2015 NBA Playoffs First Round Predictions

The 2015 NBA Playoffs are underway. In the first round for the Eastern conference we have the #1 seed Atlanta Hawks playing against the #8 seed Brooklyn Nets. The Hawks are the favorite in this series. They have had an incredible regular season and were able to earn the #1 spot. They have been historically bad in the playoffs, having never made it past the first round. This year they have more than a good chance at beating the Nets and moving to the second round. The #2 seed Cavs are playing the #7 seed Celtics. The Cavs are the favorite by a long shot in this series. After a rocky start to the season, they have been clicking on all levels in the second half after some key additions to their lineup, including J.R. Smith, Timofey Mozgov, and Iman Shumpert. They should have no problem taking this series. The #3 Chicago Bulls are playing the #6 seed Milwaukee Bucks. The Bulls have also had a tough season after Derrick Rose has been battling injury after injury. Lucky for them, he has returned to the lineup and has been playing outstanding for the first two games. The Bulls have already taken the first two games in Chicago and they should be able to finish this series within the next 3 games. To finish off the eastern conference we have the #5 seed Washington Wizards playing against the #4 seed Toronto Raptors. This may be the closest matchup of the first round in the Eastern Conference. The Wizards started off hot in the beginning of the year but have since hit some bumps with injuries to starter Bradley Beal. Toronto is the favorite in the series. Having said this, I believe the Wizards can come out on top in this series and make it to the second round.
As for the western conference, to start we have the #1 seed Golden State Warriors vs the #8 seed New Orleans Pelicans. The Warriors this year have been outstanding. MVP candidate Steph Curry has been shooting lights out and this combined with the other outstanding young talent the Pelicans may have a hard time winning a game in this series. Next we have #2 seed Houston Rockets vs. the #7 seed Dallas Mavericks. James Harden, another MVP candidate, has carried this team all season and has looked unstoppable. This being said, the Dallas Mavericks are veterans in the playoffs, having won the Championship a few years ago. With future Hall of Famer Dirk Nowitzki, they have a good chance of knocking of the Rockets in this 7 game series. The #3 seed Los Angeles Clippers are playing the #6 seed San Antonio Spurs in our next matchup. Just like the Mavericks, the Spurs have a couple future hall of famers and 5 time champion Tim Duncan and two 4 time champions in Tony Parker and Manu Ginobli, they would be a hard matchup for any team. The Clippers did prove in the last game that they are prepared and are ready for the challenge. This may end up being a 7 game series, but I think the Clippers can come out on top. Finally, we have the #4 Portland Trail Blazers vs the #5 Memphis Grizzlies. The Grizzlies have been undefeated in the regular season against the Trail Blazers. Portland does have some great young talent in Damien Lillard but are missing a key 3 point shooter in Wesley Matthews. I believe the Grizzlies should be able to take this series in 5 games.

Jordan Spieth

Last week I blogged about the masters. I think in the weeks and days leading up to the Masters, some of the biggest stories was Tiger coming back, Rory looking to win his first Green Jacket, or Bubba looking for his 3rd masters win in 4 years. What may have been overlooked was a young 21 year old kid named Jordan Spieth. During his memorable run at this years Masters, Jordan Spieth broke a number of Masters records. Jordan set records for best 36 hole score with -14, 54 hole score with -16, and tied with Tiger for best 72 hole score with -18, which Tiger accomplished back in 1997. Jordan got a birdie on the 15 hole in the 4th round to put him at -19, the first player ever to accomplish this feat at the Masters. He was able to set the record for most birdies in a Masters with 28, crushing Phil Mickelson's previous record of 25. It was at this point Phil Nantz exclaimed, "I've never seen anything like it." For that last remaining few people who may not have believed in him yet, he definitely got their attention. Continuing his reign of dominance, Jordan was the 2nd man in 100 years to go wire-to-wire while coming in at only 21 years of age. Walter Hagan accomplished this feat in 1914, but his numbers were not nearly the same as Jordan's. This means that Jordan stayed atop the leaderboard the entire weekend and retained the best score after each of the 4 rounds.  Finally, Speith is the second player since World War II to card three victories before turning 22. The only other golfer to accomplish this: Tiger Woods. There are many people who will say that Jordan's run still is not as dominant or impressive as Tiger Woods demolition of the 1997 masters. Tiger won that year by a margin of 12 strokes, an unbelievable victory in the sport of golf. Jordan won the 2015 masters by only 4 strokes. His performance is nothing less than extraordinary. The golfers at this years masters made one of the toughest golf courses in the world look like a putt putt course. All top five finishers were under par by double digits. The first golfer to go even was tied for 33rd. Jordan was able to fight off incredible runs by Rory who had an exceptional last round to finish at -12 and Phil who started to battle after the second round and finished tied for 2nd at -14 with Justin Rose, who was paired with Jordan in the final round. Jordan Spieth has made a statement with this win: the younger generation is here. At 21 years old, Jordan Spieth displayed incredible skill and nerves of steel at this years Masters in one of the most dominant performances since arguably the most dominant player in the sport of golf, Tiger Woods.

The Masters

From April 9 to April 12 one of the biggest events in golf will take place in the beautiful Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia. The best golfers from around the world will battle it out for the extremely rare and coveted Green Jacket in the 79th annual Masters Tournament. The big headline this year is Tiger Woods's announcement to return to glory at the Masters after a 9 week hiatus from the PGA tour. When asked what Tiger had done in preparation for the tournament, he replied with a simple, "I worked my ass off." It has been ten years since Tiger won his last Masters Tournament back in 2005. This year he will have to go up against some big names like two time winner and reining champion Bubba Watson, the young and talented Jordan Speith, and of course, the world's number 1 greatest golfer today, Rory Mcilroy. Nike recently came out with a spectacular commercial in preparation for the tournament. It depicts a young Rory watching Tiger's performances through the years as he dominated the Masters. It was an absolutely perfect way to pin these two superstars up against each other. This years Masters Tournament will definitely be one for the ages.

