3030 Western Conference Playoffs - Return of the Midbest
Apr 2, 2016 20:13:36 GMT -6
kn88 likes this
Post by Deleted on Apr 2, 2016 20:13:36 GMT -6
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Round 1:
vs. 
61-21 42-40
Series Record: Split, 2-2
Lakers Player to Watch: Sandor Clegane - 25.8 ppg, 8.4 rpg, 4.8 apg, 2.1 spg
Jazz Players to Watch: Mitch McGary - 17.4 ppg, 9.9 rpg, 1.7 bpg
Dumptime's Prediction: Lakers Disappointing Season Ends, Jazz 4-2
Overview: The Lakers squeak into these playoffs after what was probably the worst start in franchise history after losing their star PG to the team they beat for the championship last season. This is probably the most talented 1-8 matchup in TMBSL and NBA history combined. The matchup to watch is Beast Mode Hound go up against whatever SG the Jazz plan on putting on him. That could be a matchup changer there. The most coveted matchup is MVP candidate George Ackles going up against Denver Nugget traitor Paul Arizin. That is going to be a fun one to watch. Down low, we are going to have Big Jonas V going up against a real Mountain of a man. While Jonas had a better season overall shooting better and getting that coveted 14 reb/4 blocks per game average, it is a fairly even matchup. What might hurt the Lakers is having Mighty Mouse Stoudamire miss the first couple games and having youngster Kelvin Ramsay guard Kenny Anderson at the point. In the end, like I said, I think the Mighty Mouse injury costs Buster in the end but expect this series to be very competitive.
vs. 
55-27 53-29
Season Series: 3-1, Nuggets
Spurs Player To Watch: Russell Westbrook - 18.5 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 8.0 apg, 1.4 spg
Nuggets Player To Watch: Adam Morrison - 22.4 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 0.7 spg
Dumptime's Prediction: Nuggets Survive Being Spurred, Nuggets 4-2
Overview: The Spurs made a big move at the trade deadline in acquiring young star Russell Westbrook in a trade from Milwaukee. His first playoff test in San Antonio? Facing Jimmy Butler. Ouch. But let's talk about the PG matchup in this series. You have the FORMER MVP Terrell Brandon taking on probably one of if not the hottest player in the league in Jeff Hornacek. Now that is an elite matchup, and probably the one source of excitement in this series. Can either one stop each other? I picked Adam Morrison as the Nuggets player to watch because we all know Brandon and Butler will get theirs regardless and that might be all the Nuggets need, but it will be interesting to see how Morrison does against the often disappointing Len Bias. Especially since this might be Morrison's last season as a Nugget unless he takes a pay discount seeing as Bankz has been shopping him for like 3 seasons now. On the front court side, the Spurs feature Mullens and Reeves, two big men who are prettu inefficient on the offensive end and pretty average on the defensive end. Where as the Nuggets have two pretty elite def/reb bigs in Mystic Stone and Hassan Whiteside. Gonna be interesting if they force the Spurs big men to take too many shots away from Horny and RW. Thats a big factor. In the end, I just think Brandon and Butler are too much for the Spurs at this moment. Just a bad matchup for Victor, but hey I've been wrong on the Spurs before.
vs. 
57-25 51-31
Season Series: 4-0, Kings
Timberwolves Player to Watch: Rudy Gay - 29.7 ppg, 9.4 rpg, 1.3 spg, 1.1 bpg
Kings Player to Watch: Brandon Knight - 26.8 ppg, 5.8 rpg, 10.5 apg, 1.9 spg
Dumptime's Prediction: The King Loses to a Knight, Kings 4-1
Overview: Well the Kings have been the best or most talented team in TMBSL really ever since they got lucky and landed the 1 and 2 picks in the Larry Johnson draft. Will this be the year they can finally capitalize? IMO they got lucky to be on this side of the bracket and have the Jazz and Nuggets battle it out for the other spot in the WCF. They do have one of the best 1-2-3 punch in this league in Larry Johnson, Kevin Brooks, and Brandon Knight. The massive improvement by Brooks after his stints around the league has definitely gotten the Kings some staying power ever since Zinger got too old. The Timberwolves on the otherhand have the best damn player in the league and the two time, reigning Most Valuable Player in PG John Joseph Silvestri. They also themselves have a pretty good wing combo in John Vanbiesbrouck and Rudy Gay. But I guess when you have a PG the caliber of a John Joseph Silvestri, your wings are gonna be better than they are supposed to. Both teams don't really feature any big men that you must gameplan around them, but the Kings have two pretty elite defensive bigs in Biyombo and Leonard with Courtney Edney backing them both up. While the Timberwolves only really have Buck Williams. I think when it comes down to it, the Kings big men will shut down Big Buck, and it will come down to who has a better big three and that is the Kings by a wide margin. I still love you, John Joseph Silvestri.
vs. 
49-33 45-37
Season Series: Split, 2-2
Warriors Player to Watch: Dario Saric - 24 ppg, 9.6 rpg, 1.5 spg, 1.5 bpg
Clippers Player to Watch: Steve Francis - 22.8 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 10.4 apg, 2.3 spg
Dumptime's Prediction: Warriors Get Clipped Early, Clippers 4-3
Overview: First of all, what kind of joke of a division doesn't even have a division winner that has 50 wins. LMBO get your shit together Pacific, jesus christ. But like in their Eastern Playoff counterparts, the 2-7 matchup involve two teams from the vastly inferior divisions. Clippers are a bit of a disappointment. Everyone predicted them to just blow past the "competition" in the Pacific once they acquired Bill Sharman and Jimmy Chitwood in the offseason. I guess what hurt them was Steve Francis' inability to take that next step and Sharman and Chitwood stumbled out of the starting gates playing at SF. I'm not a huge fan of their bigs, Nikola Vucevic and Freiberger, who just seem like your average, typical, run of the mill starting bigs in this league. Meanwhile in the Bay Area, you have aging, but better bigs in Blake Griffin and Jermaine O'Neal. Will JO turn it on the playoffs one more time? On the wings, the Clippers will face young Soup stud Dario Saric looking to make a splash before he enters free agency in the offseason, and another AARP member Frank Selvy looking to make one more splash in the league before he rides off into the sunset. Where this series will be decided, will be within the PG matchup between Stevie Franchise and Si "I'm a PG" Green. I personally like Franchise in this matchup because I still think he has that gamebreaking ability that you need in a PG in the playoffs. But if the Franchise gets out of control only, I could definitely see the Warriors move on here.
