2008 NBA Playoffs Totally Explained

Everything about The 2008 Nba Playoffs totally explained

The 2008 NBA Playoffs is the postseason for the National Basketball Association's 2007-08 season.
There are four rounds of postseason action, all of them in a best-of-seven format, with teams seeded on a bracket. The team with the better record isn't necessarily the basis of seeding teams in the playoffs. Nevertheless, the team with the better record in a match-up has home court advantage.

Format

The 2008 format is the same as 2007's format.

The top 8 teams from each conference qualify for the playoffs.
- The top 4 seeded teams are the three division winners and the best division runner-up all ranked on the basis of their standings.
- The bottom 4 seeded teams are seeded by basis of their standings.
All series are in a best-of-seven format with the Games 1-2, 5 and 7 on the home court of the team with the better record (not necessarily higher seed).
- Exception: For the NBA Finals, the team with the better record will play Games 1-2 and 6-7 on their home court.
Reseeding (as used in the Stanley Cup Playoffs) isn't in use: therefore, all playoff matchups are predetermined via the teams' seedings.

Playoff qualifying

Eastern Conference

The following teams have clinched a playoff berth in the East:

Boston Celtics (66-16, clinched Atlantic Division, and home court advantage throughout the playoffs)

Detroit Pistons (59-23, clinched Central Division title)

Orlando Magic (52-30, clinched Southeast Division title)

Cleveland Cavaliers (45-37)

Washington Wizards (43-39)

Toronto Raptors (41-41)

Philadelphia 76ers (40-42)

Atlanta Hawks (37-45)

Western Conference

The following teams have clinched a playoff berth in the West:

Los Angeles Lakers (57-25, clinched Pacific Division title, and home court advantage for the Western Conference playoffs)

New Orleans Hornets (56-26, clinched Southwest Division title, winning conference record tiebreaker over Spurs)

San Antonio Spurs (56-26)

Utah Jazz (54-28, clinched Northwest Division title)

Houston Rockets (55-27, winning conference record tiebreaker over Suns)

Phoenix Suns (55-27)

Dallas Mavericks (51-31)

Denver Nuggets (50-32)

Bracket

This is the outlook for the 2008 NBA playoffs. Teams in italics have home court advantage. Teams in bold advance to the next round. Numbers to the left of each team indicate the team's original playoffs seeding in their respective conferences. Numbers to the right of each team indicate the number of games the team won in that round. The division champions possess an asterisk (*).

Eastern Conference

First Round

All times listed below are Eastern Daylight Time. Games marked with an asterisk (*) are if necessary.

(1) Boston Celtics vs. (8) Atlanta Hawks

Mike Bibby stating that Celtic fans were bandwagoners after Game 1, prompting lusty boos everytime he touched the ball in Game 2.
In Game 3, Atlanta showed its athleticism with an array of dunks from Josh Smith (27 points) and a strong interior performance by the rookie Al Horford (17 points, 14 rebounds, 6 assists), who also jawed with Paul Pierce near the end of the game. There would be more jawing in Game 4 between Zaza Pachulia and Kevin Garnett, but the outcome was a surprise: Thanks to fourth quarter heroics by Joe Johnson and Smith, who combined to score 32 of Atlanta's 34 4th quarter points, the upstart Hawks rallied from a 10 point third quarter deficit in Game 4 to tie the series going back to Boston. Boston dominated Game 5, but in Game 6, six Hawks players finished in double figures to edge the Celtics to force a winner-take-all Game 7. The Hawks were no match for the Celtics in Game 7, as the Celtics held them to 26 points in the 1st half. 3 minutes into the 2nd half, the series' tensions finally boiled over when Marvin Williams was ejected for committing a hard foul on Rajon Rondo.

