What Happened to the Great Western Conference Playoffs?
The Western Conference playoffs start on Saturday. And I’m more disappointed than J.J. Redick’s life coach.
Two weeks ago it looked like this might be the most exciting Western Conference playoffs of all time. There were be 8 legitimate title contenders, seven potentially spectacular playoff series, and an exciting air of uncertainty. Now all that has changed.
It started with Golden State missing the playoffs. That left only seven real contenders (sorry Denver) and gave the #1 seed a huge advantage.
Then the Lakers (the one team who given the right circumstances could cruise to the Finals) locked up that #1 seed.
Then the Lakers were given the right circumstances—two relatively easy matchups (vs. Denver, vs Utah or Houston) and a conference finals opponent who will be tired and worn down.
In effect, those eight contenders were narrowed down to five (I’m short changing Utah and Houston, but they just won’t be able to beat the Lakers). Four of those contenders were put on one side of the bracket. The Lakers were put on the other side. So while the Lakers can cruise to the Conference Finals, we have to watch meetings between Phoenix and San Antonio, Dallas and New Orleans, Phoenix and Dallas etc. that will come much to early in the post-season.
Yeah, it will still be better than last year’s Eastern Conference playoffs, but think of what could have been?
3 Comments »
basmati on 17 Apr 2008 at 3:31 pm #
You might be undervaluing Utah. They could beat the Lakers.
Hornet on 22 Apr 2008 at 4:16 pm #
You might be undervaluing Utah, but you are DEFINETLY undervaluing the Hornets. What more do they have to do to make all of you think-you-know-it-all journos understand that they may be young, but are a great team? When they punk out the Lakers, we’ll see what you say then.
Hornet on 22 Apr 2008 at 4:17 pm #
I’m sorry, did I call you a journo? I meant to call you blogger.