Rebound & Rant: Real Playoffs Edition

This article is part of our Rebound & Rant series.

To my utter astonishment, a RotoWire fan actually recognized me. Seriously. I was at a bar in the Toronto airport after a meeting with SportsNet. I'm ordering dinner and the gentleman next me, in a thick accent, asks "Are you Ken Crites from RotoWire?" I almost fell off my bar stool. His name is Matthew Primer from Austrialia via Las Vegas (scroll down to bottom of article to see his picture) and he asked "OK, who you got for the NBA Championship this year?"

It was February 18th and I said "I know this sounds crazy, but I bet the Spurs repeat." The Spurs were 34-19 at the time; not bad, but not dominating. My logic was as a veteran team with lots of experience playing well together, they'd figure things out when the schedule got important. Well, now they've won 14 of their last 15 games and have snuck into the No. 2/3 seed in the Western conference. Boom!

So with this massive positive momentum behind me, I'm going to make a few more bold predictions about the NBA playoffs. If I'm horribly wrong, well at least I've injected some amusing videos.

Prediction No. 1: The Pacers Take the Hawks to Seven Games, Maybe Win
The Pacers still have to hold off Brooklyn for the eighth spot, so this is indeed a bold prediction. Brooklyn, with the better head-to-head record, will win the tiebreaker. But Indy finishes with Washington and Memphis. The Wiz are locked into the five seed and the Griz need to rest a hobbled Marc Gasol. And the Pacers have won eight of their last 11, including Monday's OT win over the Wizards.

So let's assume it's Pacers versus Hawks. The Paul Millsap shoulder injury worries me. The Thabo Sefolosha injury/incident removes their best stopper. Sefolosha is also the most experienced playoff performer on the roster. I'm all for the Spurs resting their players heading into the playoffs -- they've been there before, they know what they are doing -- but that isn't true for the Hawks. And we all know their home fans aren't exactly all-in. The choke alert could be high red. Plus, the Pacers have said they might remove Paul George's minutes restriction in the playoffs.

Prediction No. 2: The Cavs Have A Cake Walk In The East
If I'm right about the Hawks, who else can really challenge LeBron James and company? One must wonder if Chicago's backcourt of Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler have both fully recovered from injuries. The Raptors and Wizards have been very unimpressive since the All-Star break. Post-break, the Raptors are 12-16 and Washington is 13-14. Uninspiring. Neither team has enough experience to just turn it on for the playoffs.

So again, I must ask: who can really challenge the Cavs? At 19-7 since the break, including impressive wins versus Memphis, San Antonio and Dallas, the Cavaliers are humming.

The only concern would be if they need to rely on Kendrick Perkins. His lack of grace is well documented:

Side note: You probably don't know that RotoWire's office is in Madison, Wisconsin, in the shadow of the Kohl Center, where the Badgers play hoops and hockey. RW has a lot of Badgers fans, so the office was quite somber after the NCAA championship game loss to Duke. Sorry, dudes. But take solace: Matt Foley LOVES Wisconsin:

Prediction No. 3: Get Ready For More Greek Freak!
I think the Bucks will lose to Chicago in six, but I still expect some amazing Giannis Antetokounmpo highlights. Chicago's tight defense will confuse the Milwaukee youngsters, but I still expect occasional coast-to-coast Greek Freakery, like we recently saw against the Knicks. Stink face, baby!

How about that quality Knicks defense by Cole Aldrich? How does Derek Fisher keep a straight face when saying the Knicks can win 63 games next year?

Prediction No. 4: The Sacramento Kings Miss the Playoffs This Year and Next Year
OK, that's not really a bold prediction. This is just a shameless excuse to point out that the Kings recently signed Sim Bhullar, a 7-foot-5 center of Indian descent. It's kind of historic: he's the first player of Indian descent to sign a contract with an NBA squad, ever. And he's 7-5. Let's check him out:

Per our good friends at Sports-Reference, here's some perspective on Mr. Bhullar: he played two years at New Mexico State and in his second year averaged 10.4 points, 7.8 boards and 3.4 blocks in 26 minutes per game, with 65 percent field goal shooting. So, hey, he's got potential. And you can't teach height, kids.

Prediction No. 5: The Spurs Beat The Cavs in Six Games
Continuity is a beautiful thing. The Spurs have it, the Cavs don't, and I can't help but wonder if Kevin Love has a wandering eye. The guy has played in Minneapolis and Cleveland, both solid, very nice midwest towns. But Love is from Cali – heck, he's related to a Beach Boy.

So those are my first two reasons for picking the Spurs. Here is my third: the Spurs just made a Duran Duran parity video. This is Spurgasm®© to the ultimate! Bask in the awesome sauce:

Drop the mic, game over baby. Of course, I have to continue picking the Spurs. I can't let down my one fan: Matthew Primmer. Here we are chilling in Toronto:

UPDATE 5/8/2015: So, OK, the Spurs lost in Round 1 during an epic seven game series with the Clippers. But, hey, at least they parties like rockstars after losing: