NBA Playoff Predictions and Dunks

The NBA playoffs are down to the NBA version of the Final Four.  The Western Conference Finals kick off on Tuesday night with the Oklahoma City Thunder heading to Dallas to take on the Mavericks.  Remember the Mavericks?  They are the team that disarmed and disrobed the world champion Lakers while dismissing legendary coach Phil Jackson 8 whole days ago!  The Mavericks have not had 8 days off since October, so it will be interesting to see how they respond once they take the floor against the Thunder, who just finished a long and exciting 7-game series against the Memphis Grizzlies that included a triple-overtime thriller in Game 4.  Despite the layoff and my personal dislike for Dirk Nowitzki, I'll take the Mavericks in 5 games.

Russell Westbrook will try to lead his Oklahoma City Thunder
teammates over the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Finals.

The playoff seeds held serve in the Eastern Conference as the #1-seeded Chicago Bulls advanced to face the #2-seeded Miami Heat.  The Bulls got off to an impressive start last night who ran past the favored Heat, 103-82.  The Bulls outplayed and outhustled the Heat while outscoring the superstar-laden team by 21 in the second half (55-34).  (Is it just me or does seeing the Bulls as a championship contender make every Jazz fan a little queasy as we all remember the last time they were a contender...MJ ring a bell?)  The latest dominant performance by Chicago was evidenced by the Taj Gibson's highlight reel dunk early in the second quarter when he threw down a ridiculous two-hand dunk over Dwayne Wade, who to make matters worse committed a foul on the play.  Even Wade clapped when he saw the replay.  "That was a good one," Wade said.  "That's a great ratio for me.  First time I got dunked on all year.  I'll take my 90 (really, Dwayne?) to 1 on my blocks to dunked-on ratio.  I really got punked.  It was good."  However, I don't expect the Bulls to be a high-flying act throughout the series.  The Heat will make adjustments, play better defense against the Bulls role players than they did in Game 1 (Deng, Korver, etc.), and LeBron James and Dwayne Wade will match Chris Bosh's 30-point performance in Game 1 and play up to their guarantee of bringing an NBA championship to South Beach. The Heat will win it in 6.

The bleacherreport.com posted the Taj Gibson dunk for our viewing pleasure (unless you're a Dwayne Wade fan) as well as the "10 Greatest Playoff Dunks".  It's a list so stacked with great dunks that they needed to add a few dunks as honorable mention.  I personally would have voted for the Shawn Kemp dunks because he had TWO of them within mere moments of each other...enjoy!