2015 NBA Playoff Predictions: Conference Finals

Western Conference:

1) Golden State Warriors

2) Houston Rockets

Prediction: Warriors in 5

Why?: I picked the Warriors to win quick last round, but I should have known Memphis would show up and win more than once.  The Rockets after appearing dead in the water after going down 3-1 to the Clippers, roared back and stole the series to set up a matchup between the top two teams in the better conference, and the top two vote getters in the MVP race.  That's actual MVP Stephen Curry and runner-up James Harden if you somehow missed that.  In the regular season the Warriors swept the Rockets, actually they destroyed them all four games winning by 11, 12, 25, and 13 points for an average margin of victory of 15.3 points.  Now Houston was without Dwight for the first two games, and you may not put any stock into what happened between two playoff teams in the regular season, but there is one key point I'd like to make here.  Houston won't have Patrick Beverly, who may be abysmal on offense, but is an absolute pest on defense.  Now Trevor Ariza is Houston's best perimeter defender.  James Harden is not the cone we all saw in last year's playoffs on defense anymore, but he's still far from a lockdown defender, as for the rest of Houston's perimeter defense?  Pablo Prigioni, Jason Terry, and then Corey Brewer.  Of that group, Brewer is the only good defender.  Who is going to stop the Splash Brothers, Klay Thompson and Steph Curry?  Sure you can put Ariza on one, but they can both go by Harden, Klay can shoot over Pablo and Jason Terry, Brewer won't play huge minutes, also if you go Harden and Ariza on Curry and Thompson, Harrison Barnes (who has stepped up in this postseason and continues to impress me) would abuse either Terry or Prigioni.  And then Klay Thompson is the best two way shooting guard in the NBA, and in all four match ups between these teams this season he has done a good job getting Harden out of his rhythm.  You're not going to shut him down, but Klay can definitely slow him down.  Both teams like to play fast and score a lot, another bit of bad news for Houston, you can't beat the Dubs that way.  Sorry for piling on you, H-town, but the only thing stopping me from calling a sweep is that it's the conference finals.

Eastern Conference:

1) Atlanta Hawks

2) Cleveland Cavaliers

Prediction: Cavs in 7

Why?: Atlanta was great in the middle of the regular season, but I don't know what to make of them in the playoffs.  Sure they won both their series so far in six games each, but they didn't do it very impressively, they didn't really look like a 1 seed other than when they destroyed Brooklyn in game 6 in the first round.  Washington was great this postseason, but Atlanta should have still handled them especially when John Wall was out.  The Cleveland Cavaliers on the other hand have over come the Love injury and they proved that when they punked the Bulls three games in a row after Derrick Rose's buzzer beater gave the Bulls a 2-1 lead in the series.  LeBron is being LeBron, and the Cavs appear to be clicking here in the playoffs.  I still think Atlanta can push the series to 7, maybe even win it, if they can get back to doing what made them so great this regular season, before they went into coast mode and apparently got stuck there.  They are called "Spurs-East" for a reason, and we all remember what the actual Spurs did to a LeBron lead team in the Finals last year.  It's still hard for me to believe the Hawks will magically find their grove again at this point in the season and take this series from Cleveland, but hey, it's the playoffs, you never know what could happen.