2008 NBA Playoffs: Watch it Happen

What do you get when a mix of veteran players and rising young stars follow up the greatest regular season in eons with a first round for the ages? Well that would be the 2008 NBA playoffs. If you're anything like me, you figured there was no way the playoffs could live up to the hype of the regular season. I mean com'on, eight 50 win teams in the west, the Boston Celtics and Detroit Pistons battling for the East, Chris Paul and Deron Williams vying to be the NBA's next great point guard. How could the post-season live up to these kind of expectations?

Yet, here we are, only a week into the playoffs and Kobe has already joined Sir Charles and others in the 40/10 club, Dwight Howard has joined Wilt and Nate in the back-to-back 20/20 club, and Chris Paul is keeping company with a short list of legends as well in the back-to-back 30/10 club--including a ridiculous 35 point 17 assist performance in game two. Oh, and how can we forget game 1 of the western conference finals, er, I mean the first round match-up between the Suns and Spurs. That game had more endings than Steven Spielberg's AI, but this time it was a good thing. How many game "winners" can one game have?

So after a first week so exciting it makes one wish the playoffs would never end, what can we possibly expect from week two? Well here are five things that you can count on in the next week.

5 - Get Out the Brooms
As exciting as the playoffs have been so far it doesn't look like the Hawks have any chance against the Celtics (no surprise there). What is unique about the Celtics/Hawks series, however, is that it appears to be the only series that will likely produce a sweep. There are a few series that could potentially lead to a sweep, but in all likelihood the lower seeded team will find a way to get a game or two while at home, just as the Raptors did against the Magic on Thursday.

4 - Doubt Your MVP Choice
It's a good thing that CP3 and Kobe don't play on the same day, because if they did our heads would explode trying to choose an MVP. Seemingly every time either one of these guys takes the court they convince you that they should've been the choice for MVP. Hopefully they'll find a way to meet in the Western Conference Finals and provide some closure to the argument. So for now just listen to Terrell Owens and get your popcorn ready, because you're going to change your mind at least four more times this week.

3 - Tracy McGrady Will Take the Blame
Seems like each year we have this conversation, of course we used to say the same things about Kevin Garnett. Why can't T-Mac get out of the first round? Why does T-Mac fade in the fourth quarter? What is keeping the Rockets from getting over the hump? Somehow one of the league's true good guys--the sleepy eyed McGrady--takes the blame for not carrying his teams LeBron style through the playoffs. Well let's try to pardon T-Mac for only getting the Yao-less rag-tag Rockets homecourt in the brutal Western Conference. McGrady can only get them there and give them a chance to win late before he's totally tapped out. So maybe he's not LeBron, but T-Mac is still great, so even though everyone will blame him for the loss, we really shouldn't.

2 - Cry us a River
There is no doubt that some superstar in the Western Conference is going to get eliminated and give us a teary display of emotion at the post-game press conference. Who is it going to be? My leading candidates are the aforementioned Tracy McGrady,--who may cry at the press conference even if they win--Allen Iverson, Dirk Nowitzki, Amare Stoudemire, and my dark horse candidate for the weepy award, Chris Webber, who may finally realize he's retired. So grab a box of tissues and cry along with them, because the closer we get to the end of this NBA season the sadder we should all be.

1. Your Jaw will Drop
If there is one certainty in the next week, it is that something amazing is about to happen. How could it not? Records are being challenged everyday already and we're not even half way through with the first round. So sit back and enjoy what you're about to see, because we may not see anything this good again in a long long time.

PS. Hopefully it is just the TNT guys who don't realize that Kobe didn't jump a car and there wasn't any computer tricks either. How complicated is the concept that the car drove next to Kobe while he jumped simultaneously? I find it amusing that they talk about this video so much and they still haven't figured out how they did it... I mean com'on, I bet your average 4th grader would know after watching it once.

PPS. The potential of the Hornets v Spurs should have you drooling. Tony Parker and CP3 going head-to-head, Duncan and David West, the grumpy champs and the upstart Hornets--oh man it's going to be good.

Enjoy the next week everyone! I know I will.