The NBA Playoff Tournament has arrived! Last year BTB and BTBJesse cleaned up on the NBA Playoffs and this year will be no different. These aren’t their picks for the games – those you can purchase by clicking Buy Packages above. These are just fun little thoughts and insights on each one of the games.
Over in the East, the Hornets are playing the Pacers. Defensively, neither of these teams are spectacular. Both are middle of the pack, so this game could come down to if anyone can make a stop or not. The Hornets won two out of the three meetings this season. The Hornets and Pacers have a similar pace of play, but the Pacers do score about 10 more points per game than the Hornets. Lately, though, the Pacers have been playing in very high scoring games. I don’t expect them to score 120 or 130 tonight as the pace will likely slow down on both sides. I think the Hornets will surprise people tonight and pull off the upset.
The Celtics and Wizards should be a fast-paced game with a lot of turnovers. Both teams average 14 a game, and with Russell Westbrook I’m just waiting for him to have a quadruple double by getting to 10 turnovers in a game. The Celtics went 2-0 against the Wizards this season. Tonight really shouldn’t be any different. Expect Beal to score 30+, Westbrook to have a double-double, and the Celtics to prevail.
I think the Western Conference games are going to be more fun to watch. The Spurs and Grizzlies matchup in the 9 vs 10. This is a date to play with either the Lakers or Warriors. The season series saw the Spurs lose two out of three two the Grizzlies and all of the games went over the posted total of 222. I don’t have a strong feeling about who wins, but I don’t like going against Pop, so the total is a better option for me. That’s the angle I’m approaching this from. While they both will likely slow their pace of play, I expect the scoring to still be frequent and this game to hit over 222.
I have a really hard time supporting the Lakers right now, but I’m not sure I can pick against LeBron and AD in a one game playoff. No one should want to play Steph Curry, but that doesn’t mean the Warriors will win. If the Warriors win it will be likely because the other guys beat the Lakers. I can’t imagine they let Steph go off. He has a 36.5-point total posted. I’m going to take the under. If the Warriors can’t come back or have a close game, Steph will likely be rested. Either way, I expect both of these teams to be in the playoffs and the Spurs and Grizzlies to just be formalities.
- David Troy
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