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Charles Curtis here, happy Monday and HAPPY START TO THE NBA PLAYOFFS EVERYONE!!!
Normally, I’d save my playoff predictions for my NBA group chat instead of broadcasting them to the universe, but whatever. I’m giving you every prediction I’ve got, and I’m going to try NOT to explain them, because what fun would that be and also this newsletter would take a long time to read.
So:
WEST:
The Timberwolves (7 seed) and Clippers (8 seed) win the play-ins.
The Suns sweep the Clips (and Kawhi Leonard doesn’t surprise us all). The Grizzlies beat the T-Wolves. The Mavericks beat the Jazz (Utah blows it all up in the offseason!) and the Warriors narrowly beat the Nuggets.
Suns over Mavs in 5. Dubs over Griz in 7. Phoenix goes back to the NBA finals!
EAST:
The Nets (7 seed) and Hawks (8 seed) win the play-ins.
The Heat beat the Hawks, the Celtics barely get by against the Nets, the Bucks sweep the Bulls and the Sixers allow the Raptors to win one game in Toronto (no Matisse Thybulle!) before beating them
The Sixers take down the Heat in seven (that might be my boldest take?) and the Bucks beat the Celtics.
The Bucks beat the Sixers in six.
FINALS: Chris Paul FINALLY gets his first ring at age 37 with the Suns getting revenge for last year, in a hard-fought seven game series.
That’s it. On to the other stuff!
The Tip-Off
Some NBA goodness from around the USA TODAY Sports network.
Yep, the Lakers fired Frank Vogel (although he really doesn’t deserve the blame!) but it was the fact that reporters knew about it before he did that made for an extremely awkward postgame press conference.
From For The Win’s Bryan Kalbrosky:
So when Vogel was asked for comment, he told reporters: “I haven’t been told [expletitve].”
It was a massively awkward interaction, and a hideous situation for the Lakers to put their championship-winning coach in the middle of. Especially considering so many more people were to blame for this disastrous season, it looks especially bad.
One to Watch
(All odds via Tipico.)
Clippers (+125) vs. Timberwolves (-3.5, -155), O/U 230.5, 9:30 PM ET Tuesday night
I know, this game is tomorrow. But it’s the one I’m most excited about with PG facing KAT. And I agree with BetFTW’s Prince Games, whose play-in betting guide has the Clippers as the underdog pick. I’ll take those 3.5 points, thank you.
Who’s in and out?
— Nets: Seth Curry said he will play in Tuesday’s play-in game despite an ankle injury.
— Cavaliers: Jarrett Allen back? J.B. Bickerstaff is planning to be without him on Tuesday, per a report.
Shootaround
— Here’s the latest NBA mock draft from the Rookie Wire.
— Some weird stuff always happens on the last day of the season, and BetFTW’s Cole Huff broke down all the amazing performances from Sunday.
— How Jrue Holiday earned $360,000 from playing just eight seconds on Sunday.
Play-ins begin tomorrow!!
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