Bulls
Ryan Anderson beasted with 16 boards on top of his 26 points. No way we catch Orlando, Chicago or Miami take your pick.
How's the irony in Orlando with Howard out? SVG throwin' high 5s at the end of the game. Horrible.
It is absolutely going to be either
Miami or Chicago in the 1st round. Against either squad we have advantages/disadvantages depending where you look, but I only see us beating one of the two.
If, by some unforeseen stroke of fortune we were to take one of them down, I'd be more confident in saying it were
Chicago. I believe that they're running out of stamina, and that their loss against Washington in their last game indicated that to me even further. They've been fighting hard all year, and I think that we are what's keeping them up at night as they set their sights on the postseason, and nurse niggling but ever constant injuries.
They've done what they've done all year, and as their steam lessens in resolve and Rose fades more so from familiarity within his role and how it effects others as a group, I think we have far more of a chance to take them out at the
right time. It'd be circumstantial, and would rely on at least 1 win out of the 1st 2 away games, but it seems far more likely than defeating the Heat, who, as they showed at MSG in our last game, have the necessary chemistry and M.O to take us down. The combination of Wade and James is too much for this team, who would be relying mostly on Carmelo and a rookie to take down 2 of the game's top 5~10 players defensively.
In saying that, I do believe that without both Lin and a completely focused and revitalized Amar'e, we can't handle the Bulls' front-court and back-court depth. Some might say that's Miami's weakness, but Wade and James in addition to Miami's defense not only make up for that glaring weakness, but separate us entirely with their overall versatility, experience and game plan.
Bulls for me, but that's a pick of 2 potent poisons.
As for right now, here's an article eluding to the fact that we still are far from a dead cert to make the postseason.
______________________________________________
The mathematics behind the race for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference are starting to become clear.
The Milwaukee Bucks are two games behind the eighth-place New York Knicks overall, but Milwaukee is only one game back of New York in the loss column of the Eastern Conference records of the two clubs. This is the second and possibly decisive tiebreaker since the teams have split their season series 2-2.
For either team, the only Western Conference opponent remaining is the Los Angeles Clippers, who play at Madison Square Garden on April 25 in the second-to-last game on New York's schedule.
Therefore, if the Bucks were to gain exactly two games on the Knicks overall through the end of the regular season -- meaning both teams finish with the exact same record -- the only way that the Bucks will not win the the second tiebreaker against the Knicks is if one of the Knicks' losses is to the Clippers. Any other defeat of New York would be at the hands of an Eastern Conference club and give Milwaukee the superior conference record.
If the Bucks and Knicks were to finish with the exact same Eastern Conference records, New York has already clinched ownership of the third tiebreaker against Milwaukee (record versus playoff-eligible teams in the conference).
Meanwhile, the Knicks are only one game behind the Philadelphia 76ers who sit in seventh place, and New York owns the 2-1 season series tiebreaker. The Bucks are three games behind the Sixers, with their season series tied 1-1 and a head-to-head game looming in Milwaukee on April 25.
Read more:
http://basketball.realgm.com/wireta...gure_In_Knicks_Bucks_Tiebreaker#ixzz1sJ3wT5K9