The way I see it is Mia or Chi in the east. SA will get Hou, Sac, or Den. If I was SA, I would hope for Hou. Out of the west only Hou and Mem might play slow down ball which I think would benefit SA. It could work out to where they would have to beat Den, Sac, and Phoe to win the west. I'm not sure they can beat Den and I'm almost positive they can't beat Phoe without home court.
Consistency and coaching wins play-off games.
In the east the coaching goes to Det, Ind, Mia and Chi. The consistency goes to Mia and Chi. How much will they miss Curry? Not as much as most people think but it sure didn't help their cause. With Gordon in the line-up, they'll be dangerous. The problem is, if I've got my brackets right, they can't get to the finals in the east without going thru Mia and for the same reason (brackets), I think Wash is a sleeper for the eastern finals. Why do I rule out Det. They won last year by over achieving and pure determination and I loved every minute of it but it's hard for any group that has won it all to make themselves play at that level a second time around.
In the west the coaching goes to SA, Den, and Sac. Consistency goes to Phoe, SA, Den. There are a lot of teams in the west that are just too streaky for me. They can win 4 in a row or blow 4 in a row. Somewhere during the play-offs they fail to show up. I'm looking for the winner of the Den/SA match-up to be playing Phoe.
Now to boil all this down, I think only two teams in the east have a shot at Mia and that would be Chi and Wash.
In the west I don't believe SA could handle Mia but both Phoe and Den would have a shot.
I would like to see a Mia/Phoe or Den match-up. I don't know who I would pull for but it would sure be fun to watch.
