On April 16, Beijing time, the NBA playoffs were all finished, and with the Clippers being eliminated, the playoffs in the West have also been released. The famous basketball commentator Su Qun also analyzed the situation in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs on personal social media, and he believes that the first round of the Western Conference will not appear in the next round, but from the perspective of the difficulty of promotion, the Suns, Warriors, Grizzlies and Lone Rangers will increase in turn.
The Top Seed suns in the West will play against the Pelicans, and in four regular-season encounters, the Suns are 3-1. But the first two of those games came before the Pelicans traded CJ McCollum. The last 2 games paul did not play, so the reference value is limited.
However, considering that the Suns have multiple forward defensive masters, Ingram and McCollum may be limited, while Valanciunas may be named and punished by Paul and Booker. In terms of playoff experience, the Suns also have an advantage, so Su Qun believes that the Suns will win 4-1 in this group of duels.
The Grizzlies, the No. 2 seed in the West, will play against the Timberwolves, and the two sides will draw 2-2 in the regular season, and in this series, the Grizzlies are likely to be in trouble. The two teams ranked first and second in regular season scoring per game, but the Timberwolves played three-pointers to shoot first in the league, and the Grizzlies attacked the interior and shot first in the league with two-pointers. The characteristics of the two teams are tit-for-tat, depending on who can play their own advantages.
And one of the X-factors in this round is Beverley. Under his defense this season, Morant has averaged just 15.7 points in four games and shot just 30 percent from the field. Once he is restrained, the impact on the entire Grizzlies team may not be small. Su Qun finally predicted that the series would be 4-3 and the Grizzlies would advance by home advantage.
The No. 3 seeded Warriors of the West will play against the Nuggets, and the Nuggets will lead 3-1 in the regular season, but Draymond Green missed these four games, and under his defense, how Jokic, who averaged 28 points, 15.8 rebounds and 8.8 assists per game against the Warriors in the regular season, will be the key to determining the trend of this series.
However, Su Qun is still optimistic about the Warriors, especially if Curry can return as soon as possible, the Warriors' rich experience will play a decisive role. After all, the Nuggets are still short of people, so Su Qun is optimistic about the Warriors' 4-2 win.
The No. 4 seeded Lone Rangers of the West will play against the Jazz, with the two sides drawing 2-2 in the regular season, and both won at home. But the problem is that Doncic's leg was accidentally strained, which could affect the trend of the playoffs.
Su Qun believes that Doncic will return in G3, while the two teams will draw 1-1 in the first two games. But once Doncic returns, he uses the block to name Gobert, which will make the Jazz feel bad. As long as Mitchell breaks out strongly, the Jazz have hope. So Su Qun eventually predicted that the Lone Rangers would eliminate the Jazz 4-3.