1st rd Playoff prediction thread.... for playoff prediction superiority guys.

Interesting that you mention the Kings of 2002 - I see a little bit of them in Indiana as well.

I don't see Indiana coming back and winning 3 straight to end the series. They need to get one of the two games in Miami. I think that they will.

I would be surprised if Indiana lost Game 5 at home. I wouldn't feel confident about them coming back from 3-2 down to Miami. In fairness though, they've already done that in the playoffs this year.

Regarding George Hill, I don't think that he's a great player at all. But I do think that he's capable of making wide open jumpers. Where he gets in trouble is when he's trying to do too much. As long as Indiana continues to use him as a floor spacer and he isn't forced into trying to create shots for himself or others, he'll be fine. He's really a guy that should be part of most teams bench ... but for whatever reason he kind of works as a starter on this Pacers team.

The series is over. Miami is going to win. It will be 3-1 going into game 5. Indiana won't win 3 straight against LeBron.

The Bulls are another interesting comparison. I'm not sure that I'd say that Indiana is a better team than that Bulls team is, but I don't think that this Miami team is anywhere close to as good as that team and I think that this Indiana team matches up a little bit better in that West > Boozer, Hibbert is a bigger obstacle in the lane than Noah (although I think Noah's a better overall defender), Indiana has 2 guys that can not only defend LBJ and Wade but also create shots in George and Mr. Irrational Confidence, and that Rose could be taken away by putting a bigger LBJ on him whereas the better players for Indiana are all roughly a similar height and it's harder for LBJ to completely take them away.

As for the prior Game 5's, you could have said the same thing about Game 1's before Sunday. However, if you want to go series by series Atlanta absolutely shot the 3 ridiculously well in that game and my guess is that Indiana thought that Washington was going to roll over.

I agree that Indiana's biggest problem in this series is going to come down to getting something from their bench. They need to get something out of Scola, CJ Watson, or maybe even an Evan Turner appearance at some point. While I'm not convinced that Miami's bench is particularly great anymore, they do have a number of guys that know their role and are generally interchangeable enough to play the guys that are working on that particular night.

Basketball is a game of matchups and these teams really do matchup well against one another. I haven't seen anything at this point that doesn't make me think that this isn't a 7 game series. I think Miami will win Game 3 in a close game and Indiana will take Games 4 and 5. Miami has a massive LBJ game in Game 6 leaving Game 7. The last 12 months between these two teams has been tied to that game being in Indiana instead of Miami. I do think that we'll get that to play out. As for the outcome? I've picked Indiana all year so I can't change now. But as with everybody else, it's hard to buy into everything that Indiana is selling ... they are still in a prove it mode.

There's no doubt that this is going to be an intriguing series with a lot of future ramifications for both teams.

It's hard for me not to look at this Miami team and wonder if it's on their last run. Wondering whether LBJ leaves and goes to a better situation or stays in Miami around a situation where I'm not entirely sure that they are going to be able to surround him with much is going to be very, very interesting to watch.