Playoff Predictions - I know I'm a bit late.
Eastern Conference: First Round
(1) Bulls v. (8) Pacers.............. Crystal Ball: Bulls in 4
(6) Heat v. (7) 76'ers................Crystal Ball: Miami in 5
(3) Knicks v. (6) Celtics ......... Crystal Ball: Celts in 6 (Hurts me even to suggest this, took a Proline with the Knicks on it though, I bet with my heart, that's what you're supposed to do, right?)
(4) Magic v. (5) Hawks...........Crystal Ball: Orlando in 7 (Found yesterday to be quite surprising.)
Western Conference: First Round
(1) Spurs v. (8) Grizz ..............Crystal Ball: Spurs in 6 (This Grizz team scares me a bit in this match up.)
(2) Mavs v. (7) Blazers............Crystal Ball: Mavs in 6
(3) Lakers v. (6) Hornets.........Crystal Ball: Lakers in 6
(4) Thunder v. (5) Nuggets......Crystal Ball: Thunder in 7 (Will be the best series of the first round.)
Playing it safe with the top seeds, but the NBA is a top heavy league so I think that's to be expected. You play 7 games so the better team moves on, its not like the NCAA tourney where one off game can spell disaster. The Bulls are like 25 games better than the Pacers, I know yesterdays game was close but I think that's also about as good as Indiana can get. The good teams will get the job done in the first round.
Eastern Conference: Second Round
(1) Bulls v. (4) Magic........... Crystal Ball: Bulls in 6
(2) Heat v. (3) Celtics...........Crystal Ball: Heat in 7 (Celts pay for losing home court advantage down the stretch.)
Western Conference: Second Round
(1) Spurs v. (4) Thunder.......Crystal Ball: Thunder in 6 (I think Thunder's size, plus age sets in on the banged up Spurs)
(2) Mavs v. (3) Lakers ........Crystal Ball: Mavs in 7 (Chalk it up to a hunch, I guess)
Eastern Conference Finals
(1) Bulls v. (2) Heat.............Crystal Ball: Bulls in 7 (Potentially epic series, Celts/Heat could have wear-down effect.)
Western Conference Finals
(2) Mavs v. (4) Thunder.........Crystal Ball: Thunder in 6 (Just when Dallas thought it was their year)
NBA Finals
Bulls v. Thunder.............Crystal Ball: Bulls in 6
The Chicago Bulls your 2011 NBA Champions.
A bunch of other teams could probably win too.
I'm liking these two Big Sean songs off his mix tape, Finally Famous Vol. 3. Maybe you'll enjoy them too!
So yeah, I like what Derrick Rose is doing and I see no reason why it won't continue. That makes the transition to my post season award winners pretty easy .
MVP: Derrick Rose
Derrick Rose was the best player on the best team, so he wins that traditional MVP debate. Beyond that you can make innumerable cases for his selection as the leagues MVP this season, leading the Bulls day in and day out with dynamic play, great leadership, and gritty toughness. Even with both Noah and Boozer missing considerable time, Rose still led the Bulls to a league best 62 wins, a 19 win improvement over last seasons total, and a leap frog from 8th in the East to First. Heading into the season everyone was talking Miami and Boston, but it has been the defensive minded Bulls that have set the standard for excellence in the East, and that starts with their leader Derrick Rose. LeBron, Kobe, Howard and Dirk round out the voting for me. Game time update: Matt Bonner back to back threes late in the fourth. If you're watching you'll know when I was writing this.
Coach of the Year: George Karl
Super difficult decision to make here, so many deserving candidates - Pop has done it again, getting the Spurs to the top of the West, Doug Collins turned things around in Philadelphia (!), and of course, Thibodeau has had a great first season, leading the Bulls to the best record in the L, putting his defensive first scheme to work. However, in the end, I think Karl is deserving; keeping the Nuggets heads in it throughout the 'MeloDrama' of the season's first half, and improving upon their record following the departure of the face of the franchise, not an easy task. The Nuggets were a tough match up down the stretch and I think Karl has done a great job not just keeping things going, but improving the quality of his teams play as the season has gone on.
