The CSL

I have a few hours of downtime in between country travels so why not waste it on the CSL...

As another season of exciting CSL playoff basketball draws to a close, we will preview the two remaining matchups in the Conference Finals. We will preview the projected lineups and give one key to winning the series to incite discussion.

EASTERN CONFERENCE

The Toronto Raptors and the league-favorite Detroit Pistons square off in a battle of Eastern Conference Powerhouses to determine who will represent the East in the Finals.


George Hill/Brandon Jennings/Kawhi Leonard/Marc Gasol/Andre Drummond


vs


Ricky Rubio/Kemba Walker/Kentavius Caldwell-Pope/Tristan Thompson/Serge Ibaka


In an interesting matchup that pits near mirror image front courts against eachother, the difference in this series will be the perimeter play. Can Kawhi Leonard elevate his play against an undersized KCP and be the offensive force needed to keep up with the scoring punch of Kemba Walker. The Pistons are so well rounded that perhaps this series is over in 5, but given their struggles against Boston this could very well go 7 games.

WESTERN CONFERENCE

The underdog 6th seeded Utah Jazz find themselves in a Davis vs Goliath type fight against the 1 seeded Houston Rockets. Are the Jazz better than the equivalence of a 6 seed?



Dante Exum/Damian Lillard/Trevor Ariza/LaMarcus Aldridge/??


vs


Andre Iguodala/Devyn Marble/Al Farouq Aminu/James Harden/Kenneth Faried


Somehow, someway the most unconventional lineup in all of basketball belongs to the best team in the CSL. It's actually quite weird when you think about it. A 6-6 guard who is not in the greatest shape dominates athletically superior, and physically shredded Power Forwards that are 4-6 inches taller than him. The key to stopping the Houston Rockets is finding a way to counter the ridiculous, disrespectful to the game of basketball strategies that the Rockets employ. The Utah Jazz have a major question mark heading into the series that needs some serious attention: who is going to play Center? Maybe they should play Dante Exum there to force the fouling out of Kenneth Faried which in turn eliminates Harden's main brick-chaser.

GoGo Jon.

That Pistons Raptors series should be great, tough pick.

Utah plays LMA at C, if they use Ariza or Exum and track him positionally to Harden I think they can beat them. It'll come down to Harden having to outscore Lillard Exum combined.

Utah has quite obviously played Sanders at C for a while now..... and I'd think he get's the start, even with a strained knee.

Sun Scorched wrote:Utah has quite obviously played Sanders at C for a while now..... and I'd think he get's the start, even with a strained knee.

The injury is why there is a question mark. Imagine Sanders playing with the strained knee, and Harden sliding to Center. That would be ugly for Utah.

Could slide LMA to C and bring in Dougie McBuckets for extra firepower.

I like this lineup, personally:

Ariza/McBuckets/LMA/Exum/Lillard

Yes, that is PG, SG, etc etc etc...

Fight ridiculousness with ridiculousness.

We are obviously set up for a rematch of last season. Toronto has a chance to pull the upset, especially with Jon not having game access this entire week. But my guess is we will have a rematch and a similar outcome.

We'll be sticking to a more conventional lineup in this series. I'm not as comfortable with Harden defending Aldridge as I was with Solomon and Wood. With the 10 pound weight loss last summer, Harden at PF is not as useful as it was last year because he's getting burned trying to defend bigs at 213.

We've actually played Houston three times post trade-deadline and got whooped twice, barely pulling out a win on our home floor the last time. I don't buy that HOU is going to roll out a normal lineup. It's a computer game and all about manipulating it if you know how to. Fortunately, I am not very good at it so the 5 best, healthy guys at their positions are going to be on the court.

We'll see.

Cool article.
I think Detroit and their backourt have the advantage here but we will try our best
Houston-Utah shoud be also an interesting matchup

Two great, interesting series. Should be fun, even at the West. Utah proved they are no fluke.

We need a Utah vs Toronto final

These are some good matchups, curious to see how the Jazz big three will fare against the bearded gang.

Very cool article! I am pulling for Toronto as I'm a native of the city and love their core but DET is a really strong team that can get after it on both ends. Would be a nice story if UTA could overcome Harden and company but I don't see it.

Probably a rematch of last season in the finals but DET has strong defense at 1-4 with Rubio/Kemba/KCP/Ibaka (plays C as well I think) so it'll be harder to hide Harden.

All of the playoff GMs are tough at this point of the year having to face Dennis, Marcos, silogical, Willy and chili is no exception. I'm gonna have to earn this one to make it back to the finals.