April 21st: NBA Playoff Preview

While the NBA playoffs have already gotten underway, it’s never too late to get your predictions in for how things will shape up en route to the NBA Championship! Will LeBron James lead Cleveland to the promised land? Can the Warriors shoot their way into history? Will the Spurs add to their dynasty? The ZP: Left Fielder breaks it down:

Western Conference Round 1:

Golden State Warriors vs. New Orleans Pelicans

Winner: Warriors

The Pelicans fought hard to get into the playoffs, but don’t stand a chance against the dominant Warriors. The Pelicans might be serious competitors next year, but for now, they need to be content for having gotten in.

Portland Trail Blazers vs. Memphis Grizzlies

Winner: Trail Blazers

This is a toss-up series, as both teams are decent, with very little chance of going deep into the playoffs. The Trail Blazers have a little more star power, whereas the Grizzlies have faded since a dominant start to the season. Trail Blazers are the pick, but only by the smallest of “who cares?” margins.

Los Angeles Clippers vs. San Antonio Spurs

Winner: Spurs

Last year, the Clippers thought that they had a shot at winning it all, but were derailed by the distraction of Donald Sterling. Meanwhile, the Spurs have sputtered this year a little bit, landing outside of home court advantage. The Spurs are too used to winning in April, though, and are the easy pick for an upset.

Houston Rockets vs. Dallas Mavericks

Winner: Mavericks

The Rockets should be much better than they are. With a superstar like James Harden and a big man like Dwight Howard, they should be more dominant. The Mavericks are a deep team that always seems to be in the chase in the playoffs. Another upset goes to a Texas team.

Eastern Conference Round 1:

Atlanta Hawks vs. Brooklyn Nets

Winner: Hawks

The Hawks seem to have had a year-long hot hand. The Nets squeaked into the playoffs in an abysmal Eastern Conference. This should be an easy appetizer for the Hawks, as they get their rhythm for a deep playoff run.

Toronto Raptors vs. Washington Wizards

Winner: Raptors

If the first game is going to be any indication, this series is going to be a thriller. The Raptors are still steaming over their early exit from last season’s playoffs, while the Wizards are attempting to pull the same upset from a year ago. The nod goes to the Raptors, who need Kyle Lowry to step up bigger.

Chicago Bulls vs. Milwaukee Bucks

Winner: Bulls

The next-door neighbor series adds a little extra fun to two teams in very different positions at the start of the playoffs. The Bucks have been a young and talented surprise, while the Bulls look (fingers crossed) healthy for the first time in a long while. The Bulls look to be clicking on all cylinders, and should run away with this series.

Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Boston Celtics

Winner: Cavaliers

Boston would have wanted to face anyone else. Literally, anyone else. A LeBron James led Cleveland team is a force to be reckoned with, and bodes ill for a young Celtics team trying to get their feet set. Cleveland also gets the chance to allow their young core to get their first experience in the playoffs.

Western Conference Round 2:

Warriors vs. Trail Blazers

Winner: Warriors

A West Coast showdown, the Warriors and Trail Blazers get credit for being the smallest market series in the playoffs. That being said, the Blazers could give the Warriors a little bit of a hiccup, but overall, this shouldn’t stop the tear that has been the Warriors’ season.

Spurs vs. Mavericks

Winner: Spurs

A good ‘ole fashion Texas showdown, the Spurs and Mavericks will repeat their first round faceoff from a year ago. Once again, the deep Mavericks will give the Spurs their money’s worth, but veteran experience will be the difference.

Eastern Conference Round 2:

Hawks vs. Raptors

Winner: Hawks

The Hawks, after making easy meat out of the Nets, will face a Raptors team that only squeaks by the Wizards. The momentum will be swinging toward Atlanta early, and the Raptors don’t strike me as a team with the toughness to overcome large quantities of adversity. Hawks move on.

Bulls vs. Cavaliers

Winner: Cavaliers

This may be the most exciting series of the postseason. Joakim Noah has already asked for the Central Division showdown, and a healthy Bulls team may be the toughest challenger to the Cavaliers’ supremacy in the Eastern Conference. This series will go a full seven games, and the Cavaliers will win it after the playoff fatigue sets in for the Bulls.

