Who to Root For: 2021-22 NBA Playoffs

 

 Now, the NBA will tell you that the playoffs actually start after the play-in games, but this is Blog Town and I set the rules here.  NBA playoffs start now, and we can determine the teams that should win.



Now let's recap the Iowa Connections from the start of the season.  


Nick Nurse


3 - Toronto :             Nick Nurse (UNI), Trevor Gleeson (Iowa Energy), Nate Bjorkgren (Buena Vista)

2 - Chicago :     Tyler Cook (Iowa) , Matt Thomas (ISU)

2 - San Antonio:      Joe Wieskamp (Iowa),  Doug McDermott (Ames)

2 - Denver :         Monte Morris (ISU), Ryan Bowen (Iowa)

2 - Sacramento :     Harrison Barnes (Ames), Tyrese Haliburton (ISU)

1 - Philadelphia :    Georges Niang (ISU)

1 - Detroit :             Luka Garza (Iowa)

1 - Los Angeles Lakers :   Talen Horton-Tucker (ISU)

1 - Phoenix :     Abdel Nader (ISU)

1 - Houston :           Jeff Hornacek (ISU)

The East

New York, Washington and Orlando all failed to have an Iowa Connection and all missed the playoffs.

Indiana(1) added Tyrese Haliburton at the trade deadline, but not in time to make a playoff run.

Milwaukee (1) added Lindell Wigginton (Iowa State)

All four teams in the East play-ins (Brooklyn, Cleveland, Atlanta and Charlotte) remain Iowa Connectionless.

CORRECTION!!!!

A deeper dive into the coaching ranks has revealed a Northern Iowa Connection on three of those teams. 

Paul Jesperson - Atlanta

Josh Borghamer - Cleveland

Klint Carlson - Charlotte


1st Round:

1 Miami (0) vs. 8 Play-in (0-1)

2 Boston (0) vs. 7 Play-in (0-1)

3 Milwaukee (1) vs. 6 Chicago (2)

4 Philadelphia (1) vs. 5 Toronto (3)


We have up to 7 options for teams coming out of the East this year, with Toronto leading the way.  

The West


Portland and Oklahoma City all failed to have an Iowa Connection and all missed the playoffs.

San Antonio is the only play-in team with Iowa Connections. Minnesota, LA Clippers and New Orleans have none.

Dallas has an added Northern Iowa Connection, with Sean Sweeney on Dallas Mavericks staff.

1st Round:

1 Phoenix (1) vs 8 Play-in (0-1)

2 Memphis (0) vs 7 Minnesota (0)

3 Golden St (0) vs 6 Denver (2)

4 Dallas (1) vs 5 Utah (0)


Oof, if the Spurs don't make it, we are putting all our chips on Phoenix, Dallas and Denver, with Denver holding the edge.


Well, we are rooting for a Toronto/Denver final here at the blog!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2024 WNBA - Iowa Connections

Image
With the highly anticipated 2024 WNBA ready to start today, let's look at the Iowa Connections in the WNBA this season, including this Fever rookie named Caitlin.  Washington Mystics    Julie Vanloo - Signed letter of intent to play with Iowa State in 2011 but the Belgium was not granted international eligibility from the NCAA. This is her first season with the WNBA.   Dallas Wings   Stephanie Soares - The #4 pick in the 2023 draft out of Iowa State, Soares will be playing her first season in the WNBA after missing laster year with an ACL injury.   Las Vegas Aces   Kiah Stokes - From Cedar Rapids, Kiah will be in her 10th season in WNBA. She won 3 NCAA titles with UConn and the last 2 titles with Las Vegas.   Megan Gustafson - Megan was AP Player of the Year with Iowa in 2019 and has played previous season with Dallas, Washington and Phoenix. This offseason she was Finals MVP for the London Lions in the WBBL final....
Read more

TCdb vs. Beckett - First Impressions

 So I post a couple of weeks ago that I was starting to play around with TCdb.  I've been a loyal Beckett user for years now, and have become more down on it lately.  For collectors like me, it seems that TCdb has gathered a pretty decent sized following and positive reviews.  But how will it work for this collection?  Here's what I found. TCdb Pros Cost You can't complain about the cost (free!).   Its like some of the other big services I use for my collecting, mainly wikipedia and [sport name]-reference.com in that they provide so much information but I just don't know how they do it well.   The Checklists The database is very comparable to Beckett.  Beckett does have some cards that TCdb doesn't have, and visa-versa.  Notable for this blog, Beckett does not list the 2017 Panini Iowa set, and TCdb doesn't have all the Iowa Hawkeye Football team sets from the late 80's, early 90's.   Rankings! After I enter in my card for...
Read more

NFL Playoffs: Iowa Connections and Wild Card Round Results

Image
   Wild Card Weekend Picks (5-1): Miami (7) over  Kansas City  (4)   Buffalo (6) over Pittsburgh (2) Houston  (4) over Cleveland (2) Detroit  (7) over LA Rams (6) Tampa (7) over Philly (4) Green Bay  (7) over Dallas (2) Five for six is pretty good, but how do we justify that Kansas City win over Miami?  I think we can point to two factors that boosted KC's Iowa score.  First, KC is Caitlin Clark's favorite team, and she was unable to see the game as she was routing Indiana at the same time (on Fox, where this game was on Peacock).  Second, KC imported some good old Iowa weather for the game, and we appreciate that as well.
Read more