Sports Time Radio

The NBA playoffs started last night. I know, I know they call it the play-in tournament, but let’s face it it’s the start of the playoffs.

In the Eastern conference the Brooklyn Nets beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 115-108 while in the Western conference the Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Los Angeles Clippers 109-104. With these wins the Nets and the Timberwolves will now be the 7th seeds in their conferences.

As for the Cavaliers and the Clippers their season isn’t quite over as they’ll have one more chance to grab what will be the 8th seeds in their conference, but first they have to find out who’ll they play for that right.

Tonight, the Eastern conference match up features the Atlanta Hawks hosting the Charolotte Hornets while the Western conference matchup has the New Orleans Pelicans hosting the San Antonio Spurs. The winners of these two games advance to Friday night where they’ll face off with either Cleveland or Los Angeles depending on which conference, they’re in. The winner of these two Friday night game will be the teams that are the 8th seeds in their conferences.

As for the two teams that end up losing tonight’s games, well their seasons are over.

As for the teams that won last night the Nets will move on to face the 2nd seeded team in the Eastern conference the Boston Celtics while the Timberwolves will face off against the #2 seed in the Western conference the Memphis Grizzlies.

Now it’s rare in the NBA that you get #7 or #8 seeds winnig playoff series, but it’s even rarer that there’s a team like the Nets in one of those spots.

There are a lot of basketball experts who think that the Nets will eventually represent the Eastern conference in the NBA finals. At one point in time the Nets where and may still be the odds on favorite according to Las Vegas betting odds to win the Eastern conference.

With a healthy Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving now being allowed to play home games the Nets have two top players, but so does just about every other team in the playoffs. Durant and Irving have both won NBA titles. Durant with the Golden State Warriors and Irving with the Cleveland Cavaliers, so they have playoff experience. unfortunately all of that playoffs experience doesn’t mak the Nets a good defensive team and in the playoffs the referees usually allow team to play a little more defense. Will have to see if the Nets regular season defensive issues become their playoff downfall or if the those experts are right and they end up winning the Eastern conference and going to the NBA Finals.

Somehow the Nets lucked into the extra day off as their playoff series against the Celtics doesn’t start until Sunday while the Timberwolves open their series against the Grizzlies on Saturday.

Let me know what you think. Do you have the Nets winning the Eastern conference now that they’re healthy? If you don’t have the Nets winning the Eastern conference let me know who you have coming out of the Eastern cnference and going to the NBA Finals.

Besides Minnesota and Memphis starting their series on Saturday we also get the Utah Jazz at the Dallas Mavericks, the Toronto Raptors at the Philadelphia 76ers and the Denver Nuggets at the Golden State Warriors on Saturday.

On Sunday besides the Nets and the Celtics startiing their series will see the Miami Heat host the Eastern Conference 8th seed, the Chicago Bulls are at the Milwaukee Bucks and the Phoenix Suns will host the Western confernece 8th seed.

Are you excited for the NBA playoffs to get started?

Don’t forget to listen to the live edition of the Sports Time Radio podcast. The podcast airs live on BlogTalkRadio.com. Now if you miss the live edition of the podcast you can still hear the podcast. You can listen to the podcast any time you choose on TuneIn.com.

You can find me on Twitter @Burketime