Who will reign supreme? - NBA Conference Championship review and predictions

The NBA conference championships are in full force, with one series (Cleveland vs Boston) all tied up at 2, headed to Boston for a pivotal game 5. In the West, Golden State leads the Rockets 2-1, with game 4 tonight in the Bay Area. I wanted to talk a little about each series and give my prediction on where they are headed.

In the East, Lebron and the Cavs evened the series 2-2 last night in another dominant performance against the Celtics. Cleveland looked completely overmatched in the first two games of the series in Boston, but the home cooking of Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland must have given the Cavs the spark they needed. The young stars of Boston, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum and Terry Rozier have all but disappeared the last two games. Their dribble & drive or dribble & kickout games have washed up, leading them to essentially resort to isolation basketball or shooting contested shots with a lot of time left on the shot clock. Some of these performances can be attributed to the Cavs finding a defensive game the last two games, but some of this can also be attributed to youth. The Celtics are a young team, lest we forget, so there is definitely going to be some growing pains. We saw it with them in the first series against the Milwaukee Bucks, when they were stretched to a game 7 because they could not win on the road. Could this series be a carbon copy? I'm not quite sure yet.

In the West, after looking like world beaters in game 1, the Golden State Warriors regressed in game 2 in Houston. The Rockets blew them out of the arena by a score of 127 - 105. The Warriors could not stop the Rockets pick-and-roll, with the Rockets forcing Steph Curry to switch to the on-ball player. That player usually ended up being MVP candidate James Harden, who would then kick it to a driving player that Curry was originally on, thus ending in easy baskets. When we thought the Rockets had finally figured out the Warriors, Game 3 then happened. I guess just like the Eastern Conference series, all the Warriors needed was the friendly confines of their home arena, for they blew out the Rockets 126 - 85, giving the Rockets their worst playoff loss in history and giving the Warriors their biggest win in playoff history. Curry, who struggled mightily in the first two games, shooting a combined 2 - 13 from three-point range, exploded in the third quarter of game three, scoring 18 points and shooting 7 - 7 from the floor en route to a 35 point night. In accordance with Curry's outstanding night, what once looked like a weakness for the Warriors, pick and roll defense, became a strength, with the Warriors instituting suffocating, lockdown defensive strategy. Don't forget 2017 NBA Finals MVP also added 25 points.

Where I see these series going:

First, in the East, I still think somehow Boston is going to figure it out and win the series. Though they are a young team, they have the energy and drive at home to combat the best player in the league right now, Lebron James. Though they have struggled mightily in Cleveland, two of the last three games (game 7 if necessary) are in Boston, where they have played very well throughout the playoffs and seem to feed off the energy that the home crowd delivers. I expect Horford, Brown and Tatum to all have big games in game 5, leading them to a victory. While I do still expect them to lose game 6 back in Cleveland, I think they will rise to the occasion in game 7, with either Terry Rozier or Al Horford making a huge basket, leading the Celtics to the Finals for the first time since they had the "Big Three" of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen.

In the West, if Golden State wins game 4 this evening, this series is all but over. My prediction before the playoffs of the Rockets vs Philadelphia has not come to fruition, for the 76ers have already lost in the playoffs (to Boston no less) and it doesn't look like the Rockets will be able to hold my West prediction true either. While they put up a great game in game 2 vs the Warriors, if they cannot somehow will themselves to victory in game 4, there is absolutely no way they are going to be able to win three straight against them, including two in Oracle Arena, a place the Warriors have won 16 straight playoff games, an NBA playoff record. Harden is definitely the MVP of the regular season, but his team looks outmatched. The only thing that gives the Rockets a fighter's chance this evening is that Andre Iguodala, a premier SF defender, will not be playing. We'll see though.

In conclusion, this has been a very hard playoffs to predict, but I expect, against all the odds, to see a Boston Celtics vs Golden State Warriors finals. What do you guys think? Thanks for stopping by and look forward to reading you guys' comments!

One Love,

@jgullinese