NBA First Round Summary and Second Round Picks

A theme that has become all too common in the first rounds of the NBA Playoffs recently is a majority of the interesting series' being defined by injuries. Blake Griffin, Rajon Rondo, Jusuf Nurkic, Tony Allen and (kind of reaching here) Jabari Parker's injuries all ended up costing their teams a game or two, if not the sefies. When Rudy Gobert went down 17 seconds into game 1 of the Clips-Jazz series, we all assumed the Jazz were in deep trouble but, thank the basketball gods for "Iso" Joe Johnson as Utah gave us the one game 7 that casual fans typically root for. Rudy Gobert even managed to be a key contributor after only missing a week due to a knee sprain and looked like he wasn't affected by the injury at all.

Sean M. Haffrey/Getty Images
Rudy Gobert saved the Jazz and the NBA from a horrid Clippers-Warriors series.

Congratulations to the Jazz, Rockets, Spurs, Warriors, Raptors, Cavaliers, Wizards and Celtics on advancing to the second round. Typically, I would go a bit further in depth on the first round of the playoffs but, with the NFL Draft taking over my headspace for the weekend, I think I will just leave my picks here and cross my fingers that I don't get embarrassed.

Celtics over Wizards in 7*
Cavaliers over Raptors in 5
Warriors over Jazz in 4
Spurs over Rockets in 7

* = Pick made before game 1 on Sunday.

The most "heated" series will be Wiz-Celts as a result of some fighting and symbolic black shirt-wearing by Wizard players during the regular season. The best series in terms of unpredictability will be Rockets-Spurs where Mike D'antoni's new-fangled basketball strategies meets the oldest team remaining in the postseason with one of the all-time greats (Gregg Popovich) leading the way. The Warriors should sweep because it's the greatest regular season team ever plus Kevin Durant. The Cavaliers might give it their all this series and even if they choose to hold off on giving full effort for another round, they'll still beat the Raptors in 6 or fewer games.

Good luck to the players providing us with entertainment on a nightly basis and may their limbs stay in tact.