Battier for 3!
Wow. Memphis is gonna mess around and win this game. RJ misses, Barkley looks smart for today.
Rookie of the Year: Blake Griffin
I could show you a veido of someone walking, because that's how Griffin is winning this award, in a walk. Instead, I'll show you all 214 of his dunks from his 2011 Rookie Season, all in under a tidy 5 minutes.
Most Improved: Derrick Rose
His quantum leap from 'star' to 'superstar' saw him entirely jump 'all star', which is likely thanks to his other-worldly athleticism. See what I did there. Apologies to Kevin Love, who also greatly improved but wasn't able to translate his individual success over to the teams success, on the same level as Rose. Dorell Wright stepped his game up in Golden State, and that's worth a mention as well.
Defensive Player of the Year: Dwight Howard
I think this one is pretty expected. Dwight Howard changes the game on the defensive end of the floor, intimidating shots when he's not blocking them, and gobbling up rebounds like a certain someone gobbles up ranch chip dip, yeah #realtalk. If you know, you know. But yeah Dwight is huge, and no one is impacting on the D end at his level right now. Kobe defends, Tony Allen deserves mention as well. Chandler's D in Dallas is notable as well.
All NBA Teams
1st - G - D. Rose G - K. Bryant F - L. James F - D. Nowiztki C- D. Howard
2nd - G - D. Wade G - M. Ginobili F - P. Gasol F - K. Durant C - A. Stoudemire
3rd - G - R. Westbrook G - C. Paul F - Z. Randolph F - C. Anthony C - L. Aldridge
Apologies to Tony Parker and Blake Griffin, probably should be a Celtic in there, so I'll say Rondo, and another Bulls player is likely deserving, but I can't decide between Deng, Noah or Boozer.
Okay, enough NBA talk. Lets get to something else. It's Sunday, it's the 17th of April, and the count down is running.
It has been a few, so today sees us move up past the 67th, 66th, 65th, and 64th day until we arrive at our destination, which is where I'm heading with our number 66. So let's pump these out.
67. Vacation - Sorry Leaf's fans but I couldn't resist, and it seems to me that the Leaf players enjoy a good vacation, "They want us to play hockey... in June? Forget that, I'm on vacation!". Lots of folks save their vacation time for the summer and why not. I get it Leafs, Me (Age 15): "So, teacher's work as much as high school students, and they get their summers off too?" My mama didn't raise no fool. I'll take the summer, thanks. 
66. Road Trips - The summer is the perfect time to load the car up with your pals, unleash homemade mix cds on one another and go get lost some wheres. One of these summers I'm gonna do a Route 66 trip down through the heart of the U.S. I'm thinking Red Hot Chili Peppers "Road Trippin", 'Road Trippin with my two favourite allies'. On to more pressing issues, Osheaga Anyone? Eminem, meh, but if he went MM LP style, that would be something. But give me Kid Cudi, John Butler Trio, Flaming Lips, The Hip, Bright Eyes too and I think I'm in for that. Shotgun! 
65. A Good Toss - Your at the beach, you get the gloves out and have a good toss. Few pop ups, a few off the sand, an apology to a concerned mother, a tinge of nostalgia, all in a good toss. 
64. Nice Cars - I had the opportunity to go to the SpeedSport Car Show that was in town last week. There were definitely some real nice cars there, but also a lot that I said I wouldn't take out on our streets because the roads still have plenty of winter grime and salt on them. A few more rains and as things warm up, our roads we'll start to see some nicer rides. Fun to look at, when I was in Oz there wasn't a weekend that went by where we didn't see something double take worthy. I'm not talking Rav 4, though the Rav is the perfect 2 person car. Right Stru. I'm all typed out for today. We'll get back to it early in the week with another top 20 list. Let me know if I forgot anything would ya. Hope everyone had a swell weekend! I leave you with some Hannibal Buress, give it a look. P.
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