The playoffs of the National Basketball Association starts on April 18. In the east, Russian Timothy of Brands from Cleveland and the team of Mikhail Prokhorov Brooklyn will compete for the Cup of Larry O’Brian.
Atlanta (1) – Brooklyn (8)
On September 24, 2009, for the “NTS”, the sign date of their recent history-Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov confirmed his intention to become the owner of the club’s control package, based in New Jersey. The newly-naked team owner immediately approached the management of the structure of the “networks” with its inherent scale: it was announced about moving the franchise to Brooklyn, to the new Barkelaz Center stadium. Prokhorov himself said that he wanted to promote Russian basketball to a new level of development.
In June 2010, the League League, the League, decided to transport his talents from Cleveland. Naturally, almost all groups entered the struggle for one of the best NBA players for the entire existence of the association, and Nets was no exception
However, the striker decided to create a “big trio” in Miami, uniting with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh on July 8, and six days later, Prokhorov appointed Billy King, the worst manager of the National Basketball Association for the past five years, to the post of general manager.
The club changed most of its valuable assets to experienced and starry, but completely middle-aged and expensive players, which, however, did not allow them to pass even the second round of playoffs. This season, the team also acts extremely unstable and, more importantly, inferior in fights with rivals with a non -negative balance of victories and defeats, in 76% of cases.
Brooklyn approaches the starting series with almost no injuries of leading basketball players. Unless the Russian defender Sergei Karasev will not be able to appear on the site, even if the “network” sensationally reaches the finals, but this does not add a chance of success to them.
Atlanta has become a real revelation of the regular championship. Hawks, which almost did not change their composition in the summer, won this season 22 victories more than in the past. The team is amazingly balanced, players clearly realize their tasks on the floor, there is a clear progress of all athletes – from the brilliant playing Jeff Tig, ending with the elite sniper Kail Corver.
All the clubs of the league are afraid of “hawks”, and, perhaps, the wards of Mike Badenholzer should not be wasted at once all forces to the starting series – they are already obliged to pass “NTS” without any problems.
The main thing is that the advances given to them are not too generous, nevertheless, it would be easier to approach the decisive confrontations of Atlanta as an Anderdog than a favorite.
Victory Atlanta-4-1
It is worth noting that Brooklyn, which made it in the playoffs of the East only on the last day of the regular season, would take only 11th place in the Western conference with similar indicators of victories and defeats (38-44). The opportunity to play in the post -zone is already an extreme success for the Mikhail Prokhorov team, but it is clearly not worth waiting for the exit to the second round – Hawks are too stable, which for the first time in a long time had a real chance to extend the game year until June.
Cleveland (2) – Boston (7)
The “Cleveland” was focused on this off -season – the composition “Cavaliers” has changed beyond recognition in a matter of months: the return of LeBron James and Kevin Lava’s arrival in the summer, traveled along the regular championship from different clubs by Jay Armit, Iman Shampert, Sean Marion and Sean Shampert and , of course, Timothy of the brains.
The Russian generally greatly strengthened the team’s game, since the next severe injury of the Brazilian “large” Anderson Varezhao could put an end to the highest ambitions of the “KAVS” – nevertheless, without a high -quality central Cup of Larry O’Brian, only a certain number of teams were taken.
The brains, which found exactly the place where he manages to realize his considerable potential, helped Cleveland 10.6 points and 7.3 selection on average per match. Moreover, the Russian team player literally concreted the three -second Cavaliers zone, not allowing the opponents to score light glasses from “paint”.
The club needs to win in the playoffs in the next couple of seasons, because the team leaders begin to go through their peak, and some team stars will not want to get stuck somewhere between the first round and champion rings.
In American skeptics, only the candidacy of the head coach David Blatt, who was a long period of time, the mentor of the Russian national team, is doubtful.
In their opinion, the specialist still could not establish relations with the central figures of the club from Ohio-there were many rumors in the press about the constant conflicts of the 55-year-old American with LeBron, who allegedly did not follow his instructions and generally wanted to manage what was happening on the floor on his own. Blatt really does not have sufficient authority in the coaching of the United States, but in Europe he showed himself a good tactic and outstanding psychologist. By the end of the regular season, all the ranges in the team seemed to have stopped, but there is some probability that disagreements will flare up in the decisive matches in the “CAVS”.
“Boston” is the most unexpected participant in the postseson. Club General Danny Ainj, a couple of years ago, headed to rebuild and rejuvenate the franchise, was unlikely to count on the Eight of the strongest East.In addition, in the course of this championship, the manager gave to Dallas, it seemed, the best player of the team of Rajon Rondo. Celtic fans understood that the team would soon again be among the applicants for high positions, because the ex-leader of the 17-fold winners of the NBA were extremely long-sighted, in return for which valuable elections in the draft were in the location of the green, but they could not suggest so much The successful performance of the club is already this year.
The main factor is successful, by the standards of them, far from the very composition, the game is the mentor Brad Stevens. The young specialist managed to squeeze the maximum out of his basketball players, forcing him to talk about himself even the most severe analysts in the best.
Boston will definitely compete with the strongest rivals in the foreseeable future, but so far the first round of playoffs is seen for him with a clear ceiling.
Victory Cleveland-4-0
In the future, Cleveland expects big problems – having lost many worthwhile assets, the club put everything on the victory here and now. Kevin Lava, the possible departure of Kevin Lava, has not added confidence and the possible departure of the stellar striker, for whom the KAVS was given to Minnesota the young talent of Andrew Wiggins.
However, their rival in the starting series for departure is a team of a completely different level – each position of Cavaliers is equipped much better, and the presence of James in James automatically makes any franchise the applicant for the championship title.
“Chicago” (3) – “Miluoi” (6)
The “Chicago” of recent years has been associated with all only with one – with injuries of the Rose Derrick playing. In recent years, MVP 2011 received one serious damage after another, which could not but affect the game of the team. Bulls with its leader and without him are simply different teams.
Tom Tibodo has an impressive number of beautiful “role-playing” performers, but without a completely healthy first number of the draft-2008, it will be extremely difficult for the club to reach the final of the conference, not to mention the struggle for victory in the postsuzone. Rose should play in the first meeting of the series from Miluoka, but it is not clear how much it is enough – a basketball player can get another injury in the first seconds of the starting game.
“Bax” could count this season and more than sixth place in the east, but the team prevented damage to the knee of the first -year Jabari Parker. The Duka graduate showed a truly mature game and seriously claimed the title of best newcomer to the season. In addition to this, for some reason, Brandon Knight, who managed to fully open up under the leadership of an inexperienced, promising coach Jason Kidd, was given to the Grandfield for some reason.
The only hope for the successful performance of the team in the flight fights is the amazingly gifted Greek Yannis Adetokumbo, which affects everyone with his spectacular actions.
Victory Chicago-4-2
The guys from Miluoka are all ahead-both Jabari Parker and Yannis Adetokumbo, and, perhaps, Michael Kidd-gilcrist will play in the playoffs more than once, but so far it is early for them to deal with the multi-experienced Chicago. “Bulls” generally has enough reasons to complete the series in five to six matches: strong “big”, the advantage of home parquet, first-class protection from a recognized master of defensive constructions of Tom Tibodo. That's just all the hopes for the champion rings of the ex-club Michael Jordan scattered along with the ruptures of the cross-shaped ligaments and the meniscus of their leader.
Toronto (4) – Washington (5)
The first round will open a duel of the most equal pair of possible – Toronto will receive Washington on its site. The only Canadian team in the league generally has a lot in common with the metropolitan team. Good performances to the break for the match of all stars and an obvious decline after it, not the most qualified specialists, who failed to instill in clubs at least partially the played game, not fully equipped with the staff – all this makes their confrontation extremely interesting in their unpredictability.
The main character of the series should be John Wall playing the “wizards”, it is on him that the Wizarts coaching headquarters has the greatest hopes. The NBA champion in Boston Paul Pierce, which is able to score a decisive throw with a siren, can come to the aid of him at a difficult moment.
Washington Victory-4-3
There is no doubt that the winner of this couple will go on a summer vacation after the second stage of the playoffs-groups are too unprepared for serious fights.
The leaders of Toronto and Washington need to radically change something in the offseason, otherwise the unpleasant period of stagnation risks taking a long time for many years.
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