This year’s NBA Playoffs have the most exciting in a long time. From the futility of the Eastern Conference to the virtuosity of the Western Conference, the playoffs have brought joy and happiness to millions of basketball fanatics around the world. Here are my predictions for the second round of the 2015 NBA Playoffs:

Eastern Conference

Atlanta Hawks vs. Washington Wizards

Not only did the Atlanta Hawks take six games to dispatch the Brooklyn Nets, but they were six hard-fought games that sapped all of the life from the Hawks by the end of the series. The Wizards did the opposite, sweeping the Toronto Raptors in dominant fashion. Regardless of first-round success, this is going to be a fun series to watch. Washington is experiencing their first taste of a good all-around ball club in this millennium, while the Hawks are in the playoffs for the seventh consecutive year. This year was just their first time advancing past the first round in their past four tries. The past doesn’t matter now, though. All that matters to these two teams right now is this series. The Wizards are trying to cement themselves as one of the East’s premier teams, while the Hawks are hanging on desperately to the hope and belief that they have as a team, and it is just that that will be paramount in this series- teamwork. The Hawks are heralded as the best at playing as a team, but the Wizards are not far behind. On the floor, the communication between every player on the court is evident in all facets of the Wizards’ play. John Wall and Paul Pierce are the two biggest culprits of communication on the floor, and their innate ability to recognize and dissect defenses is what carried Washington so far in the playoffs.

Sadly, though, this is the round in which we will see the exit of the Washington Wizards. This year’s Hawks squad has garnered comparisons to the great Hawks teams of the late 1980’s that boasted future Hall-of-Famers Dominique Wilkins and Moses Malone. They’ve even drawn a double take when compared to the St. Louis Hawks teams of the 1950’s and 60’s that won the only championship in franchise history. Those teams had some of the best of all time like Bob Pettit, Cliff Hagan, “Easy Ed” Macauley and Slater Martin, all of whom have permanent homes in the NBA Hall of Fame. No such stars grace the current version of the Hawks, but it is the teamwork and camaraderie that will carry this team deep into the playoffs. In January, the entire Hawks’ starting five was named the Player(s) of the Month, the first time such an honor was handed out. Even the NBA executives recognize that this Atlanta team is special, and it is time the rest of the NBA took notice.

Prediction: Hawks in seven games

Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Chicago Bulls

Like the other series occurring in the East, the Cavaliers swept the Boston Celtics in the first round, while the Bulls took six games to win their series against the Milwaukee Bucks. This series looks very intriguing on paper. First, we have the Cleveland Cavaliers. It’s no secret what the Cavs are going to do. They’re going to put the ball in the hands of the best player in the world, LeBron James, and watch the magic happen. Will Kyrie Irving or Timofey Mozgov get their shots? Sure, but LeBron is the cog that keeps Cleveland rolling, even after losing Kevin Love for the rest of the season to a quagmire of painful shoulder injuries. Next, we have the Chicago Bulls. The Bulls are an enigma at this point. Their best player, Derrick Rose, has just returned from his own string of ACL and MCL injuries, and their entire season has been rejuvenated. The Bulls look like a completely different team with Rose at the helm on offense. Rose keeps the scoring pressure off of Jimmy Butler and Pau Gasol, while Joakim Noah has remained steady in his role as the team’s unspoken leader and enforcer. The key to this series for both teams will be Derrick Rose. Will Rose be able to produce enough to keep the Bulls within striking distance of the Cavaliers? Or will he fall flat and just be an anchor holding down his team? These are the questions all of the sports pundits and fans will be asking.

This rivalry, with the additions of LeBron James and a healthy Derrick Rose, has grown to almost magnitude of the great Bulls-Pistons rivalry of the 1990’s. This is great for the entire sport of basketball, especially for the cities of Chicago and Cleveland. What is not good is the match up that awaits Derrick Rose in this series. He will face Kyrie Irving, J.R. Smith and maybe even LeBron Jame in his quest to score against the vicious Cleveland defense. Don’t get me wrong, Rose is a great scorer, but he isn’t quite great enough to carry his whole team against the Cleveland

Cavaliers. The Cavaliers are just barely the better team. James is the best player in the world, and Irving isn’t too shabby either. If Chicago’s defense can prove to stop the scoring onslaught of LeBron and Kyrie, like it should be able to, they can make this a series, but I just don’t see a series victory in the cards for the Bulls.

