2011–2012 NBA Preview and Predictions Part IV: Western Conference Playoffs

First Round

#1 Okla­homa City Thun­der Vs. #8 Den­ver Nuggets – Should be a fairly easy match-up for the Thun­der. You could argue that the Nuggets are a deeper team, but I just don’t think they have that true go to guy that can get them points when they need them, like the Thun­der have in Durant and West­brook. The Nuggets will play scrappy and tough make it com­pet­i­tive, but I think the Thun­der win in five.

Thun­der win 4–1

#4 Port­land Trail Blaz­ers Vs. #5 San Anto­nio Spurs – Tough match-up for the Spurs in this one. The Blaz­ers are deep, ath­letic and most impor­tantly younger than the Spurs. Like the Celtics in the East I think that the Spurs title win­dow has closed and the Blaz­ers will finally get out of the first round this year. I think it will be hard fought series as the Spurs will not go out with­out a fight, but in the end they just will not have enough left in the tank.

Trail Blaz­ers win 4–3

#3 Dal­las Mav­er­icks Vs. #6 Mem­phis Griz­zlies – By the time the play­offs come around the scari­est team may be the Mem­phis Griz­zlies. They came within a game of the Con­fer­ence finals last sea­son and that was with­out their best all-around player Rudy Gay. The Mav­er­icks are an aging group, who has all but admit­ted they are play­ing for next year by not re-signing key con­trib­u­tors from their cham­pi­onship team to save up for this summer’s free agent class. Mem­phis is too deep and their front court is too tough for the Mavs, Griz­zlies advance.

Mem­phis wins 4–1

#2 Los Ange­les Clip­pers Vs. #7 Los Ange­les Lak­ers – I never thought the day would come when I would have the Clip­pers as the two seed and the Lak­ers the seven seed. But the Lak­ers are thin off the bench and their starters looked even older than they are against the Bulls on Christ­mas Day. The Clip­pers are just too deep and tal­ented and their young fresh legs will run the Lak­ers ragged. And remem­ber this, the last time the Lak­ers were this bad Kobe quit on his team in the play­offs, in a game seven, and basi­cally told the Lak­ers to make some trades or trade him, which is how they ended up with Gasol the next season.

Con­fer­ence Semifinals

#1 Okla­homa City Thun­der Vs. #4 Port­land Trail Blaz­ers – This has seven game series writ­ten all over it. Both teams are young, deep and ath­letic. The dif­fer­ence in the end once again though to me will be the abil­ity of Durant and West­brook to cre­ate their own shots off the drib­ble, while the Blaz­ers best player LaMar­cus Aldridge will have a tough time get­ting points against the defen­sive minded front line of Perkins and Ibaka for the Thun­der. It will put too much pres­sure on streaky shoot­ers Jamal Craw­ford and Ger­ald Wal­lace. The Thun­der will win a close Game Seven at home.

Thun­der win 4–3

#2 Los Ange­les Clip­pers Vs. #6 Mem­phis Griz­zlies – Another series that has seven games writ­ten all over it. The win­ner of this series will be the team that wins the bat­tle up front. It will be the Clip­pers Blake Grif­fin and DeAn­dre Jor­dan ver­sus Marc Gasol and Zach Ran­dolph of the Griz­zlies. I like the Clip­pers a tiny bit bet­ter because they are more ath­letic and play bet­ter defense. To me the Clip­pers are slightly bet­ter in every aspect between these two teams, but not so much bet­ter that this will be an easy series. Once again I think the home court will be ben­e­fi­cial and the Clip­pers will move on.

Clip­pers win 4–3

Con­fer­ence Finals

#1 Okla­homa City Thun­der Vs. #2 Los Ange­les Clip­pers – I’ve got to believe this one will be yet another hard fought seven game series. It would not sur­prise me if nei­ther one of these teams won two games in a row. I think the Thun­der will win all the odd num­bered games and unfor­tu­nately for the Clip­pers they will win all the even num­bered games, leav­ing them a game shy of the finals. I think the Thun­der has the height and ath­leti­cism up front to con­trol the Clip­pers big men and the Clip­pers will lack the scor­ing to match that of West­brook and Durant. The Thun­der also has maybe the one point guard that has the quick­ness to beat Chris Paul off the drib­ble. Thun­der advance to the NBA Finals.

Thun­der win 4–3

So those are my picks for the West­ern con­fer­ence. Check back later for my finals match-up between the Thun­der and Heat.