(2) Detroit Pistons vs. (7) Philadelphia 76ers

Tayshaun Prince and Rasheed Wallace kept the Pistons from beating the Sixers at their home floor as Andre Iguodala grabbed clutch defensive rebounds to seize the home court advantage. The Pistons responded with a blowout in Game 2. Game 3 was close at halftime, but Samuel Dalembert and Andre Miller helped to break it open with strong overall performances. Detroit was behind by 12 in Game 4 at halftime and in danger of falling behind 3-1 going back home, but three second-half 3s by Rasheed Wallace and strong showings by Tayshaun Prince and Chauncey Billups keyed an eighteen point 3rd quarter turnaround which helped even the series. Detroit dominated Game 5 behind Billups's 14 points and 5 first quarter assists, jumping out to a fourteen point lead and never looking back. Richard Hamilton keyed a similar such start in Game 6, scoring 13 points, as the Pistons took an eighteen point first quarter lead and eventually rolled into the second round.

(3) Orlando Magic vs. (6) Toronto Raptors

Scoring 25 points and grabbing 22 rebounds, Dwight Howard gave the Magic their first playoffs win since 2003 as they practically led the entire game. Howard would put up a 29-20 in Game 2, as Hedo Turkoglu scored the final four go-ahead points to give the Magic a 2-0 lead. The Raptors would respond with a strong Game 3 victory keyed by great point guard play from T.J. Ford and Jose Calderon. But Jameer Nelson, Rashard Lewis and Keith Bogans keyed strong three point shooting in Game 4 and overcame Chris Bosh's 39 points and 15 rebounds to bring the Magic out of Toronto with a 3-1 lead. Howard would finish off the series in Game 5 as impressively as he started–21 points, 21 rebounds, 3 blocks.

(4) Cleveland Cavaliers vs. (5) Washington Wizards

LeBron James, labeled as "overrated" by Wizards guard DeShawn Stevenson, scored 20 of his 32 points in the second half to help the Cavs draw first blood in their third first round meeting in as many years. The Cavs and Wizards traded blowouts in Games 2 and 3, but Cleveland took a 3-1 lead in the Verizon Center off of Delonte West's last second three pointer. Washington stay alive by winning Game 5 when Caron Butler converted a running shot with only seconds left, capping off his 32 point performance. However, James would lead the Cavs to a dominating Game 6 victory in Washington with a triple double (27 points, 13 rebounds, 13 assists); he also received crucial outside shooting from Wally Szczerbiak and Daniel Gibson, who combined for 48 points.
This series has been marked by several harsh physical plays on LeBron James, with Brendan Haywood, Stevenson, and Darius Songaila picking up technical and flagrant fouls for hard contact on James.

Conference Semifinals

(1) Boston Celtics vs. (4) Cleveland Cavaliers

(2) Detroit Pistons vs. (3) Orlando Magic

Conference Finals: (1) Boston Celtics vs. (2) Detroit Pistons

Western Conference

First Round

All times listed below are Eastern Daylight Time. Games marked with an asterisk (*) are if necessary.

(1) Los Angeles Lakers vs. (8) Denver Nuggets

Pau Gasol's playoff debut with the Lakers, he scored 36 points, 16 rebounds, 8 assists and 3 blocked shots as the Lakers beat the Nuggets in Game 1. Kobe Bryant gave the fans a vintage performance in Game 2 by scoring 49 points and adding 10 assists in a blowout at Staples Center. The Nuggets were routed at home in Game 3, with Carmelo Anthony stating the team quit in the second half. Game 4 was closer, but Bryant led the Lakers with 14 points in the last five and a half minutes to close out the Nuggets at the Pepsi Center. It's the first time the Lakers advanced to the second round since the 2003-04 NBA season.

(2) New Orleans Hornets vs. (7) Dallas Mavericks

In his playoff debut, Chris Paul scored 35 points, dished out 10 assists, and stole the ball 4 times to lead the Hornets to a comeback home win against the Mavericks. He would replicate that type of performance in Game 2 with 32 points and 17 assists. Dallas would come out with a dominant Game 3 performance at home after inserting Jason Terry into the starting lineup, but New Orleans would win the final two games of the series, keyed by David West in Game 4 and Paul's triple-double in Game 5.

