Bulls take final spot in East, will open playoffs Saturday

Basketball Betting Lines

04/15/2010 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The NBA playoff picture is complete and the Chicago Bulls became the last team to secure a berth in the postseason with their 98-89 victory at Charlotte on the final night of the regular season. The Bulls will take on LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round, starting Saturday afternoon.

That will begin the NBA playoff schedule with four games slated for Saturday and another four Sunday in the opener of the conference quarterfinal series, in a best-of-seven format.

The Cavaliers, with reigning league MVP LeBron James, enter the NBA Playoffs as the favorites to come out of the East after posting a 61-21 record to earn home-court advantage throughout the postseason. The Cavs will look to get back to NBA Finals after losing to the Orlando Magic in last year's Eastern Conference finals.

"I like the versatility of our team," Cavs coach Mike Brown said. "The size, we can go small, we can go big, we can play quick. I'm looking forward to this playoff run."

James previously led an upstart Cavs squad to the championship series in 2006-07 before succumbing to the more talented and more experienced San Antonio Spurs, but this year's squad is arguably the most talented Cleveland squad in franchise history. Complementing James is four-time NBA champion Shaquille O'Neal and forward Antawn Jamison, both of whom were brought to the Cavs in separate trades throughout the past year.

The Bulls, who took advantage of a late swoon by the Toronto Raptors, snuck into the playoff picture and clinched a spot Wednesday night. Chicago has won only one playoff series since Michael Jordan left the team following his sixth championship in 1997-98, although it played surprisingly well in a thrilling seven-game series loss last season against Boston. Despite the playoff performance in 2009, it would take a monumental effort to unseat James' club in the first round.

Also looking to stop the Cavs will be the defending conference champion Orlando Magic, who are the second overall seed in the NBA and will face the Charlotte Bobcats in the opening round. That series starts Sunday afternoon.

The Magic took everyone by surprise last year when they beat Cleveland in the Eastern Conference finals en route to a loss to the Lakers in NBA Finals, and the team added Vince Carter to replace the departed Hedo Turkoglu in the offseason.

First the Magic will have to beat the Bobcats, who are into the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. Charlotte, led by Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown, finished with a winning record for the first time in six seasons after Brown installed his trademark defensive system.

The 3-6 matchup features the Atlanta Hawks, who won 50 games for the first time since 1997-98, and the Milwaukee Bucks, led by rookie sensation Brandon Jennings. Game 1 is Saturday afternoon.

The Hawks, who have increased their win total for five consecutive seasons, pose as a sleeper in the East with breakout star Josh Smith and unheralded scorer Joe Johnson.

The Bucks, meanwhile, were an afterthought entering the season but finished with a winning record for the first time since 2002-03 with the emergence of Jennings, the 10th overall pick of the 2009 draft. Jennings averaged just over 15 points and five assists per game to help the Bucks win 22 of their final 30 games to capture a playoff berth.

However, Milwaukee will be without the services of center Andrew Bogut, who had a breakout campaign in 2009-10. Bogut suffered an arm injury earlier in April that will keep him out six weeks, which means he could return in mid-May at the earliest.

In the 4-5 series, the Atlantic Division champion Boston Celtics will take on Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat, beginning Saturday evening in Beantown. Since winning 66 regular season games and an NBA championship in 2008, the Celtics have been unable to repeat that success and struggled down the stretch to finish just 50-32 this season.

"I think either way we still should be able to push the ball, they miss shots we get in transition and go," Boston guard Rajon Rondo said. "But in the playoffs each possession is slowed down. It's not really an up-tempo game, you have to value the ball and take care of it. So it will be interesting to see."

The Heat finished with their best record since winning a title in 2006, going 47-35 to capture the fifth seed on the final day. Like Boston, Miami has been unable to match its prior success, having failed to win a playoff series since its NBA Finals win over Dallas.

Out West, the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers have the top seed and a meeting with the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round of the playoffs. The series begins Sunday afternoon at Staples Center.

Despite finishing with the best record in the West, there are a lot of questions surrounding the Lakers and how they will manage to get through the Thunder and Kevin Durant.

Kobe Bryant sat out four of LA's five remaining games with a sore right knee and a fractured right index finger. Andrew Bynum hasn't played in nearly a month due to a strained left Achilles' tendon.

In injury news for the Lakers, reserve guard Sasha Vujacic suffered a severe left ankle sprain in the first half of Wednesday's loss to the Clippers. An MRI exam is scheduled for Thursday after X-rays were negative.

The Lakers beat the Thunder franchise 12 consecutive times until a loss at Oklahoma City on March 26.

The Thunder, in the playoffs for the first time since 2005, when the franchise was located in Seattle, has plenty of offensive firepower in Durant. The 21- year-old formally wrap up the NBA's scoring title Wednesday and became the youngest scoring champion in NBA history.

Dallas wrapped up the No. 2 seed Wednesday with a home victory over San Antonio, and will play the Spurs in the first round, beginning Sunday, for the second consecutive season. Last year, when San Antonio held home-court advantage, but Dallas prevailed in five games.

"I think you protect home, get off to a good start," Mavs guard Jason Kidd said. "We're healthy going in so that's the biggest part is we're healthy and fresh and we've got to execute the game plan."

Dallas won the season series, 3-1.

"They're a great team, a lot of talent and a lot of depth. They got us last year so we've got to really come out play hard and play well," Spurs forward Matt Bonner said.

The Phoenix Suns may the most dangerous team heading into the Western Conference playoffs. The third-seeded Suns won 14 of their final 16 games and will battle Portland in the first round of the playoffs, starting Sunday night in Phoenix.

Led by Amare Stoudemire and Steve Nash, the Suns rallied to steal the No. 3 seed by winning convincingly at Utah Wednesday night.

"There's a lot of positive energy around the team right now," Nash said. "We just have to keep building on it. Our bench is really important to our team. I don't think we're the most talented team, but we're deep, we play well together, we have great chemistry and we can win, I think, in different ways. I feel good about our team."

The Suns had a 1-2 mark against the Blazers this season, but Portland is going to the playoffs with a big injury hanging over its head. Guard Brandon Roy has a torn meniscus in his right knee. He is averaging a team-best 21.5 points per game.

The final first-round series pits the Nuggets, who backed into winning the Northwest Division, against the Jazz. The series starts Saturday night in Denver.

Despite having Carmelo Anthony healthy, the Nuggets lost two of their final three games, albeit against the Spurs and Suns. Denver, though, can look forward to the fact it went 3-1 against the Jazz this season.

The Jazz have injury concerns for their frontcourt going into the playoffs. Carlos Boozer sat out Wednesday with a strained rib muscle. Also, Andrei Kirilenko missed 15 of the last 17 games this season due to a strained left calf.

This will be the first playoff meeting between Utah and Denver since 1994 when the Jazz won a grueling seven-game series in the conference semifinals.

"We have struggled with them for some reason this year," Jazz guard Deron Williams said. "In the past we had success against them. This they had our number. They had a lot of transition baskets against us and we have to do a better job at getting back to the transition defense, stopping their fast break points and making them defend us on the other end."