Really..., Seriously...???

Good morning and Happy Halloween everyone.  I just finished my trick-or-treating - I paid my November rent and walked out of there with a strawberry twizzler - SCORE...  So, I fell for it again, thinking that I would see a World Series of Poker broadcast to its conclusion for the second day in a row.  I arrived at Harper's at 8:00 p.m. with only 3 players remaining at the final table.  When Harper's closed..., there were STILL three players at the final table.  I just saw the headline on Lucki Duck's blog where it took TWELVE hours to decide this year's Main Event Champion - Congratulations to Greg Merson on his $8.53 million-dollar victory...  I needed to stay up late, because I am back on the schedule at work tonight, and it is Halloween...  That's like a guarantee that I'll have something for my ramble tomorrow - ramble insurance, if you will...  Congratulations also to Memphis Mojo for being the 14,999th and 15,001st visitor to 'Bikini Hill'.  Mojo commented yesterday that when he realized he was number 14,999, he exited the blog and came back to be the milestone visitor, but one person beat him to it...

Okay, some NBA predictions for you.  I apologize that I am not going to go all out like I did last season and predict every team's regular season record for you.  This may be detrimental to me as I was really close on a lot of the records the last time around, and I was pretty hot predicting the playoffs also.  Coach had the Heat over the Thunder in five, when everyone was in love with the Thunder.  Over 15,000 hits and I've got one prediction right - WOO HOO!!!  ;)  Last year everyone was just in LOVE with the Los Angeles Clippers heading into the season.  They got Chris Paul, they had the L.A. hype machine...  "Clippers this, Clippers that, blah, blah, blah..."  This year the hype is the Los Angeles Lakers.  After acquiring Dwight Howard and Steve Nash, Las Vegas made the Lakers 8 to 5 favorites to win the NBA title.  I honestly think that some of that number is based on the California money that is so close to Vegas, but whatever...  I am going to go out on my shaky limb and predict that there is NO WAY that the Lakers win the NBA Championship this season, and I am predicting that they won't even advance to the Western Conference Finals...  Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash are old and prone to injuries, Metta World Peace is a headcase, and Dwight Howard is coming off of an injury and is a headcase...  We shall see...  Unfortunately, my San Antonio Spurs are getting old also, and although I'll be rooting for them, I don't think that they will be in the NBA Finals either...  Below is my group of playoff teams from each conference and my Finals' prediction:


Eastern Conference

1)  Miami
2)  Chicago
3)  Boston
4)  Indiana
5)  Atlanta
6)  Brooklyn
7)  Philadelphia
8)  Orlando


Western Conference

1)  Oklahoma City
2)  San Antonio          NOTE:  I think that the #2-5 seeds will be within 5 games of each other.
3)  L.A. Clippers
4)  L.A. Lakers
5)  Memphis 
6)  Dallas 
7)  Denver
8)  Portland

In the finals, I am going with the Miami Heat over the Oklahoma City Thunder, again...  Being that I am a Spurs fan, and that I don't like the Heat, these are unbiased predictions...  ;)  I hope that you have a Safe and Happy Halloween!