Western Conference Finals:

Warriors vs. Spurs

Winner: Warriors

This is the battle for Western supremacy, not only for this year, but for years to come. The Spurs are the tried and true champions, having been there often in the past decade. The Warriors are the young team trying to create a new way of winning in the NBA. It looks like it is finally time for the dynasty to give way to the next generation.

Eastern Conference Finals:

Hawks vs. Cavaliers

Winner: Cavaliers

The Hawks are a shooting team, which means they are susceptible to going cold. Their first real challenge will come against Cleveland who, by this point in the playoffs, will be rabid to seal the deal. The Cavaliers will make the Hawks look like a mirage, sending them home in five games.

NBA Championship

Warriors vs. Cavaliers

Winner: Cavaliers

This will be an epic battle, with this year’s top MVP candidate, Steph Curry, facing off against the NBA’s best player in LeBron James. James will be right there, so close to the promised land for his beloved Cavaliers, and will go into a beast mode we have never seen from the world’s most freakish athlete. This will be the James show, and will end in Cleveland’s first championship that anyone can remember.

If you enjoy the work of the Zoot Perspective, please visit my GoFundMe page, to help support me on my journey. Thank you very much.

For more content from ZPMedia, visit www.zootperspective.com.

March 5th - King of His Castle

LeBron James exploded on Monday night. A 61 point eruption, leading the Heat to a thumping of the Charlotte Bobcats, 124-107. This was his third game wearing the new facemask that protects his nose, which he broke in a contest earlier last week against the Thunder (a game in which he also was scoring at a prolific rate.

For much of this season, Kevin Durant has made a case for unseating LeBron James as the reigning MVP of the league. Druant’s own offensive exploits have led the Thunder to a top seed in the Western Conference, carrying the team while Russell Westbrook was out with an injury. The ever-secondary star is finally attempting to take what many believe to be his “rightful” spot alongside James as the best in the business.

That is, of course, until LeBron went off. He has scored 30 or more points in six of his last seven games, and is leading the Heat to another long win streak. For yet another season, James is launching the Heat into viable contention for their third straight championship, again despite the injuries that have caused missed time for Dwayne Wade.

LeBron has only won the scoring championship one time, in 2007-2008. Durant has won it 3 times. Carmelo Anthony has won one, Dwayne Wade has won one, Kobe Bryant has done it a few times. When looking at LeBron’s game, though, it is pretty easy to see why he may not be padding the stat-line: LeBron would rather win the ring than win the hardware.

In 2010, when LeBron James made a public spectacle of his decision to “take (his) talents to South Beach,” he made it very known that he was taking a little bit less money, instead favoring a chance at a championship. If James was interested in winning scoring titles, he would have stayed in Cleveland, where that is the only kind of champion that really belongs.

The NBA already suffers from a focus too much on players, rather than the success of a team or organization. This only makes the number of showboat players, looking to beef up their own personal record book (Carmelo Anthony is a perfect example) all the more prevalent. LeBron James doesn’t fit that mold. He is an all-around player who does what it takes to succeed. One night, he’ll lead the team in points. The next, he’ll be an assist machine, spreading things around.

No player is as explosive and purely entertaining as King James. No player is more influential to his team. No player can create a stat bio like James. There may be other players who excel at one element of the game in better ways, but it is the holistic playing experience that makes James a player without comparison.

The Most Valuable Player in the NBA is, has been, and will continue to be LeBron James. He doesn’t care about the hardware though. He is having too much fun playing the game to be focused on winning a personal award. He also has his eyes set on a much bigger prize: a third ring.

January 18th: THIS Given Sunday

If the television networks and journalism community could have a meeting at the beginning of the year and write a script for the NFL season, I’m sure they would in a heartbeat. This year, though, it doesn’t look like they would have needed to. They are getting everything they could have dreamed of.

The NFL Conference Championship games are to play this weekend, with the Broncos hosting the Patriots in the AFC and the Seahawks squaring off against the 49ers in the NFC. Both games feature rematches of earlier regular season games. The Broncos and Patriots game went to overtime. The Seahawks and Niners split their season series.

That would have been enough to set the stage for an epic Sunday of football. Now enter the quarterbacks. Peyton Manning and Tom Brady are the golden boys of the NFL. Each has almost 2 decades of success in the league, with a combined four Super Bowl rings. Yet, each has something to prove. Of those four rings, only one belongs to Manning, who has been accused of being a regular season stud and a post-season dud. Brady, on the other hand, has made two Super Bowl appearances in the last 5 years, and failed to win it both times. He and his depleted wide receiver corps are playing with a chip on their shoulder, looking to prove that the Patriots are truly the sum of its (somewhat undersized) parts.

