82 Games. Predictions. Playoffs.

82 Games finally over.

It's time to fly into postseason.

NBA Playoffs begin April 18th and I have some early predictions.

First of all, I believe that the guys from Hollywood will go all the way to the Finals. Ok. Ok. But it will not be an easy ride. For the first round of the postseason they will have to face the Jazz led by the young but talented point guard Deron Williams. The jazz are obviously dominant when playing at the their home court but let us also keep in mind that the Lakers are one of the best teams this seaon when playing on the road. Jazz is simply inconsistent this season considering all the injuries that happened to ther key players all throughout the year so team chemistry is a factor this year for any team in the league. My prediction is four games to 1 in favor of the Lakers.

In other match-up, my playoffs dark horses would be the Rockets and the Mavs. I believe that the Yao Ming led Texan team will prevail over the young Blazers team mainly because of experience. I felt bad when I found out that T-Mac will not be part of this team for the playoffs but I think with the consistent play of Ron Artest, this team could finally be headed for the second round of the playoffs.

Same thing with the Mavs-Spurs series. I believe that the Spurs are over the hill now and with the injury that plagued Manu Ginobili, it's really hard to build a chemistry late in the season. Tim Duncan's stats has been declining over the years and the factor in this series will be the leadership of the post players from both teams. If Dirk Nowitzki would get a lot of help from Josh Howard and Jason Kidd's offense will improve, I think this series will be over in just 5 games.

As for the Nuggets-Hornets series, I don't really care to watch their games but I think Nuggets has the advantage over the CP3 led Hornets mainly because of the way the Nuggets are playing now that they have Chauncey Billups. The hornets are inconsistent this season when you look at some of the games they have when opponents are blowing out games early in the 1st half. This could be a long series though.

As for the Eastern match-ups, what is interisting is how the Pistons mentality for the playoffs will affect them in their series agains the Cavs. I believe that the Cavs has the greater possibility of reaching the NBA Finals this year as compared to the defending champs Boston Celtics but they should not take the Pistons for granted in the first round because Detroit is a playoff-tested team over the past years. James will be the MVP this season and if he will ocntinue what he has been doing in the regular season this year, I think they will have a chance to set an appoinment with the Lakers in June. So expect a James-Bryant showdown.

My dark horse for the Eastern Conference will be the Heat. If Wade will continue to play like an MVP, the Heat may have a chance to beat the boring Hawks.

That's it for now. Prepare the PopCorns and enjoy the drama of the NBA.