OKC and Miami Heat struggling as they enter the playoffs

OKC. Miami has LeBron James. They will be fine. Finals appearance for sure.

 

OKC. miami is guaranteed a finals entree. nobody in the east can and will beat them.

chicago is too weak offensively.

 

I think Indiana and Boston will give Miami some resistence in the East, but I agree Miami's chance to going to the Finals is good.

OKC is an extremely talented team. Their main issue right now is that Westbrook has been bricking for the past month. Will he find his touch again? That will be the key for their playoffs run. OKC still has a very good chance to make it to the Finals. The Spurs may run like a machine now, but I'm not sure if that team is built for the postseason. Memphis maybe a dark horse to win the West as well.

 

Scott Brooks sucks! He can't coach the Thunder. They have that record off of talent alone.

 

The OKC players better get their heads on straight, as they might have to go through the Mavs / Lakers / Spurs just to get to the finals.

I could see Boston and Chicago giving the Heat fits, but Rondo and Rose have to play out of their minds for either of those two teams to have a chance of making it to the Finals.

Rose probably won't even be 100% by the time playoffs start. And we all know what happened when LeBron James guarded Derrick Rose.

tl;dr? OKC should be concerned. Miami is struggling without Wade (and some instances without Bosh), so they should be fine when those two come back into the starting lineup.

 

miami has been resting wade and bosh

 

I don't think either will have too big of a problem.

But their matchups in the first round look a little scary.

Miami v. New York (who have been playing great basketball since D'antoni got canned)

OKC v. Dallas (who aren't great but are a balanced team that could give OKC a run for their money)

I'm pretty sure that both will advance, but just keep in mind that the teams they're facing aren't easy.

 

OKC could end up facing Dallas in the 1st round. Hot or not that is a matchup you don't want in the 1st round.

 

Heat is at least understandable since they've got key players down.

 

Neither team has a post up back to the basket game. Everything they do is facing the basket. Teams like that are extremely streaky and when it comes time for the playoffs and they are facing better defenses who have something in the paint to counter all their drives and they actual scramble defend on the perimeter and don't give up so many wide open 3-looks, all of a sudden the game becomes a lot harder.

 

Perfect time to slump because they will gell in the playoffs.