In Seattle, the contrast is a little more conflicting, rather than complimenting. Russell Wilson is clean-cut, well-spoken, and proper. He plays with a good head on his shoulders, and uses his small size to make a big statement. Colin Kaepernick is tattooed, edgy, a fierce competitor, with huge physical talent and a cannon for an arm. Both have been in the league for a fraction of the Manning/Brady era, yet have already accumulated wins at a historic pace.

The NFL TV community loves to say “Any Given Sunday.” Basically, anyone can beat anyone else if all of the pieces fall into place. This often leads to the playoffs looking nothing like they did in the predictions issued at the beginning of the year.

This year, the parity in the league was even more intense. There was a graphic that showed how each team has beaten a team that beat someone else, winding around in a circle. It was meant to prove that, if the Broncos beat the Chiefs, who beat the Cowboys, who beat the Eagles, all the way around and around until the Bengals who beat the Patriots, who beat the Broncos, than the league has reached a certain level of competition.

The matchups this weekend, though, were exactly as many envisioned. It also shows, only mildly arguably, that the best four teams in the sport are playing for a chance to go to the Super Bowl.

With plenty of storylines, these matchups offer the kind of television that CBS and Fox Sports producers can drool over. No matter what happens in the game, nothing is as good for them as a matchup that Sportscenter can’t stop talking about.

The scores, of course, are much harder to predict, but that didn’t stop every sports analyst from attempting it. Vegas has the Broncos and Seahawks as the favorites, while many others believe that the underdog role suits both the 49ers and Patriots just fine.

None of it really matters. What does matter is that, on Sunday, every NFL fan will be glued to the television. Because as much as we love a surprise hero or a Cinderella, we save our big dances for the kings of football.

Five are Fighting

After their second loss to the Broncos in three weeks, Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid took the podium for his post-game interview. In his statements, he talked about the need to look forward and focus on getting to the playoffs. He remarked that unlike in the BCS, one loss in the NFL regular season is not enough to tank a championship drive.

This was a particularly touchy subject in the state of Alabama this past weekend. With one second left in the Iron Bowl, Auburn took an Alabama missed field goal back 100 yards to stun the two-time defending champions. Not only was this an epic ending to a well-played football game, but it also shattered Alabama’s dreams of a third straight title.

When rankings were officially announced on Monday, Alabama had dropped to fourth with undefeated Florida State and Ohio State in the top two spots, and Auburn, for their 11-1 season, and unseating of the Crimson Tide, moved to third.

The challenge becomes analyzing teams with different records for ranking purposes. Should Ohio State, who went 12-0 and extended the longest winning streak in the BCS, play for a national championship instead of a one-loss SEC school who may have had a much tougher schedule?

Here’s what it comes down to (or, at the very least, should come down to): if team A and team B played one another on neutral turf, who would win? The rankings play such a significant role in the bowl selection process that it is unrealistic to go solely based on record.

Missouri was six inches to the left of a perfect season. Ohio State has one because one play went their way. Alabama and Auburn were separated by one second. Any of these teams could very well compete against Florida State, the fairly unquestionable top team right now. When considered in terms of head-to-head matchups, though, there seems to be a pretty clear way to sort through it all.

Ohio State has not played nearly the competition that the SEC deals with on any given Saturday. Michigan, Illinois, and Purdue do not stack up the same way as LSU, Texas A & M, and South Carolina. Within the context of conference difficulty, all of a sudden, a 12-0 Ohio State starts to look like a 12-0 Northern Illinois University, who find themselves ranked 14.

Within the SEC, teams cannot simply use single games to lead to a ranking. Realistically, if Alabama played Auburn again tomorrow, even in Auburn, my money would be rolling with the Tide. Same goes for Alabama and Mizzou, Ohio State, or anyone else, frankly.

The hope is that next year’s shift to a four team playoff will alleviate their challenges. That doesn’t bring any solace to the five legitimate championship contenders who are fighting for dear life in the hopes of earning one of the two spots.

There is plenty of football left to play before bowl selections are made, but if the last day of the regular season is any indication, the answers won’t get any easier.