The NBA playoffs are here for 2014 and the bracket has the top postseason matchups for the first round listed, as the Indiana Pacers, Miami Heat, Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs start their title chase and the schedule begins on Saturday and some predictions will be coming here for the matchups in the east and western conferences and who will win the championship.
The Pacers won the top overall seed in the east after a strong finish the last week and that came after their worst month of the season and they will try to get things right against the Atlanta Hawks in the first round of the playoffs. The two teams faces off four times this season and split those games and now they will meet in the postseason and the Hawks come into things with some momentum as well and while it will be very hard for the number eight seed to win over the one, the Hawks will not simply give up on this series and will give Indiana a challenge.
Miami ended up in the number two spot after having home court advantage last season and now they play against the Charlotte Bobcats, who made a surprise postseason appearance. The team won all four games against Charlotte this season and it is not expected to be a tough series for the Heat and LeBron James as they go for their third title in a row and their fourth eastern conference title. LeBron James and the Heat have downplayed getting the number one seed and they are not the team that needs it, as they have shown they can win on the road, while the Pacers have not, in the playoffs against the Heat at least.
The San Antonio Spurs and Dallas Mavericks are playing in the first round and it will be tough for the Mavs to win that series, as the Spurs have been great all season and are killer at home. The Mavs have not won on the road in San Antonio in a few years and this season the Spurs won all four games that the teams played.
Predictions for the first three series mentioned have the Miami Heat, Indiana Pacers and San Antonio Spurs advancing.
The middle series in each conference actually has the potential to be the best, as the LA Clippers and Golden State Warriors could be an amazing series, as could the Houston Rockets and Portland Trail Blazers. All four of those teams are high scoring and have superstar players like Steph Curry, Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and Dwight Howard and along with James Harden those should be some great ones to watch. The Warriors and Clippers series was split during the regular season and the prediction here has the Clips advancing.
Predictions: LA Clippers, Houston Rockets, Chicago Bulls and Brooklyn Nets advance in the other series.