NBA Playoffs Start Today

The NBA Playoffs start today, with four games coming on today and four games coming on tomorrow. The playoffs will kick off with a matchup between the Chicago Bulls and the Cleveland Cavaliers on ABC. The Cavaliers are the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference and have the best record in the NBA. The next three games, which are on ESPN, are between the Milwaukee Bucks and Atlanta Hawks, Miami Heat and Boston Celtics, and Utah Jazz and Denver Nuggets.

The playoffs will continue on ABC and TNT tomorrow with four more games, with three of them coming from the Western Conference. Tomorrow's slate of games kicks off with the Oklahoma City Thunder facing the Los Angeles Lakers on ABC. The Lakers are the #1 seed in the Western Conference. The next three games on TNT are matchups between the Charlotte Bobcats, making the playoffs for the first time ever, and the Orlando Magic. The San Antonio Spurs will face the Dallas Mavericks, and the Portland Trail Blazers will face the Phoenix Suns.

Clearly, the more interesting matchups are coming from the Western Conference. With the exception of the Trail Blazers/Suns matchup, all Western Conference matchups are must watches. One series in the Eastern Conference I'll be watching is the matchup between the Bucks and the Hawks. The Bobcats/Magic series may be interesting as well, depending on the Magic's three-point shooting. The Celtics should trash the Heat, and the Cavaliers should do the same to the Bulls. The Celtics aren't that good anymore, but they were blessed with a matchup against the Heat, who have no one but Dwyane Wade on their team.

The only first round upset that I could predict are the Spurs beating the Mavericks and the Jazz beating the Nuggets. Although that isn't likely, the Spurs have been very impressive with the teams they've beaten late in the season. The Mavericks also struggled a bit after their 13-game winning streak was snapped in March. The Jazz are also a tough challenge for the Nuggets, especially with George Karl most likely not being there. The Nuggets weren't really impressive late in the season, but the Jazz haven't been impressive on the road. That will be a matchup to watch out for.