By Sameer Kini
Sports Editor
This week, both national and WA sports have some great games to watch. Here are my picks of the week.
National – NBA Playoffs, Second Round. The second round tips off this week for the NBA playoffs, and there are some great matchups to see. Out West, my favorite, the Oklahoma City Thunder face the upstart Grizzlies, and in the other matchup, the perennial favorite Lakers take on Dirk Nowitzki and the Mavs. In the East, there are two huge matchups. First there is the top seeded Bulls taking on the Atlanta Hawks.
However, the biggest matchup of the second round pits the hometown Celtics and the Miami Heat. As a huge C’s fan, I find it pretty tempting to pick them to move on to the Eastern Conference Finals, but at the end of the day, the momentum and confidence is with the Heat. While the Celtics took the season series, the Heat won the last matchup and are already up 1-0 in this series. While the C’s have experience, I think Dwayne Wade will be able to get Lebron over his demons to beat the C’s in the playoffs. On a side note, I think the Perkins trade really hurts the Celtics in a matchup like this, especially defensively. Expect the Heat through in six games. As for my other picks, I take the Bulls, Thunder and Mavs through to the conference finals.
WA – Boys Tennis. This week, the WA boys tennis team has 3 important matchups. First on the slate is DCL rival Acton-Boxborough at home on Wednesday, which should prove to be one of the tougher matchups of the year for this team. Next up is an away match on Friday, when the Grey Ghosts will head to Newton-South to play one of the best teams in the league this year. Finally, on Monday, the Ghosts will play host to Waltham, which should prove to be somewhat of a breather after two tough matchups. Overall, the team looks to continue its surprising hot start to the season. I believe that they will be able to keep their winning ways going, and I expect them to go 2-1 for the week to bring their season record to 7-2 by the time the week is over.
