2016 NBA Playoffs Begin Today

The sixteen teams that made the National Basketball Association championship playoffs this 2015-16 season begin their first rounds of play this weekend, with four games today and four tomorrow.  I've already seen the Eastern Conference's 7th-seed Indiana handle 2nd-seed Toronto on the road, on the strength of a strong second half performance from their star Paul George.  The other Eastern Conference game remaining today will start soon, and it should be fun to watch: 4th-seed Atlanta against 5th-seed Boston.  I just finished watching the opening game in the Western Conference series between top-seeded Golden State and 8th-seed Houston, with the Warriors winning easily.  But their MVP guard Steph Curry hurt his foot late in the second quarter...will he fully recover for the next game?  And later tonight will be the 3rd-seed Oklahoma City Thunder, coached by former Florida Gator legend Billy Donovan, against 6th-seed Dallas.  Tomorrow will feature, in the East, #1-seed Cleveland against 8th-seed Detroit and 3rd-seed Miami against 6th-seed Charlotte...while in the West, it'll be 2nd-seed San Antonio against 7th-seed Memphis and 4th-seed Los Angeles Clippers vs. 5th-seed Portland...

I pick Cleveland to eventually face Golden State in a rematch for the league championship, but that's not where my preferences lie.  In numerical order of those preferences, here are how much I like (or dislike) the teams in this year's playoffs:

1-San Antonio
2-Miami
3-Atlanta
4-Dallas
5-Memphis
6-Indiana
7-Boston
8-Oklahoma City
9-Clippers
10-Golden State
11-Toronto
12-Charlotte
13-Portland
14-Detroit
15-Houston
16-Cleveland

Of the above, I highly prefer the Spurs and Heat over everybody else...wouldn't it be great if they shocked the "experts" and won their respective conference titles instead of the Cavaliers and Warriors? Well, at this stage in the playoffs I can hope with reckless abandon...