The Playoffs and Season Awards

By Don Ellis

The NBA playoffs began on Saturday. Now is the time to pay attention to every single game, every single night.

Now that the entire playoff season consists of best-of-seven series, the league has reached a European soccer-like approach to the season - you know, with months and months of pool play (the regular season) only eliminating 13 of 29 teams. Win close to half of your games and you'll advance to the elimination round (the playoffs), in which it can take almost three weeks to get eliminated in the first round.

Now that I've gotten that off my chest, let's hand out the regular-season individual awards before looking at the playoff match-ups.

Most Valuable Player: They should really call this award the Most Outstanding Player, because it's much harder to subjectively decide which individual was most important to his team's success.

Think about it - if you take Duncan off the Spurs, or McGrady off the Magic, or Garnett off the T-Wolves, or Kobe or Shaq off the Lakers, each team would be horrible. So I guess the most valuable player must be the one whose team has the best record. That makes Tim Duncan my Most Valuable Player.

But the most outstanding player? That's a very close call. TMac easily led the league in scoring and dished out 5.5 assists a night - but KG put up 23 points (9th in the NBA), 13.4 rebounds (2nd), and 6.0 assists (13th). I don't know how far back one would have to look to find the last 23/13/6 player (Magic, The Big O, and Wilt are possibilities), but it's enough for me to give Garnett the very slight edge.

Defensive Player of the Year: Ben Wallace. By a mile.

Rookie of the Year: Although it's not Yao Ming's fault that Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley don't get him the ball nearly as much as they should, with the year that Amare Stoudamire had, it probably doesn't matter. Stoudamire had the second-best freshman season of any high school rookie in NBA history, behind only Garnett. Stoudamire was secnd in scoring among rookies (behind Caron Butler), and he led all rookies in rebounding.

Sixth Man of the Year: Who really cares? If you're a fan, and one of your team's players wins the award, it's a great honor. Other than that, does anyone really care who the best player who isn't good enough to start is?

Coach of the Year: My vote has to go to Golden State's Eric Musselman. The Warriors won only 21 games last season, and they weren't expected to fare much better this year. But they improved their win total by an NBA-best 17 games, and they were second in the league in scoring (trailing Dallas by less than a point). Too bad they were last in the league in defense and they are going to lose point guard Gilbert Arenas to free agency this summer, but at least this season was fun for Bay Area fans.

Remember, these awards are based on pool play, I mean the regular season. I'll hand out the important awards sometime in June.

Now, on to the playoffs.

Eastern Conference Playoffs

No. 1 Detroit vs. No. 8 Orlando: McGrady is the best player in the East, but he has no help. Wallace is banged up, which will help the Magic, but it won't be quite enough. Detroit boasts the league's best defense, and TMac can't outscore them alone. Pistons in 7.

No. 2 New Jersey vs. No. 7 Milwaukee: New Jersey isn't nearly the team they were last season, they were below .500 after the all-star break, and they probably have less overall talent than the Bucks. In a testament to George Karl's coaching "ability", Nets in 5.

No. 3 Indiana vs. No. 6 Boston: Indiana lost 19 of their last 30 games after a hot start, and they're one of the youngest teams in the league. Watch for Ron Artest to snap if things go poorly for the Pacers. Paul Pierce and Boston's experience make the difference. Celtics in 6.

No. 4 Philadelphia vs. No. 5 New Orleans: This should be an interesting series. The Hornets have a big edge up front, but with Baron Davis hurting, Philadelphia should have a big advantage in quickness. Home-court decides this one. Sixers in 7.

Western Conference Playoffs

No. 1 San Antonio vs. No. 8 Phoenix: The Suns won the season series 3-1, and Amare Stoudamire certainly doesn't play like he's only a year out of high school. But the Spurs were virtually unbeatable after the all-star break, and Duncan was the MVP for a reason. Spurs in 7.

No. 2 Sacramento vs. No. 7 Utah: Are Karl Malone and John Stockton eligible for social security yet? They'll probably feel like they are after this series. Sacramento simply has too many weapons for the Jazz. Kings in 5.

No. 3 Dallas vs. No. 6 Portland: Dallas melted down late after breezing along with the best record in the league for most of the season. The Jail Blazers have the edge in the paint with Rasheed Wallace and Zach Randolph. Michael Finley and Scottie Pippen are each coming off injuries, and if one of them goes down, it could be the difference in what should be an entertaining series. Mavs in 7.

No. 4 Minnesota vs. No. 5 Los Angeles: The Timberwolves finally get home-court advantage in a playoff series, and they have to play the three-time defending champions. The only question here is whether or not Garnett will start looking for a trade after another first-round playoff exit. Lakers in 4.

And just in case you didn't figure it out after reading last week's NBA Runaround, I'm picking the Lakers to win their fourth consecutive championship. Most likely in 6 games over the Pistons.

Well, that's all I have for now. Contact me at dellis@insidehoops.net with your questions and/or comments.


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