As a followup to the post previously known by a title not befitting its content, assuming all top 4 seeds in the East won their first playoff round which semifinal bracket will be preferable for the Magic (i.e. which team you prefer at the second round against Magic)? Poll options ignore the team with the homecourt advantage.

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I am an overseas NBA fan. Because of timezone difference, playoff Game 1 was the first one I was able to watch this season's Thunder team. What I saw at that game, Game 3 win and what I read about the team all season made me get up at 4:30 AM to watch Game 4.

Game 1 demonstrated Thunder's inexperience at this stage but also exposed Lakers' weaknesses and made me believe Thunder will give a hard time to the latest champs during this series. After this game, one can't help but begin to dream about consider an upset.

What I like most about Thunder is watching them is like watching a good college team. You can feel the friendship, the chemistry, their hunger, their good relationship with their coach. They became giddy sometimes for a moment after a good play (especially Green) but don't lose their concentration. Even at his postgame interview Durant didn't look very happy provoking a question and reminded all of us that there will be a next game, the series is not over yet. This is the mindset of a great player who has a vision of long term.

Kudos to Coach Brooks for giving us fans a great team like this. I now understand better why he deserved the coaching award after watching this game. A lot of NBA teams have great young talent but mashing them like this, making them play active defense, make good decions at offense is a rarity.

Kudos to Thunder's young players to play way ahead of their ages. They sticked to the game plan and showed everyone their potential and having a good chance for an upset. Durant may be struggling a little bit but he showed me enough about the great player he became and how better he can be in the future. Russell Westbrook and other supporting cast showed me how much they can achive as a team. Durant is fortunate to have them and vice versa. If they can steal Game 5, they can even start their promising career with eliminating the number one seed. Even if they lose I believe an exciting and close Game 7 is waiting us.

Last but not least, what a crowd. Loud city indeed. Even with European standards they were crazy. I like what they gave to the team with their energy. Lakers shot 17-28 (.607) and Thunders shot a whopping 42-48 (.875) from the FT line. These numbers reflect how crowd affects the confidence of both teams in my opinion. You can feel how they love and believe in their team. There were a lot of funny dressings and signs as well. With a blowout like this you can see people leaving before game ends. Nobody left this game. As a side note I wonder how Seattle fans were feeling if they watch this game.

Houston overachieved last year for stretching the series to game 7 and even at that point not many believed they can eliminate the Lakers. Warriors' upset over Dallas was believed to be a fluke by most and it showed at the following seasons. But this team is for real and even if they can't pull an upset, they deserve and are destined for great achievements. This game was like a coming out party for me about coach Brooks, Durant, his teammates, and the crowd. I will always remember this game when they will fulfill their potential in the future.

To sum it up, as a fan of the game and the league I want to welcome all these parties to the NBA. I may be very late to notice this but Thunder has arrived. I wanted to share my happiness about this and offer my congratulations with this post. Thanks for reading.

I tried to list some possibilites and questions which weren't talked much until this point. The series dynamics changes after each game when both teams are this good and new "what if" questions emerge. Please add yours  and we'll see if any one of us will catch something which is not mentioned in the media much.

• Kobe being tired at the end of game: Was that specific to this game or will we see it more at the upcoming games? If the latter, it will be a great development for Magic as the series progress, improving their chances significantly. Can we say that Magic finally figured how to stop/limit him thanks to mixing it up with Lee and Pietrus?
• Gasol having more touches: We can expect Lakers to try this since it was evident to everyone that he was killing the Magic in the paint. Now, if this is a chess match SVG should anticipate this and adjust the defense. Remember how Howard was confused at games 1 and 2, how they forced him to all those turnovers. I had a feeling that Gasol is suspectible to have a similar off game if the Magic defense makes this a priority. A couple of plays early in the game, like a Howard block or stripping the ball from him can cause this. Played games so far suggests that if Pau has an off game it will become much easier for Magic to get a win.
• Foul problem for Dwight : So far so good but I am crossing my fingers not to go through this at one of the coming games. If he sits some extended minutes, Lakers are capable of exploiting this for winning a close game or building a large lead. If he doesn't go into foul trouble in these series at all, it is one more evidence of how much he matured during these playoffs regardless the result of the Finals. When (not if) he becomes a Hall of Famer we can all tell our kids we witnessed his coming of age, how he fixed his FTs, how he learnt to avoid silly fouls, how he learnt to dominate or being just efficient during the 2009 Playoffs.
• Number of 3pt attempts: Since they have to worry our inside the arc shooting much more after game 3, is it too much to hope for a more regular Orlando game where we are taking a lot of open 3s and hitting them at our normal clip?
• Game 4 outcome: Not yet but if Magic wins Game 4, I believe we will have ourselves a real series. Orlando will become more confident and all kinds of doubts will emerge at the Lakers side. Despite what they say it is natural for Magic players feeling just to be happy being at the Finals. Nobody will blame them if they lose and they already accomplished much. But if they manage to even the series coming from 2 games down, they may start to really believe they can win it all and play their A+ game every minute, every game. At least, I hope that's what will happen.
  