Final Four

This Saturday starting at 6 PM the Men's NCAA Final Four begins in Indianapolis. With ticket prices ranging from $200 to $2000, this weekend will be one college basketball fans do not want to miss. The first game starts at 6 PM with Coach K and the Duke Blue Devils taking on Mr. March himself, Tom Izzo and the Michigan State Spartans. Right now Duke has a 51% chance of winning. Lead by their star Freshman Jahlil Okafor, Duke has not disappointed this season. Even with big loses to NC State and Notre Dame in the regular season, Duke has proved to be one of the top teams in college basketball. Even when Okafor is shut down, they still have point guard Tyus Jones and 19 freshman standout Justice Winslow who helped Duke sneak past Gonzaga in the Elite 8. With all this said, Coach Tom Izzo of the Spartans has proved that once he enters the month of March, he does not like to lose. The Spartans are the only non #1 seed in the Final Four. They started off as a 7 seed and battled their way to the top.
At 8:30 PM, two #1 seeds battle it out for a chance at the championship. Undefeated Kentucky takes on #1 seed Wisconsin for what could be the game of the year so far. Kentucky was able to fight off a very talented Notre Dame team who probably gave Kentucky their biggest scare of the year. Karl Anthony Towns was unstoppable down low and in the end it was Andrew Harrison this time who came through with two free throws to put the Wildcats up by 2 with only seconds left on the clock. Wisconsin beat Arizona in another nail biter. Sam Dekker came through in the end with some big threes and Frank Kaminsky was outstanding as always. This is the second consecutive year that Wisconsin has made it to the final four and they are going to be looking for a much better result than last year.

Floyd vs. Manny

Lets take a look at what we have going on in the sports world. The basketball regular season is almost at an end with the playoffs just around the corner. The cricket world cup has been underway for the past few days. March madness once again has not disappointed with one of the most exciting first weekends in tournament history. The baseball preseason has given fans a reason to break out the gloves again.
On May 2nd of this year at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, one of the most anticipated boxing matches of the past years will take place between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. Mayweather is considered the best boxer today at 38 years old with 47 wins, 26 of which came from knockouts and the other 21 from decision. He is a five decision world champion and has won ten world titles in his career as a boxer. Manny Pacquiao, coming in at age 36, has won 57 fights and lost only 5. He was undefeated up until a few years ago when he was knocked out for the first time in his illustrious career by Rustico Torrecampo.
Many believe that, although Floyd is 2 years older than Manny, Manny is out of his prime. Manny's career has been longer than Floyd's, having fought 11 more fights than Mayweather. There is much speculation that Mayweather kept putting off this fight to wait until Manny was out of his prime so that he was sure he would be able to win.
Regardless of what people say, this fight will go down in history. Both of these boxers have been waiting a long time for this fight and have had much time to prepare. They will both be in great shape come May 2nd. The fight is set to generate over $74 million from about 15000 tickets sold. I am very excited to see these two boxing superstars battle it out in the ring.

2015 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament

Its that time of year again. The 2015 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament is underway as we speak. Brackets have been made, bets have been placed, and tourney weekend is in full effect. If you have followed men's college basketball this year, I'm sure you know who the favorites are this year. The Kentucky men's basketball team enters the tournament 34-0, the first team to enter the tournament undefeated since Indiana did so back in 1976. There are already rumors flying from sports analyst saying this years Kentucky team could compete in the NBA playoffs. I am an avid believer that no college team could truly compete at the professional level. This being said, Kentucky may be able to give some teams a run for their money. They are entered into the tournament as a #1 seed. The last time they were seeded first, back in 2012, they went on to win the championship. I don't see anyone in the midwest region really being too much of a competition for Kentucky. The #2 seed, Kansas, lost to Kentucky earlier this year by something like 30 points. As far as true competition, I believe that Wisconsin and Duke are two teams that could really give Kentucky a run for their money. They each have NBA caliber big men, Frank Kaminsky and Jahlil Okafor, who may be able to subdue some of the Kentucky big men. I look forward to seeing how things pan out and am very excited for the games.

Chip Kelly

This week the Philadelphia Eagles made a huge trade for arguably their best player. The Eagles traded running back Lesean Mccoy to the Buffalo Bills for line back Kiki Alonso. In six seasons with the NFL, Lesean Mccoy is third in total rushing yards with 6,792 and fourth in rushing touchdowns with 44. As for Kiki Alonso, he may be a no name to most people, but not for head coach Chip Kelly. Kiki played for Chip Kelly at Oregon where Chip was the head coach for many years. Kiki had a key interception in his junior year in the Rose Bowl against Russell Wilson and the Wisconsin Badgers to ultimately win the game for him and then head coach Chip Kelly. Many Philadelphia fans are upset about this trade. Mccoy, or Shady as Philly fans called him, was a huge part of the Philadelphia Eagles and a very exciting player to watch. As far as the trade goes, I believe that Chip Kelly knows what he is doing and made a smart choice. I believe the ultimate end goal is to get quarterback Marcus Mariota, who also played for Chip Kelly at Oregon for a few years and won the Heisman Trophy last year with a very impressive season. He has wowed fans and NFL scouts for years now and he could be the perfect fit to run Chip Kelly's offense. Kiki Alonso was injured last year with a torn ACL but he put up very impressive numbers his rookie year. It is hard to say who really won this trade. As of now it seems the Buffalo Bills came out on top but I'm sure Chip Kelly has some tricks up his sleeve that he will pull out later on in this offseason.