The NBA playoffs are in their second-round matchups and the playoffs certainly have been very entertaining up to this point unlike other years in the past where it was pretty easy to predict who would win it all, this year is, in my opinion, is wide open. So with the second-round matchups all being tight, I will try to predict who I think will move on to the Conference Finals.
In the Eastern Conference, you have the defending Champions the Milwaukee Bucks battling with the red hot Boston Celtics squad, I think the Bucks advance into the Eastern Conference Finals but they better take care of business in game 6, which is in Milwaukee or I see the Celtics winning at home in game 7.
The Bucks are vulnerable right now without Khris Middleton, they still have Giannis but they miss Middelton’s ability to close out games, so they simply got to find ways to keep surviving until he can come back.
The other Eastern Conference matchup is the Heat who are leading the 76ers 3 games to 2 in the series. The 76ers were without Joel Embiid the first two games of the series, and with his status unknown it looked like they were heading to a sweep, but with his return, he helped the 76ers get back into the series.
In the end, I still think the Heat win this series and square off against the Bucks in the Eastern Conference Finals. The Heat have shown they are undersized and struggle against a dominant post scorer, Embidd is certainly capable of leading the 76ers back to win this series. The reason why I think the Heat will still win this series is because they were basically spotted a two-game lead in the series with Embiid being out, that is just too big of a hole to climb out of against a deep talented Heat team.
In the Western Conference, the Suns are one game away from advancing to the WCF vs the Dallas Mavericks. Honestly, the Suns have looked shaky so far in this post-season I expected this series to be wrapped up by now, but Luka Doncic and company have battled back from being down 2-0 in the series and have given themselves a chance even though they are now facing elimination in game 6.
The Suns were my pick to get back to the Finals from the start of the season I think they close it out in game 6 but even if they get to a game 7 I still think the Suns are far more superior than the Mavericks.
In the other Western Conference matchup, the Golden State Warriors are leading the Memphis Grizzlies 3 games to 2 in the series. The Grizzlies have been without Ja Morant the past two games and the Warriors should’ve already had this series wrap up.
Yes, the Grizzlies have shown they can still win games even with Morant out he missed 25 games this year and they won 20 of those games, but the Warriors shouldn’t be struggling with them, they had to come from behind to win game 4 at home or they easily could be down three games to two in this series. They were completely torn apart in game 5 but they should bounce back and win at home for game 6 to move on to the WCF.
