NBA Playoffs 2008 are on!

Evening all,
the playoffs match-ups have finally been revealed. Amazing West finished with all 8 teams on 50 wins, while East had only three with 50 wins and only six of eight with a positive PCT.
But East with the extraordinary Celtics on the loose (66-16) has the most chances of winning the title. Why? Because Celtics have a 25-5 against West teams. And with the Big Three healthy no one can stop them. The only team that they are afraid of is Arenas' Wizards, which beat them three times and lose only once. Not bad.
The next big trouble of the East is Pistons. With the same recipe of the last eight years they are good enough to reach the East Finals.
But the rest of the Eastern teams have almost no good chance of even threatening both the East best teams and the Western candidates. Magic did a tremendously good regular season and won the South-East division, but the chances of reaching the Finals are few. Same goes for the Cavs who made some good additions in their team with West and Wallace. I believe that they will pass the first round but then comes most possibly the Celtics, so... who knows. James might have some of his nights. Wizards and Toronto played better basketball than last year, especially Wizards who played without Arenas and Butler for almost the whole regular season. A nice suprise are 76s and Hawks. 76s become better without Iverson (my opinion) and Iguodala become a good leader in the team. Hawks with the addition of Mike Bibby become tougher and more of a killer in 3-point shooting (don't forget Johnson).

Now West is far more 'powerful' than the East. All the first 8 teams finished with 50 wins at least with Lakers leading the Conference with 57-25.
Lakers are reborn this year. After the addition of Gasol, the possible new MVP trophy winner, Bryant become again a good defender and gave more trust to his teammates. Odom and Bynum improved and Lakers finished first. Old flashbacks of Celtics and Lakers facing in the Final are coming back.
Second in the West were the Hornets who had an amazing year. Their 'little guy' Chris Paul leads the NBA in assists and is a MVP candidate. His big effort accompanied by the big improvement in All-Star David West, Chandler and the resurection of Stojakovic, makes the Hornets able to stink their opponents until they touch the trophy.
Third goes Spurs with a 56-26. Duncan isn't as good as he used to, but Parker and Ginobily lead the team pretty well. They follow the same recipe since they drafted Duncan and they have good possibilities to reach the Finals.
North-West winners, the Jazz, with leading player Deron Williams are playing good basketball in both ends of the court. With a healthy Boozer and a good Kirilenko they can go deep in the playoffs.
Rockets had this year the best second winning streak in NBA history. 22 wins in a row and ten without Yao isn't easy to achieve. T-Mac leads and trust the team and Alston, Jackson, Scola and Battier can help the team go high.
Suns took a great risk this year and they traded away Marion and Banks for O'Neal. The beggining wasn't good enough, but that Shaq learned how to react and play as a Sun the team went higher. Nash is second leader in assists (after Paul) and has almost .500 in both 2pt and 3pt shooting plus a .901 in free throw line. Amare plays his best now that he is back in power forward position and the Suns have become a great candidate for the trophy.
Mavs brought back Kidd who finished the regural season with one more triple-double. Dirk still remains the star in the city and both Terry and Howard are doing their best. Although when Dirk injured, the Mavs were terrible and almost lost their playoffs seed.
And last but not least come the Nuggets. With Iverson and Anthony scoring together more than fifty points and healthy Martins and Camby this team can reach the Finals if they stay focused, although they clinched their playoffs pass only a game before the end of the regural season.

Here goes the match-ups of the playoffs:
East
(1) Boston Celtics vs. (8) Atlanta Hawks
(2) Detroit Pistons vs. (7) Philadelphia 76ers
(3) Orlando Magic vs. (6) Toronto Raptors
(4) Cleveland Cavaliers vs. (5) Washington Wizards

West
(1) Los Angeles Lakers vs. (8) Denver Nuggets
(2) New Orleans Hornets vs. (7) Dallas Mavericks
(3) San Antonio Spurs vs. (6) Phoenix Suns
(4) Utah Jazz vs. (5) Houston Rockets

See you all soon,
Eowood