(3) San Antonio Spurs vs. (6) Phoenix Suns

Michael Finley made a game-tying three in regulation, Tim Duncan scored 40 points, including a rare three-point field goal to force a second overtime, and Manu Ginóbili clinched victory with a drive to the basket to break the 115-all deadlock with 1.8 seconds left to win a classic Game 1. Tony Parker would then pace the Spurs to their next two victories in the series, scoring 32 and 41 in Games 2 and 3 respectively. At the brink of elimination, Phoenix responded with a strong Game 4. But costly missed free throws by Shaquille O'Neal and key turnovers by Steve Nash helped San Antonio to prevail in Game 5, led again by Parker's 31 points.
Also notable was Gregg Popovich's use of the Hack-a-Shaq throughout the series to disrupt the Suns offense when Shaquille O'Neal was on the floor. O'Neal would shoot 64 free throws in the five games, making 32 of them.

(4) Utah Jazz vs. (5) Houston Rockets

The Jazz had a balanced game from Andrei Kirilenko, Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams to steal the home court advantage away from the Rockets. A similar such performance in Game 2 put Utah in a commanding 2-0 lead going back to Salt Lake City. Rafer Alston's return to the Houston lineup after injury, along with Tracy McGrady's 27 points and Carl Landry's key block of Deron Williams on the crucial possession helped Houston to steal Game 3 on the road. Williams responded with a strong performance in a Game 4 victory, plus got some help from Mehmet Okur with his offensive rebound off of his two missed free throws. The Rockets controlled Game 5 to stay alive, but despite getting 40 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 assists from McGrady in Game 6 and 15 pts from Luis Scola, the rest of Houston's team shot 10 for 39 from the field and couldn't overcome losing Alston to an ankle injury as the Jazz blew the game open with a 27-11 3rd quarter.

Conference Semifinals

(1) Los Angeles Lakers vs. (4) Utah Jazz

(2) New Orleans Hornets vs. (3) San Antonio Spurs

Conference Finals: (1) Los Angeles Lakers vs. (3) San Antonio Spurs

Broadcast notes

The Playoffs began on Saturday April 19, with the Washington Wizards facing the Cleveland Cavaliers on ESPN. ABC kicked off its coverage with the Phoenix Suns facing the San Antonio Spurs. TNT's coverage began with a tripleheader on Sunday, April 20 in a game between the Toronto Raptors and the Orlando Magic, with the Denver Nuggets playing the L.A. Lakers on ABC in between. NBA TV has been broadcasting weeknight coverage of playoff games for at least the first round.

The Eastern Conference Finals will be televised on ABC and ESPN, beginning Tuesday May 20 at 8:30 pm EST. Game 3 is scheduled to be televised on ABC--all other games are scheduled on ESPN. The last possible end date for the Eastern Conference Finals will be on June 1st, if the series goes to a seventh and deciding game.

The Western Conference Finals will be televised on TNT, beginning Wednesday May 21 at 9 pm EST. The last possible end date for the Western Conference Finals will be on June 2, if the series goes to a seventh and deciding game.

The NBA Finals will be televised on ABC, beginning Thursday June 5 at 9 pm EST. The latest possible end date for the NBA Finals will be June 19, if the Finals goes to a seventh and deciding game.

ABC's lead announcing team for the NBA Playoffs (and, by extension, the NBA Finals) is play-by-play man Mike Breen, joined by analysts Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy along with sideline reporter Michele Tafoya. Mike Tirico, Hubie Brown and Lisa Salters are expected to be the second team broadcasting on ABC.

ESPN's other play-by-play announcers include Dave Pasch and Dan Shulman, along with analysts Rick Carlisle, Jon Barry and Doris Burke. Sideline reporters include Heather Cox, Holly Rowe and Ric Bucher.

TNT's lead announcing teams for the NBA Playoffs are Marv Albert with Reggie Miller and Kevin Harlan with Doug Collins. Play-by-play announcers Dick Stockton and Matt Devlin will also be teamed with Mike Fratello and Los Angeles Clippers head coach Mike Dunleavy on a rotating basis. Sideline reporters include Craig Sager, Cheryl Miller, Pam Oliver, David Aldridge, Marty Snider, Dei Lynam, and Stephanie Ready.Further Information

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