Quote:
Originally posted by twins15
Eck, I think you will be surprised at how well the East will match up with the West, especially now that Shaq and the Lakers are out. I personally think that the East winner will give the West winner a run for their money.
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Depends on what you mean by "a run for their money." It is highly likely that the East will win one game, at home, almost by default - sweeps are tough to do. With inspired play and/or favorable officiating, they might actually win two games. They don't have a prayer of winning a seven-game series. Look at it this way: despite the easier schedules of the Eastern Conference teams, Detroit, the top regular season team from the East, had exactly the same record as the Lakers and Blazers, the No. 5 and 6 teams in the West. If you remove a few of those wins because of the schedules, they'd be neck and neck with Utah, Phoenix and Houston. I actually think I'm being generous by suggesting they might be as good as the number 7 team in the West. In reality, I think it's a 50/50 shot whether any of them would make the playoffs. So, like I said, it's not that I'm expecting a sweep - I just think that no matter how much the Eastern team gets talked up by the announcers for their "heart" and "determination," it's highly, highly unlikely they'll win more than a game or two.