The Way of Basketball: Never Talk Shit to Him!

In the Western Conference, the top-seed Spurs will face the Utah Jazz; the second-seed Thunder will go up against the Dallas Mavericks; the third-seed Lakers will face the Denver Nuggets; the fourth-seed Clippers will go against the New Orleans Hornets.

As for the Eastern Conference, the highlight is a "mismatch."

The Knicks aren't matched up against the Magic Team, and the Pacers aren't matched up against the Boston Celtics.

Therefore, the first round in the Eastern Conference doesn't feature any classic rivalries.

But the anticipation from the public is high, because...

The second round could very well see a New York Knicks vs. Heat Team matchup!

Su Wan hasn't faced LeBron James since 2009...

This is the first time in three years they meet again on the playoff stage.

Everyone wants to see if LeBron can finally win a game to avoid a sweep...

Alright, alright!

To be honest, not many media and fans are expecting this to happen.

Because they all know:

If they can't win against the Knicks in the regular season, the Heat Team is even less likely to win in the playoffs.

Even losing by a smaller margin would count as a success.

But...

What can you do?

Just love to watch!

Not to mention, if the Knicks and Heat Team do face off this year, it will also feature Vince Carter against LeBron.

These two have their own issues.

Vince Carter hasn't hesitated to badmouth LeBron in media interviews multiple times.

In short!

The team's strength difference doesn't matter.

Everyone is in it for the fun.

They all want to see how much new amusement this series will bring!

In the West, there is indeed a classic rivalry, Lakers vs. Nuggets, meeting for the third time in four years. Carmelo Anthony vs. Kobe is the main attraction of this series.

As for the predictions for these 8 matchups, most media believe the first round won't have too many surprises, with the higher-seed teams beating the lower-seeds.

Even for the Celtics vs. Heat Team matchup.

Mainly because Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, without Ray Allen, face more pressure on offense than before. The previously traded Jeff Green can only relieve this pressure to some extent.

Moreover, Ray Allen's critical outside spacing ability is something he can't replace.

The Celtics have especially struggled offensively this season.

This means that if they can't stop the Heat Team's offense, the team will immediately collapse.

Many experts believe the Heat Team will end this series in 5 games.

On April 16, the league announced the 2012 "Rookie of the Year."

Not much suspense, Kyrie Irving won the award.

This makes him the first Cavaliers rookie to win the "Rookie of the Year" award since LeBron James in 2003.

Cleveland's management hasn't invested as much effort in him as they did in LeBron.

So upon seeing Irving win "Rookie of the Year" smoothly, they suddenly feel like this award...

Isn't that hard to get after all?

When the Cavaliers management made sure LeBron played comfortably, they even traded away Ricky Davis and gave LeBron all the ball rights, plus the media hyped "20 plus 5 plus 5" as comparable to Jordan, which made it hard to win "Rookie of the Year."

"No.1 Pick" and "No.1 Pick" can be different.

Cleveland, of course, celebrated grandly.

On April 17, the league announced the "Most Improved Player" and "Best Sixth Man."

The "Best Sixth Man" belongs to Thunder's James Harden.

Honestly, winning this award represents the firepower Harden produced off the bench this season.

But it's also this award that limited the whole league's imagination of him, including the Thunder's general manager, treating him as a "Best Sixth Man" level player.

Otherwise, they wouldn't be unwilling to even spend six million more.

This award also...

Caused the "Thunder Three Youngsters" to become the biggest if.

Now that Harden has won this award again, who knows what the outcome will be this time.

The "Most Improved Player" is Ryan Anderson!

Four words can describe this player:

"High Post Gun"!

"Lucky son of the era's change."

Entered the league as the 21st pick in the first round in 2008, averaged less than 20 minutes of play time in his first 3 seasons.

As the concept of space became more important in the league over the past few seasons, he's been getting plenty of playtime with the Magic Team.

Averaging 33.2 minutes per game, scoring 16.1 points per game, with a three-point shooting percentage of 39.8%, taking 6.9 three-point shots per game and making 2.8 of them, he's a quality three-point shooter in the league.

But he has a bit of "home court dragon, away court insect" syndrome.

Yes, you read that right.

Others are "home court dragon, away court insect," but Anderson is the opposite; he can't perform well at home but is stable in shooting on the road.

Then, April 18 arrives.

On the day of the playoff opening game, there was a home game between the New York Knicks and the Philadelphia 76ers.

For this matchup, experts predicted:

4-0!

There's nothing you can do, judging from Su Wan's past first-round records, this guy fights strong teams steadily and is even steadier at crushing weak teams.

Especially in the first round, having never lost in his career so far.

The Philadelphia 76ers, as the Eastern Conference's eighth seed, and a team that even had management considering rebuilding rumors mid-season, trying to snatch a victory from the Knicks is genuinely a bit difficult.