Simulating The Playoffs (3rd Round)
For the last two days, I have given my predictions for how the NBA Playoffs would go if the season was still going on. Today, we will be doing the conference finals and see which two teams will make it to the NBA Finals.
Western Conference
#1 LA Lakers vs #2 LA Clippers
The Battle of LA reaches it’s climax, so far, as the two best teams in the Western Conference face off. The Lakers will once again be carried by Lebron and AD, but they will need other contributions. In the regular season, the Clippers won 2 out of the 3 meetings. They seem to play at their best when the Lakers play them. AD and Lebron can only do so much, and others will need to step up. For the Clippers, they just have to play good defense. They have so many weapons on offense, that the Lakers cannot stop all of them, they can just hope to contain some of them and hope for the best. Unless Lebron and AD each drop 40+, then somebody else will need to step up, like a Kyle Kuzma, Avery Bradley, or Alex Caruso. The Clippers need to pester Lebron with Marcus Morris, Kawhi and Paul George. They will probably have to double AD in the post because Zubac is the only capable defender for AD, and other guys like Montrezl Harrell are too small.
This will be a very fun series to watch, but I see the Clippers winning in 6. They just have so many weapons on offense and defense. They can slow down Lebron with multiple bodies, and they will have to contain AD. The Lakers will need some more contributions and some really good defense to win, but I still see the Clippers winning 4-2, and advancing to the franchises 1st ever NBA Finals.
Eastern Conference
#1 Milwaukee Bucks vs #3 Boston Celtics
The Bucks are poised to make it to the NBA Finals after being so close last season. The young Celtics are in the same position as in 2018, with their best players being very young, with Kemba Walker. I think that this series could go one of two ways. The 1st option is that Giannis and the Bucks steamroll the Celtics en route to the Finals. Giannis would be getting 30, 17, and 8 each night. The other Bucks like Middleton and all of their shooters would be getting wide open shots. This outcome would likely be a sweep, but we all know the Bucks are capable of this because of what they did to Boston last season in the semifinals (4-1). The other outcome is the young Celtics hold their ground and make this a tough series for the Bucks. They find a way to slow down Giannis, which in turn slows down the whole team. The Celtics explode on offense led by Jayson Tatum. This series would in all likely hood be another Bucks win, but in 6 or 7 games.
No matter how I see it, the Bucks will win this series. If the Celtics can’t slow down Giannis, then the series is basically over. They have little to no big guy help with basically only Enes Kanter. Jayson Tatum will most likely be guarding Giannis for the whole series. But because of the lack of the Celtics size, Giannis will be able to get through the lane and just power through the Celtics D. The Celtics are more than capable on offense, it’s just that defense will most likely lose them this series. I think that the Bucks will win in 5, 4-1, but the games will be close. The Bucks get back to the NBA Finals for the 1st time since 1974, looking for their second title in franchise history.
There you have it, my picks for the NBA Finals, the Milwaukee Bucks and the LA Clippers. Leave a comment on what your Finals matchup is, and who will win that series.
