Playoff Time, Now We're Going To Show You How the East Coast Rocks

[Da Boss DJ Jo Corleone]

It’s about to be on, starting this Saturday. Ladies and gentleman it’s been a long season, but finally the NBA Playoffs are upon us. Going into this weekend some of the seeds are already set, and this year promises to be one of the most exciting playoffs in the history of the NBA.

The Cleveland Cavaliers clinched home court advantage through out the playoffs, Monday night with a 117-109 win over the Indiana Pacers and improved to 66-15 on the season. Now the Cavs are looking to end the season with a tie for best home record in a season, at 41-1, before the playoffs start. Does this record and home court advantage guarantee a NBA championship for the city of Cleveland? Honestly not yet.

Three things have to be considered when talking about Cleveland winning it all. First off, will they have to play Orlando (58-23) or Boston (60-20) in the playoffs? If it’s Orlando it could be a great 7 game series, and luckily for Cleveland they’ll have home court. Orlando owns the regular season series match up 2-1, including a 116-87 win at Orlando, earlier this month. The bottom line is Orlando matches up extremely well against Cleveland, with Rashard Lewis big enough to guard Lebron James on the perimeter, and Dwight Howard holding down the paint in case King James flies by Lewis. Ben Wallace is back for the Cavs, which will help defensively, but it’ll take a lot more than Big Ben to help match the Magic offensively just in case King James is neutralized.

Another point to consider is how healthy and effective will Kevin Garnet be, in case the Celtics have to face Lebron. Last year it took Boston all 7 games, and having home court advantage to put away the Cavs. K.G. came back for a few games this season, and then went back to the injury list leaving many people to wonder just how serious his injury really is. If Garnet doesn’t play or isn’t close to 100 percent then the Celtics will really need the luck of the Irish to advance back to the NBA Finals.

The last thing to think about with the Cavs is the matchup against the western conference favorite Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers are the only team to sweep Cleveland during the regular season, and they’re the only team to beat the Cavs on their own floor. That’s right Cleveland’s only home lost was at the hands of the Lakers. People also like to throw the return of Andrew Bynum in the mix, which you absolutely have to, but Bynum only scored 14 points and had six rebounds in the Lakers home win against Cleveland. By the time the finals come around Bynum will be back to form, but please believe the veteran bigs that consist of Big Ben, Anderson Varejao, and Zydrunas Ilgauskas will have plans of their own.

Cleveland, Boston, and Orlando are the top 3 teams in the east, but the teams at the bottom will pose a threat to these teams trying to advance. At number 4 we still have the Atlanta Hawks (46-34) facing Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat (42-38). Atlanta owns the regular season series 2-1, and Wade has cooled off a little bit as of late. Unfortunately for the Hawks, D. Wade cooled off can still go for 30 points easily, but can the rest of the Heat keep pace with Joe Johnson and the Hawks.

Chicago, the current number 3 team, poses a threat to Orlando in the first round. Orlando owns the regular season series 3-1, but Chicago has grown up, and improved since the beginning of the season. Derrick Rose is playing like a veteran and the addition of John Salmons, and Brad Miller has been a major upgrade for the Bulls.

If K.G. isn’t up to 100 percent then their first series against the Philadelphia 76ers could be a real tune up before going to the next round where they may have to face the Heat or the Hawks, a team that pushed them to 7 games in last year’s first round matchup.

Surprisingly the match up that usually intrigues the basketball world may be a quick four game sweep this year. The matchup between #1 Cleveland and the current #8 Detroit Pistons could turn out to be the least exciting game of the entire first round. Losing Chauncey Billups was the biggest injury to the Pistons organization. Allen Iverson won’t be back this season for Detroit, which takes away the one true scoring threat they had. Though the bench is deep, Detroit’s starting five isn’t, and this year they just won’t have enough weapons to compete with Cleveland.

Make sure to log on tomorrow as we break down the Westside of the NBA Playoffs