NBA Playoffs Begin This Saturday

The National Basketball Association "second season" of the playoffs begins this weekend as sixteen teams vie in eight best-of-seven series in the first round.  The pairings, based on the seeding according to regular season win-loss records in each conference, are thus:

East
Atlanta vs. Brooklyn
Toronto vs. Washington

Cleveland vs. Boston
Chicago vs. Milwaukee

West
Golden State vs. New Orleans
Portland vs. Memphis

Houston vs. Dallas
Los Angeles Clippers vs. San Antonio

The playoffs are constructed in a bracket format, similar to the NCAA tournament.  So regardless of the relative seeding of the winners of the first round, the next opponents will be within the groupings that I have set off...hence, suppose Atlanta and Washington win their opening series, then they'd face each other the next round...and so on.  Then, the two remaining teams from each conference will play for the conference titles...and then those two winners will play for the league championship, to end some time in early June.

I'm rooting for Atlanta, Washington, Boston, Chicago, New Orleans, Memphis, Dallas, and San Antonio in the opening round, but I suspect that Cleveland and Golden State will easily win theirs.  As for the eventual NBA championship series, I'd like to see Chicago playing San Antonio, with the latter winning the title...but I suspect it will be more like Cleveland playing Golden State, with Lebron James of the Cavaliers adding another championship to his resume...