NBA Playoffs predictions and a Rockies thought

No time for Thursday tidbits...school. I would much rather muse on here than write about modernism or the biography of Philip Roth. Anyway, I'm allotting 20 minutes of time off from homework to write this. Ready, GO!

NBA PLAYOFFS PICKS
Eastern Conference

Round 1:
Bulls over Pacers in 4
Heat over 76ers in 6
Celtics over Knicks in 4
Magic over Hawks in 6

Round 2:
Bulls over Magic in 5
Celtics over Heat in 7

Conference Finals:
Bulls over Celtics in 6

Western Conference

Round 1:
Spurs over Grizzlies in 6
Lakers over Hornets in 6
Blazers over Mavericks in 7
Thunder over Nuggets in 6 (hope I'm wrong)

Round 2:
Thunder over Spurs in 5
Lakers over Blazers in 5

Conference Finals:
Lakers over Thunder in 7

And....NBA Finals!
Lakers over Bulls in 6...I think that the Lakers are the team to beat as long as they have Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol cleaning up the glass. The Bulls have as good a chance as anybody to offset that advantage, but I'll still take Kobe and Phil Jackson.

Links to other Playoffs predictions (from the experts!)

Sports Illustarted expert picks

ESPN.com Playoff front page

Yahoo! Playoffs hub

A Rockies Thought...

As they labored on the road last year, we would torture ourselves as fans about the missed opportunities in each grinding loss. For example, Troy Tulowitzki came up with the bases loaded early in yesterday's game against R.A. Dickey. He grounded into an inning ending double play.

Here's what would have happened in this scenario last season: "And welcome back to the Rockies recap. The Rox lose another tough one on the road, again by one run here at Citi Field. It was not for lack of opportunity...the offense had a golden opportunity early with the bases loaded for slugger Troy Tulowitzki. Alas, he grounded into a double play and the offense never got anything else going, striking out 12 times."

We always looked back on those one or two chances, and we knew that if they did not come through in those spots, the offense inevitably would not produce anything else that day.

Here's what happened yesterday: they won anyway, 6-5. If they continue to hit enough on the road that they do not have to hang their entire offensive hopes on one or two moments in a given game, it will make all the difference for them maintaining their success.

Keep that curveball machine going, Carney!