The NBA Playoffs- Game 2 East

THE EAST

ORLANDO (3) vs. PHILADELPHIA (6)

When Dwight Howard was selected number 1 in the 2004 NBA draft a lot of people were surprised that the Magic did not get now Bobcat Center Emeka Okafor.  In the NBA Howard has been lording it over the opposition and Okafor has been a silent contributor to the Bobcats cause.  Howard will need his other team mates to light up the scoreboard as Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu are still recuperating from their injuries which was a factor why the Magic faded in the latter part of the season. 

 They had a chance to get the second seed in the East but got beat because of those injuries.  Howard will face a troika of long and lean defenders in Samuel Dalembert, Marreese Speights and Theo Rattlif.  The Sixers love to run and at the forefront of that run and gun offense is AI, Andre Igoudala.  He is now the lead sixer and is tasked to carry the brunt of the offense with Andre Miller providing veteran point guard skills and leadership.  IF the Magic can contain the running game of the Sixers and keep the scores low then they have an inside track to make it past the second round. The sixers on the other hand should just play Howard straight up with no double team and run as often as possible.  But in the end I believe Orlando will weave their  Magic in this series in 5 games. 

ATLANTA (4) vs. MIAMI (5)

In the first round of the playoffs the most exciting games usually come from the teams seeded number 4 and 5. That is because most of the time these teams are evenly matched and are aching to prove that they deserve more than their regular season fluke.  The Miami Heat are now led by the resurgent NBA scoring champ Dwayne Wade who lights up the scoring sheets night in and night out. Wade is also and MVP candidate and is the X-factor of the Heat.  Rookies Michael Beasley and  Mario Chalmers provide good back up minutes to go with the veteran smarts of newly acquired center Jermaine O’Neal and Udonis Haslem. The Heat are a solid basketball team and is poised to give the Cavaliers a run for their money. 

Not to be left out are the Atlanta Hawks who almost eliminated the No.1 Celtics last year in their 1 vs. 8 battle. The Hawks have climbed 4 notches this year and their only advantage against Miami is that they are hard to beat at home.  Sweet shooting Joe Johnson leads this team together with the high flying Dominique Wilkins clone Josh Smith and Mike Bibby. Together the troika concoct good music and can give the heat problems if they start the game with their hot shooting. For the Hawks to win they have to stay close to Wade and limit his penetrations and free throws. Easier said than done, this is an exciting matchup that I expect to go the full 7 games with the Heat coming up on top.