Feanor

The results speak for themselves.   We thought the West would be a dog fight.  Aside from the Jazz/Rockets series, this has not been the case.  Instead, some of the more competitive series have been the Pistons/76ers and the Hawks/Celtics.  Just goes to show anything can happen come postseason (if anyone need a reminder of this after the Mavericks' fall to the Warriors last year.)  Like it or not, luck matters.  Sometimes one team is hitting all their jump shots and also getting the favorable calls.  There is really nothing you can do about nights like this.  The key is not to let bad luck cause you to lose 4 of 7. 

You'll be hearing a lot of people changing their predictions with individual wins/losses.  Interesting, most spreads are sticking with their original pick of Celtics/Lakers finals, despite Boston's struggles.  It's important to realize this not because these teams will necessarily make the Finals, but simply to keep things in perspective and not get too obsessed with individual results.  Certainly, it's tough to pick Boston and Detroit as Finalists when the likes of Joe Johnson and Andre Miller are scoring at will against supposedly stingy defenses.  But in the playoffs, it's all about matchups and teams getting hot at the right time.  Things can change very very fast to the surprise of fans and prognosticators everywhere.  It's chaotic and rarely are the experts on point.  Who knows--we could be seeing Atlanta/Cleveland in round 2 with the way the Hawks are shooting right now. 


In any sport, it is really impossible to predict playoff outcomes with accuracy.  People love to bring up the point about certain teams/players "knowing how to win" come playoff time.  I don't really buy that theory because I feel these are all  professionals and they were all good enough to make the playoffs, so it's not like one guy has more knowledge of how to win than another.  In my mind, this saying is little more than a cliche.  Nonetheless, intangibles do come into play.  Momentum, luck, matchups, the list could go on.  Weird things happen come playoff time, despite the best attempts of fans and prognosticators to impose order on the chaos.