Which is the preferred playoff route?

[evildallas]

Even with the Alston trade Orlando is not likely to overtake Boston or Cleveland in the regular season. Likely one half of the Eastern Conference playoffs will have Boston (either 1 or 2 overall) as top seed and the other half will have Cleveland as top seed (either 1 or 2 overall). Who would you rather see as the likely 2nd round opponent of the Hawks (provided we get that far)? I acknowledge that we'd be long shots in either match up. It just a matter of which you prefer to face in round 2 (if you have a preference).

BTW, I chose not to include in the choices the long shot of Orlando taking 1st and Cleveland and Boston meeting in the semi-finals. If that happened, it could be real interesting for us.

[evildallas]

Personally, I think we match up better with Boston in hopes of making it one round further. I realize we'd be long shots against either team.

Although the long shot dream scenario would be Orlando getting the top seed as we have the most confidence against them and it would mean not having to shock the world twice to reach the finals.

[HoopsGuru25]

I wouldn't really care as long as we made it out the 1st round but I would obviously rather face Boston if given the choice. The last thing the Hawks want to see is a Shaq,Yao,or Big Z like center with a frontcourt as small as ours. They also have Lebron who would probably get every call.

[JoshB914]

I don't think it really matters. But I'd love to have another shot at Boston in the second round (most likely the no. 4 seed).

[HMFFL]

ESPN spoke about this today. They went with Cleveland being the team that the East teams will be more afraid to play against overall and especially at home. I voted before I saw this on sports center and voted Cleveland.

[realfung]

Cleveland is a better way out.
LBJ can be contained if your players match up with him