Here's this week's showcased fanpost. In this write-up, 3QC member pembeci takes a historical look at the NBA Finals and what the data means for the Orlando Magic. - ER

Last night at the game thread, I wondered if there was any team WITHOUT the home court advantage who reached the happy end at Game 7 after the 2-3-2 format became in play. So today, I went and did some research about the finals series played since that format was started in 1985. Granted this is a very small sample to find some patterns but it is still fun to look at.

To answer my own question, NO there wasn't such a team. The only game 7s happened in these kind of series are (A: team with HCA, B: the lower seeded team):

1988: BA-ABB-AA (A in 7)  Los Angeles Lakers over Detroit Pistons
1994: AB-ABB-AA (A in 7)  Houston Rockets over New York Knickerbockers
2005: AA-BBA-BA (A in 7)  San Antonio Spurs over Detroit Pistons

and they are all won by the home team.

OK, another question, is it all lost if first two games were won by the home team. Answer is NO, Miami Heat won 4 straight after losing the first two. Here is how the lower seeded team became champions:

1985: AB-BAB-B* (B in 6)  Los Angeles Lakers over Boston Celtics
1993: BB-ABA-B* (B in 6)  Chicago Bulls over Phoenix Suns
1995: BB-BB*-** (B in 4)  Houston Rockets over Orlando Magic
1998: AB-BBA-B* (B in 6)  Chicago Bulls over Utah Jazz
2004: BA-BBB-** (B in 5)  Detroit Pistons over Los Angeles Lakers
2006: AA-BBB-B* (B in 6)  Miami Heat over Dallas Mavericks

Let's see if Magic can repeat one of these patterns. I think most likely scenario for doing that is split first, get 2 out of 3 at home and then win the 6th game away.

Here is the full list:

1985: AB-BAB-B* (B in 6)  Los Angeles Lakers over Boston Celtics
1986: AA-BAB-A* (A in 6)  Boston Celtics over Houston Rockets
1987: AA-BAB-A* (A in 6)  Los Angeles Lakers over Boston Celtics
1988: BA-ABB-AA (A in 7)  Los Angeles Lakers over Detroit Pistons
1989: AA-AA*-** (A in 4)  Detroit Pistons over Los Angeles Lakers
1990: AB-AAA-** (A in 5)  Detroit Pistons over Portland Trail Blazers
1991: BA-AAA-** (A in 5)  Chicago Bulls over Los Angeles Lakers
1992: AB-ABA-A* (A in 6)  Chicago Bulls over Portland Trail Blazers
1993: BB-ABA-B* (B in 6)  Chicago Bulls over Phoenix Suns
1994: AB-ABB-AA (A in 7)  Houston Rockets over New York Knickerbockers
1995: BB-BB*-** (B in 4)  Houston Rockets over Orlando Magic
1996: AA-ABB-A* (A in 6)  Chicago Bulls over Seattle Supersonics
1997: AA-BBA-A* (A in 6)  Chicago Bulls over Utah Jazz
1998: AB-BBA-B* (B in 6)  Chicago Bulls over Utah Jazz
1999: AA-BAA-** (A in 5)  San Antonio Spurs over New York Knickerbockers
2000: AA-BAB-A* (A in 6)  Los Angeles Lakers over Indiana Pacers
2001: BA-AAA-** (A in 5)  Los Angeles Lakers over Philadelphia 76ers
2002: AA-AA*-** (A in 4)  Los Angeles Lakers over New Jersey Nets
2003: AB-ABA-A* (A in 6)  San Antonio Spurs over New Jersey Nets
2004: BA-BBB-** (B in 5)  Detroit Pistons over Los Angeles Lakers
2005: AA-BBA-BA (A in 7)  San Antonio Spurs over Detroit Pistons
2006: AA-BBB-B* (B in 6)  Miami Heat over Dallas Mavericks
2007: AA-AA*-** (A in 4)  San Antonio Spurs over Cleveland Cavaliers
2008: AA-BAB-A* (A in 6)  Boston Celtics over Los Angeles Lakers