Which first round playoff series will you be watching the most-

[rickortreat]

Apart from your own team, if you have one?

[Reality]

The Kobester of course vs Phx.
Dallas - GState (unless GState flames out)

The rest will wait till a series developes, ie 2-2.  And the ending of a lot of East playoff games are interesting, to see who wins 80-79.
The East is a snorefest but Chi Miami should be good.  Wow did that last loss cost Chicago.  From #2 to #5.

[westkoast]

Aside from the obvious.....

The Dallas series because I have a number of friends from the bay area.

The SA series because I enjoy watching them operate in the playoffs and I think the Nuggets should make it interesting.

Not really too interested in the first round of the EC playoffs.  Although some of the potential second round matchups I will be alot more interested in.

[JoMal]

After that book Reality quoted from regarding last year's Laker/Suns playoff series, I have to take a look at how that series goes.

Because so much is riding on Tracy Mcgrady's history in the playoffs, the Rocket/Jazz series outcome will be of interest.

The Warriors/Mavs because GS is now NorCal's playoff rep.

And in the east, honestly the only series I would care to watch would be whichever one Cleveland is in. LeBron is worth watching and if he wants to be the next bad boy of the NBA, he had better lead his Cavs passed the first round and probably the second round as well.

[rickortreat]

At this point, I'm looking for decent b-ball entertainment, so I want to see the series where I think there's some doubt.

I think the Suns win hands down and LA will be fortunate to do as well as they did last year.  The injuries and late season swoon overcome the Kobster's brilliance.

Dallas probably will take GS apart, but since Nellie is GS's coach he could make it interesting.  GS were 9-1 for their last 10. An impressive effort to make the playoffs. Still, they just don't have the talent to take out the Mavs.

San Antonio should be a lock, but no one really knows how good Denver is, including themselves.  I will be watching this one intently, to see what happens.  San Antonio just controls the tempo and executes better than most.  Denver rebounds and runs well, and are very hard to contain because they have two players that demand two-player attention.  IMO, the first game is critical.  San Antonio must defend it's home court and establish dominance early.  Has the potential to be very interesting, if Denver can hold their own.  Denver was also 9-1 in their last 10.

I favor Houston over Utah, simply because Houston went 6-4 while Utah went 4-6.  Also, T-Mac and Yao are a tough combination to deal with.  Too bad for Utah, they were really a good team for a stretch. If they were able to play their best ball now, I'd give them a real shot.

In the East, I think Miami could be in trouble.  Chicago is a very decent team, and if Wade isn't ready they'll get squeezed out instead of getting a chance to defend their title.  5-5 over their last 10 tells me Miami isn't ready.

Detroit will probably sweep the Magic.  Unless something happens this is one series I don't really care about.

Toronto/NJ should be a decent match-up and a close series.  Not sure which way this one will go, so I want to see it. 

The Lebrons definitely get through to the 2nd round. Washington isn't the same team since Arena's went out.  The Cavs have two ex-sixers on the squad, Larry Hughes and Eric Snow, so I do have a soft spot for them.

Should be some decent first round contests.  Anyone else want to do predictions for the series? 

[westkoast]

Predictions for the series I am going to closely watch....

My heart bleeds purple and gold, obviously I am not going to root against my team but coming from a strickly basketball fan POV it is going to take a miracle for them to get out of the first round.  Like Rick said I feel like the slumping at the end of the season and players still banged up is going to make this very tough for them.  I am going to say it goes 6 games and will go as far to say that the Lakers take the first game, PHX advances 4-2.

Dallas/GS: I think this will be a very quick series to tell you the truth.  Nelly knows Dallas' offense very well but he doesn't know their defense as they didn't play much when he was there.  Would love to see GS give them problems but I think they get swept.  Dallas 4-0

SA/Denver: Denver is going to make it interesting.  If anything is going to test the SA defense for the playoffs it is going to be this squad.  In fact this is a great squad to really get your team defense ready to stop some of the other talented offensive squads.  Melo and AI will be played straight up but the rest of the squad is really going to need to help.  SA is just too good on both sides of the ball for Denver to upset them but I think it could 7 games.  SA 4-3

[Rolando Blackman]

Hey Ricko!
   
I am watching the Denver/SA series most intently...even though I dog the Spurs, I respect that team to the max.  TD is one of the top 10 players of all time, IMHO.  Somehow, though I think that the Spurs are going down this time - at least in Game 1 they looked like they were just going through the motions.
   
As Walton Sr. would say, where are the 7' centers?  The game has definitely changed.
   
Tony Parker has let the Spurs down, IMHO - he is the key to SA advancing.  Everyone knows that Tim will get it done - Parker, like Derek Fisher in the 'Milk Money' series is the wild card.
   
-RB
Shaq #1

[rickortreat]

Hey Rolando! 

I'm not counting out the Spurs yet, by any means.  They are a great team with a lot of pride and they are not going to take this lying down.

As I said before, Denver is the wild card, because no-one knows what they can do, including themselves.

SA will test them and try to find weaknesses to exploit.  So far, it is Denver that is exploiting SA's weaknesses, and Pop will have to come up with an answer to Denver's containment of TD, who I agree is one of the all-time top ten, or close to it. He is the one that makes SA win, and if the Nuggets can keep him contained with Camby and Nene, SA is going to have a tough time.