posted April 18, 2008 at 17:56 in NBA Free Picks

(6)Toronto Raptors @ (3)Orlando Magic

The Toronto Raptors-Orland Magic series has a few similarities to the Dallas Mavericks-New Orleans Hornets series.

In both cases, the lower seed underachieved this season but is the team with more playoff experience. In both cases, the higher seeds were surprise teams in their respective conferences and won their division.

The Raptors may have a slight edge in experience, but they better milk that for all its worth if they plan on pulling the upset. They struggle to rebound, they often get exposed by teams with a strong interior presence and their perimeter defense is also suspects.

That’s bad news against the Magic, who are a good inside-out team. Dwight Howard is a force inside while Rashard Lewis, Hedo Turkoglu and Jameer Nelson provide the outside game.

Toronto has an advantage in a couple of other places that they will have to exploit to their advantage. Although their starting five is not as good as Orlando’s, they do have more depth and versatility off of the bench. They also have an advantage at point guard. They have two floor generals who run the team efficiently, which is emphasized in the playoffs. Jameer Nelson is more of a scorer and sometimes labors as a distributor.

The Magic will have their hands full but with a seasoned head coach who has been through this type of thing before, expect them to advance.

Basketball Free Picks: Orlando Magic

Washington Wizards @ Cleveland Cavaliers

There is a time to talk trash – usually when you’ve walked the walk and have dominated your opponent – and then there is what the Washington Wizards have done.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have pimp-slapped the Washington Wizards in first round of the playoffs each of the last two seasons. And while the Cavaliers have dominated the series, won the Eastern Conference last year and have home court advantage against the Wizards again, it is the Wizards who are talking down to the Cavs.

DeShawn Stevenson has called LeBron James overrated. Gilbert Arenas thinks the Cavs are ripe for the picking.

Here’s some advice: don’t wake the sleeping tiger.

The Cavs may have been ripe for the picking. They have been struggling – playing .500 ball – since making a blockbuster trade at the deadline. But now that they have some bulletin board material, they will definitely be up for this matchup.

Quite simply, the Cavs are not a worse team than they were last year. Their roster has more talent now and they have a boat load of experience that they lacked a season ago. The Wizards, on the other hand, don’t know what it takes to get out of the first round.

This will be a closely contested battle but with home court advantage lying with the Cavs, it is hard to pick against them.

Basketball Free Picks: Cleveland Cavaliers

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