Daily Poll: Playoff Seeding

I’d rather take the Thunder in the first round than the Nuggets. The Thunder have no playoff experience. They’re just glad to be there. The Nuggets think they can win a Championship. I’d wait to face them in the semis.

I think at best we can get the 4rth seed. If we can do that and than have the Thunder take the 5th seed that would be the best match-up for us. That would require the Jazz to lose some though.

When it comes down to it this is what I think will happen.

1st round

1. LA W
8. Portland L

4. Phoenix W
5. Thunder L

3. Dallas W
6. Utah L

2. Denver W
7. SA L

The good news is that we can compete with all of those 7 teams. The bad news is that I only feel comfortable playing the Blazers and the Thunder in the 1st round.

I don’t feel comfortable with the Suns playing any of the top three teams, and Utah doesn’t do very well in the playoffs so I’d like to see the Suns play them. The Suns have played well until the fourth quarter against the Jazz this year, and it would be great if the Suns could play the Thunder in the first round with home court, but that takes Utah losing a good deal of games coming up, and I don’t see that happening. I would like to see Suns Jazz, and then if PHX can win I think seeing the Lakers in the second round would be best because of age. Reality is there is no easy playoff match up for the Suns, or any other team.

The Spurs btw, have 5 more sets of back to backs and check out their opponents on the 2nd night: @ Magic, @ Thunder, @ Nets, @ Suns, and @ Denver. Without Tony Parker and with that schedule they will lucky to hold on to the 8th seed.

What a screw job. David Stern obviously has it out for the Spurs. Smh.

I seriously must warn against looking down on the Blazers. They may be filled with injuries but they’ve got solid players who’ve managed to play this well even without some of their better big men. Plus, the Camby trade beefed up their lineup so they’re still darn tough.

As for my pick, I chose the Denver Nuggets as the best team for the Suns to play against. Obviously the Suns have great matchups against the Nuggets. The Suns have been 2-1 so far against the Nuggets and their only loss was due to a questionable non-call from a referee on a foul on Steve’s layup attempt. Hill and Dudley manage to contain Carmelo really well and Nash and Billups can’t guard each other so they pretty much cancel each other out with their offensive production. The Suns have clearly one of the best benches in the NBA so they manage to bother the Nuggets when George Karl has to go to his bench. This is one of the better opponents for the Suns.

Two teams that I’d consider having the Suns face in the first round out of pure rivalry and spite are either the Mavericks or the Spurs. The Spurs have always been a thorn in the Suns’ side ever since the turn of the millenium. Knocking them out of the first round would be the sweetest revenge I can think of. The Mavericks have pretty much been a rival ever since we signed Steve Nash and they provide great competition. They knocked us out of the postseason in 2005-2006 when the Mavs ended up making it to the NBA finals. The Suns of 06 with a depleted roster was more than capable of beating the 06 Miami Heat.

Either way, I expect to see the Suns make it out of the first round and tackle the Lakers in either the 2nd round or in the Western Finals.

I actually would like the Lakers in round one. Why? Because I figure that any trip to the Finals must go through the Lakers. Let’s get it over with in the first round, before the Lakers can have two rounds to get fired up. Also, it would certainly be easier for the Suns to take any team by surprise in the first round.

But that it’s not a Suns question, we should also have a poll on which team is most likely to upset the Lakers (so that the Suns can avoid them). I’ve wondered why the Jazz, being so physical and smart, don’t do better against them.