Expect Championship Favorite Detroit To Win The East With Defense

By Scott McLean

Basketball excitement in the form of the NBA playoffs is almost here. The obvious contenders are getting ready for their title runs, while some teams are clinging to hope for a postseason berth.

Just about everybody's favorites in the Western Conference and Eastern Conference are the San Antonio Spurs and Detroit Pistons, respectively.

And who am I to disagree? Well, actually I have been known to take a different team now and then, so watch out for my bold predictions especially in the early rounds of the playoffs.

Is there a team out there that can beat the Pistons with all that talent and defensive toughness? Uh, I say no, not a chance... But the Miami Heat if Shaquille O'Neal is healthy can make life tough for Detroit.

On the other hand, if Shaq isn't dominating opponents under the basket, Miami could be eliminated prior to a conference finals showdown with Detroit, which I predict the Pistons would win in six games.

Besides Detroit and Miami, the East isn't very good.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have the most exciting player to watch in LeBron James, possibly the league's best player, but they have too many problems defending against good scorers.

Washington has one of those all-world scorers in Gilbert Arenas, but the team's defense is lacking as well.

This year's New Jersey Nets are much improved with Vince Carter leading the way with tremendous ability to take over games.

Carter's great shooting, overall game, and leadership have made the Nets a contender.

While they will win the division title, I don't think they match up well with either Miami or Detroit.

Detroit is my strong favorite to return to the Finals this year.

With guards Chauncey Billups and Rip Hamilton leading the way offensively and all five players causing match up problems for defenders, I don't see how any teams can win a series against them.

The Pistons haven't been their best in recent weeks, but I expect they will start to play the championship-tough defense that shut down opponents a few years ago when they won the title.

Next time I'll see if I can find any teams in the West capable of knocking the Spurs out of the playoffs. I'm guessing it's going to be a difficult task.