Round 2:
vs. Season Series: 4-0, Jazz
Nuggets Player to Watch: Terrell Brandon - 31.0 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 10.3 apg, 2.3 spg
Jazz Player to Watch: George Ackles - 32.7 ppg, 10.5 rpg, 1.7 spg, 1.1 bpg
Dumptime's Prediction: At Least Bankz Won The Podcast War, Jazz 4-3
Overview: On paper, this matchup is very uneven to me. Not talent wise, but its like wherever the Jazz has an advantage, an advantage for the Nuggets pop up elsewhere. On the wings, the Nuggets have a huge advantage when it comes to SG with Jimmy Butler going up against whatever MLE SG the Jazz put on him. Then at SF, you have the giant George Ackles, probably one of if not the best SF in the league, going up against weak old Adam Morrison. You would think Bankz would have the bigger advantage on the wings, but I think the gap between Jimmy Butler and Steve Smith is about the same as the gap between George Ackles and Adam Morrison. But yes, I love me some George Ackles, he is my type of SF in this league. The key for me is at the PG position in this series. You have a long standing elite PG and former MVP in Terrell Brandon on the Nuggets and a solid and dependable PG in Kenny Anderson. SPL definitely did well for himself when he ditched the old Isiah Thomas and his contract and got a younger model in a later deal. Can Kenny hold Brandon enough to not allow him to take over the series for the Nuggets? The main event in the frontcourt is gonna be between Big Jonas and the Mystical Stone. The Jazz are gonna need Jonas to get by Mystic for a couple nice buckets to make up for some of the points they are going to lose in the Brandon and Butler matchups. In the end, this is a coin flip, but with the Jazz having homecourt and the Jazz putting a whooping on the Nuggets in the regular season, I'm going to have to go with the Jazz.
vs. 
Season Series: 3-1, Clippers
Clippers Player to Watch: Jimmy Chitwood - 23.3 ppg, 6.7 rpg, 1.4 spg
Kings Player to Watch: Kevin Brooks - 33.1 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 2.3 spg
Dumptime's Prediction: Kings Overcome This Minor Clip, Kings 4-2
Overview: At first, I'm like oh this is gonna be a 5 game series at most, but then I saw that the Clippers beat the Kings in the season series. Like what the fuck just happened. On paper, you have two younger, better wings scoring at a historic rate in Kevin Brooks and Larry Johnson for the Kings, and then you have two older, less good but still good wings in Bill Sharman and Jimmy Chitwood. At point guard, you have a point guard that took that next step when the opportunity presented itself in Brandon Knight, and one point guard that is too scared to get up on that escalator in Steve Francis. Will this be the moment that Steve Francis finally steps up to the plate and hits a ball? Or will he just strike out again? I think the Kings wings will score more often and stop the Clippers wings more often than not. I think the bigs are a pretty big non factor in this series, they are both going to stop each other, the only difference is that the Clippers bigs may shoot more bad shots than the Kings bigs will. At the end of the day, I just don't think the Clippers have enough to stop this legendary big three. And thats not a bad thing. Not many teams do.
Western Conference Finals:
vs. Season Series: 4-0, Jazz
Kings Player to Watch: Larry Johnson - 33.8 ppg, 9.9 rpg, 1.0 spg
Jazz Player to Watch: Kenny Anderson - 25.6 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 10.4 apg, 1.7 spg
Dumptime's Prediction: The Kings Killed Jazz, Kings 4-3
Overview: Another series where I'm shocked at the season series result. But to be fair to 20s, the largest margin of victory was like 12 points so it was a pretty damn close sweep. This series will feature the best player matchup that we will see in this playoffs. The two giants on the SF position in Larry Johnson and George Ackles. Obviously they are both going to get theirs and then some, but Ackles is better on the defensive end and he has the size advantage, but Larry Johnson has shown us that he can do this thing with giving minimal effort on the defensive end. You might call him the TMBSL version of Dirk Nowitzki. Will this be the series where the SG position will end up hurting SPL? The lowly Steve Smith will face off against a former Milwaukee Buck himself Kevin Brooks. The matchup just behind the mammoth SF one is at the PG position, where you have two pretty identical players. Brandon Knight scores a little bit more, but he is also a little bit more careless with the ball than Kenny Anderson is. Both have nearly identical assist, steals, and shooting percentages numbers. The key here is which one will show up just that tiny bit more in this series that it will make a difference. On the frontcourt, the Jazz have the only real scoring threat down low in Big Jonas and it doesn't hurt that he shoots at a pretty decent percentage rate so it doesn't hurt the team. Will Biyombo, Edney, or Leonard be able to shut him down? In the end, this is the most even series in the whole playoffs when it comes to talent. I picked the Kings because I think the combo of Brooks and Larry Johnson may just have those 1-2 games that can change a series.
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There you have it, according to Dumptime, TMBSL will have a Bullets-Kings Finals. Will it finally happen? Will one of these GMs finally win a title with their ridiculous cores? Good luck.