Prediction: Cavaliers in six games

Western Conference

Houston Rockets vs. Los Angeles Clippers

The Houston Rockets rocked the Dallas Mavericks in the first round, winning the series handily in five games. The Clippers, on the other hand, had a good, ol’ fashioned grind-em-out seven-game series with the San Antonio Spurs, which they won thanks to some late-game heroics by Chris Paul in Game 7, including a hobbled, one-legged floater that bounced effortlessly off the backboard to put them up 111-109 with one second remaining on the clock. Chris Paul aside, (as he will likely be in Game 1 of this series with a strained left hamstring), this Clippers-Rockets series will not be decided by any traditional statistical category, nor by either teams’ offense or defense; rather, the fate of this series lies in the hands of the benches. Both teams have prolific offenses and well above-average defenses, but neither team is very deep. Guys like Jamal Crawford and Hedo Turkoglu for the Clippers and Corey Brewer and Pablo Prigioni for the Rockets will determine the eventual outcome of this series.

This is a match up that is bad for both teams. They both have the same strengths (perimeter shooting, controlling the rim, etc.) and the same weaknesses (perimeter defense, foul trouble, etc.), so neither team has a clear advantage. I’m being asked to pick a winner, though, so I’ll give the Houston Rockets a slight edge in this match up. Not only do they have home-court advantage, but they have just a little more skill sitting on the bench. I’ve already mentioned Brewer and Prigioni, and it will be up to them and now-starter Jason Terry to fill the hole in the Rockets’ lineup that was left by Patrick Beverley’s injury. I feel that that group will be more than up to the task, especially now that they won’t have to face Chris Paul for at least one game.

Prediction: Rockets in seven games

Memphis Grizzlies vs. Golden State Warriors

This is the series we’ve all been waiting for. The Warriors enter this series after confidently sweeping the New Orleans Pelicans, while the Grizzlies steamrolled the Portland Trail Blazers in five games, holding their opponent to just 93.8 points per game- seven below the league average. This is going to be the match up of the league’s most stifling defense against the league’s best offense. The keys to this series are going to be Andrew Bogut of the Golden State Warriors and Jeff Green of the Memphis Grizzlies. Bogut is Golden State’s only legitimate post defender because of Steve Kerr’s decision to play with a very small lineup. This puts the Warriors at an extreme disadvantage because of the Grizzlies’ size and will to pound the ball in the post- a practice not observed by many in today’s high-scoring NBA game. Even if Bogut can shut down Marc Gasol in the post, Memphis still has Zach Randolph, one of the best low-post scorers of this generation, making it a lose-lose situation for the Warriors in the post. Now on to Jeff Green. Green will be important in this series because he is the only dual threat that the Grizzlies possess. Green can score from nearly anywhere on the floor, and he is one of the best perimeter defenders in the league. The only pitfall here is that he will be matched up with the likes of Harrison Barnes and Klay Thompson, two snipers from downtown that pay no mind to the feelings of the defenses they dismantle.

As I said at the beginning of this section, this will be a great series. Picking a winner between these two teams was just about the most difficult pick I’ve made to date, but it had to be done. Both teams have good benches, but in different ways. The Warriors have a bench that can come in to close out a game if their team is winning in a blowout or to give their starters a few minutes of rest, while the Grizzlies’ bench is full of players that all have a specific purpose. Vince Carter gives them more offense; Tony Allen can shut down the opposing team’s best player; and Beno Udrih and Nick Calathes are playing the best that they have ever played, including facilitating the ball and keeping defenses on their toes with a jumper every now and then. This is my one upset pick in this round. I’m picking the Memphis Grizzlies over the Golden State Warriors. Both teams are coming off of a nice rest, and both will fight for their right to play in the Western Conference Finals, but it will be the underdog that takes that prize. As the great college football coach, Paul “Bear” Bryant, said, “Offense sells tickets, but defense wins championships.” This is what I’m basing my pick on. It won’t be easy, but the Grizzlies and their fittingly grizzly style of play will prevail in this round.

Prediction: Grizzlies in seven games