After 82 games, we’ve finally reached the business end of the season. For some teams this means the end of a long and miserable road (Bucks, Lakers), for some it represents falling short at the final hurdle (Suns and Knicks) and for others its business as usual (Spurs, Heat). Although the first round is often fairly routine and humdrum (really, who wants to see the Hawks in the post-season?), it still represents the first chance for the big guns to flex their muscles and show us their post-season mettle – particularly for teams like the Pacers who really started to fall off towards the end of the regular season. Because the playoffs are an entirely different beast to everything that comes before them, this week I’m going to give 5 things that I’m hoping for in the first round, but in case any of you out there are wanting to chuck a cheeky fiver on down at the TAB I’ll say who I think will advance as well.

So firstly, I think the following teams will advance;

In the West – Spurs, Thunder, Rockets, Clippers

In the East – Pacers, Heat, Nets, Bulls

1: An Upset

The first round isn’t the most dramatic, there’s no way around that, but it can serve to weed out teams who aren’t the real deal or who have benefitted from a kind schedule. True upsets are fairly rare (a 5 seed beating a 4 seed doesn’t count), so I’m hoping that this year we get something similar to when the Warriors upset the Mavericks a few years back, as it shakes up the entire bracket and is a nice contrast to the 4-0 drubbings that are all too routine. For it to happen would probably take a combination of a team being a low seed because of an injury-riddled season and a high seed having an injury or two, but there doesn’t actually seem to be any teams in those categories this year. Having said that, in the East I could see Brooklyn beating the Raptors – they finally have a healthy roster, guys like Paul Pierce and KG will no longer be on minute caps, and Jason Kidd seems to have figured this whole coaching thing out. In the West, the Blazers have a chance to top the Rockets if they can rediscover their early season form and figure out a way to abuse Harden’s lack of defence. So, even if most of the series appear pretty straight forward on paper, I’m expecting at least one upset.

2: A 7 game series

Carrying on from the first want, the seeding system in the NBA ensures that most of the time the big guns will be facing teams that pose no real threat. This means quick series, if not 4-0 then usually 4-1. It’s tough to get interested in a series that one-sided, especially if a couple of the games are blowouts, so I am hoping that at least one of the first round series goes to 7 games and injects some early drama into the postseason. Chicago seem to have a habit of getting themselves into drawn out series, and when combined with the fact that their offense is so limited, I think there is more than a fair chance of them taking it to 7 against the Wizards.

3: Clippers – Warriors

This is my pick for potential series of the round, as both of these teams are capable of playing some absolutely top level basketball and feature some of the best young talent in the game. At the time of writing, the first game in this series has just finished and it lived up to the hype. I was looking forward to this series before it started due to the genuine dislike these teams appear to have towards one another (although without Bogut there probably won’t be quite so much argy bargy unfortunately), but game 1 has made it even better. The matchup at PG is possibly the top 2 guys in the league with Curry and Paul, and David Lee and Blake Griffin are two of the best offensive bigs in the game. I think the Clippers have a little too much depth for the short-handed Warriors to contend with though, and asking Jermaine O’Neal to try and basically act as the sole defensive big man on the entire roster is probably a bit much at his advanced age, but if Steph catches fire then I don’t think an upset would be off the cards.

4: Return to form for Blazers/Pacers

If your memory stretches back to the first half of the season, you may remember that the Pacers and the Blazers were THE form teams and some of the hysteria that was going along with it – who was gonna be able to beat them?! Hibbert is the best defensive player in the league by a mile! Aldridge is the best PF and PG24 is the best SF, one of them must win MVP! Well, how quickly times change and how quickly we look foolish for getting swept up in the mania. They both limped into the playoffs (how the Pacers managed to maintain the 1 seed, I have no idea) and if they don’t quickly figure out how to regain that early season form, they might find themselves embarrassed very quickly. I think the Blazers have the better chance of doing this as they didn’t quite slip to the depths of mediocrity that the Pacers did - and look, they’re already up 1-0 against the Rockets – but if Paul George can stay away from the catfish and the strippers then the Pacers should be able to deal with the Hawks (who don’t even have their best player). I feel that I should admit that this desire for a return to form for these two teams is partially for selfish reasons though, as I think the Pacers have the best shot of beating the Heat other than the Nets, and I can’t stand Dwight Coward anymore.

5: Dirk v Duncan

The young bloods like Durant and Steph Curry might think they own the league now, but Dirk Nowitzki and Tim Duncan have been running the show since the 90’s and are undisputedly 2 of the top 8 or so PFs in league history (Barkley, Malone, Rodman, KG, McHale and Rodman are also up there). But, like all good things, their time must come to an end and that end is rather close for both of them – Dirk is 35 and Duncan 37 – so this could be the last time we get to see these two titans going head to head in the post-season. For this reason, I’m hoping we get a classic series between the two like in 2006 with both of them showing more than the occasional flash of their brilliance. It could very easily be a sweep for the Spurs as they’ve seemed ridiculously good this whole season, but here’s hoping that isn’t the case.