I feel kinda burnt out from watching some of those first-round matchups and the second round starts today already!
Spurs-Blazers
The Spurs are already pretty prepared for the Blazers, who are just a better offensive/worse defensive version of the Mavericks. The Blazers do have the advantage of not being as fatigued through their series and they don't have any significant players injured. But going from playing against the Rockets 6 times to playing the Spurs will likely leave them shell-shocked. Aldridge, Lillard, and the others might surprise me again like they did against the Rockets, but Pop is definitely ready for them. It took the Rockets two games to realize that you need somebody around 7 feet to defend Aldridge and not let him put up 40+ points, so Mchale started Asik for Games 3-6. But the Spurs already have the Duncan-Splitter combo starting so I expect Aldridge to be just good/great and not superhuman. This could very well be a long series if fatigue becomes a factor but I have the Spurs in 5. The similarity of the Blazers to Mavericks will make for a smooth transition.
Pacers-Wizards
This is mostly wishful thinking but I hope the Pacers get crushed lol. Their troubles come from their offense and the Wizards are better than the Hawks defensively. If urgency from the first round is any factor, the Wizards have a huge edge there. And they also haven't played for about a week so they'll likely burst out of the gate in these first 2 games. As for the Pacers I'm going to predict multiple technical fouls from Stephenson, West, and Vogel and some West flagrants for good measure. The Wizards made almost everyone on the Bulls go cold and if the same thing happens to the Pacers, it'll be a short series. I'll pick the Wizards in 6.
Heat-Nets
The Nets have got to be in the heads of the Heat at least a little bit since they went up 4-0 in the regular season. A lot of that had to do with Livingston, whose size as a guard created mismatches and opened things up for the Nets offense. But he's now on the bench so the Nets' biggest advantage won't be playing as much as he should. Fatigue is also a factor and the Heat will want to send a message so I'm guessing they'll go up 2-0 in the first two games. Then if Kidd is a smart coach, he'll start Livingston again and it'll be a close series. I want to say Heat in 5 but they could just go complacent after winning a couple and end up in a win-or-go-home scenario. Heat in 7.
Thunder-Clippers
This is the Round 2 series we wanted last year but then the Clippers didn't even get past round 1 and even if they did, Westbrook also got injured in that round and was out for the playoffs. Griffin and Jordan steamrolled the Warriors for the most part but the Thunder have bigs that can actually box out and defend. This is the only series where fatigue won't have an impact on the start of the series since both teams just closed their round 1s on Saturday. Durant won't have Tony Allen defending him and getting awarded an MVP probably won't hurt either. I'm predicting about 100 mean looks/game between Griffin and Ibaka. Oh and Matt Barnes will get himself in the middle of any and every possible scuffle. Going for the safe prediction here, Thunder in 7.
