The Boston Celtics finally closed out Washington in 7 games to set up this Conference Finals match-up. Meanwhile, the Cavaliers haven’t played in 9 days. Cleveland won the regular season series 3-1 although Boston has home court advantage in this series, having the better overall regular season record.

For Cleveland, these playoffs have been the LeBron James show. He has averaged 34 points, 9 rebounds and 7.1 assists while shooting 55.7% from the floor and 46.8% from three. He has been dominant and the Celtics will struggle to find an answer for him defensively.

The Cavs will  ... 

It has been a long time coming for this match-up in the playoffs. Over the last four seasons, Golden State and San Antonio have the two best records in the league and won 2 out of the 3 NBA championships. But they never met in the playoffs during that span until now.

The big question is whether or not Kawhi Leonard is 100%. He most likely will play Game 1 but it is unknown how healthy he is. Obviously, with Tony Parker already out for the season, losing Kawhi for any amount of time in this series would  ... 

Bottom fishing in the financial markets is defined as investing in stocks that are cheap because of a problem with the company or the economy. A bottom-fishing investor speculates that the stock’s depressed price is temporary, will recover and make for a profitable investment.

Obviously, sports investing can incorporate the same principle. A great way to invest in MLB is to look at teams who made the playoffs the previous year and/or had high hopes for this season but have started poorly and are currently under .500. While they might not recover to compete for a playoff  ... 

A dramatic contrast in styles highlights the 2nd round matchup between Utah and Golden State. Utah has a quick turnaround after closing out the Clippers on the road in a game 7 while Golden State dominated Portland in a sweep.

Golden State has won 19 of their last 20 games – the lone loss being to Utah at the Oracle. But it’s hard to look at the regular season in this case. The Warriors won the season series 2-1 but key players were missing for one or both teams in every game.

The biggest and most obvious  ... 

Two teams with a history of bad blood will go at it in the 2nd round. Led by John Wall, the Wizards defeated Atlanta in the 1st round while Boston and Isaiah Thomas overcame major off-court adversity to cruise past Chicago. Wall and Thomas will be the focus as both dynamic guards run the show for their respective teams.

These two teams split in the regular season, each winning two games on their home court. The key to Boston’s success will be their ability to limit the Wizards fast break points. In their two regular season wins against  ... 

After meeting in the conference finals last season, these two teams get the rematch in the 2nd round this year. Toronto is coming off a tough series win over Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks while the Cavs breezed past Indiana.

Cleveland won the regular season series 3-1 although not much can be taken from that. The first three games were all before Christmas and in the lone Toronto win, Cleveland’s Big Three didn’t play.

It will be interesting to see if the Raptors continue their newfound small-ball movement in this series. After the 3rd game of the Milwaukee  ... 

An all Texas matchup in what should be a very competitive second round series begins on Monday. The Spurs won the regular season series 3-1 – winning twice at Houston – but no game was decided by more than 6 points and the average margin of victory was 3 points.

James Harden and Kawhi Leonard each headlined the offense for their respective teams and it should be more of the same. The one glaringly obvious takeaway from the regular season meetings was the Spurs ability to limit Houston’s three-point shooting. This will be the key to this  ...