvement over Vinny Del Negro, and he's head and shoulders above Scott Brooks. In any tightly-contested game, I'm willing to bet that Rivers is the one who's capable of drawing up smart plays that win his team games, as opposed to Brooks, whose playbook almost always seems to end up with the ball ending up in Durant's hands and hoping he'll make something happen. It is extremely likely that this will be the most thrilling of all four series in this round and I wouldn't be surprised if all seven games were decided by single digits.