How will the opening round of the NBA playoffs unfold and what will it tell us about the ultimate destiny of the Larry O’Brien trophy? Read our bold predictions then have your say on the storylines raised by voting on each topic.
'Falling to the fourth seed will cost Houston their title chance'
Paul George's game-winning corner three with 1.8 seconds remaining that condemned the Houston Rockets to a 112-111 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder in their final regular season game may prove to be one of the defining shots of the season.
Why? If George's shot misses and Houston win the game, the Rockets end the season with the West's No seed and a lip-smacking first-round match-up against the San Antonio Spurs, a team they beat three times out of four in the regular season.
Instead, the loss to the Thunder saw them drop down to the fourth seed and a dangerous first-round series against the Utah Jazz, who have won 32 of the 45 games they have played since January 1 and boast the NBA's second-best defensive rating (conceding 105.7 points per 100 possessions).
That doesn't mean Houston will suffer a shock first-round exit. With James Harden coming off the seventh-best regular season scoring average (36.1 points per game) in NBA history, only a fool would casually write the Rockets off.
But the fact is they now face a far tougher first-round opponent and a physical, knock down, drag out series that could go the full seven games. In addition, should they overcome the Jazz, they are now on a collision course with the Golden State Warriors. If they'd held on to the No seed, they would have avoided the defending NBA champions until the Western Conference Finals.
The Rockets path to the Conference Finals and beyond is now far more difficult than it could (and arguably should) have been. Over the next three or four weeks, the Rockets will come to rue that George three-pointer.
'No 1 seeds will advance without losing a single game'
There is no reason to suspect that the respective No 1 seeds, the Milwaukee Bucks and the Golden State Warriors, will have any trouble dispatching their opening round opponents.
The Bucks face the Detroit Pistons, who limped into the playoffs on the final night of the regular season and whose best player, Blake Griffin, is nursing a knee injury and may not recover before Game One.
With or without Griffin, Detroit are facing the NBA's best team. The Bucks ended the regular season with a 60-22 record, the best defense in the league and, in the form of Giannis Antetokounmpo, have the NBA's most dominant player at their disposal. They swept the season series with Detroit 4-0. It's hard to see this playoff series ended any other way.
Despite trading their best player, Tobias Harris, in the middle of the season, the Los Angeles Clippers ended the regular season with a 48-32 record and a playoff berth. Doc Rivers merits consideration for that achievement alone. However, losing four of their last 10 games saw them fall to the eighth seed which means they'll face the Golden State Warriors in the first round.
The Clippers pinched an overtime win against a Stephen Curry-less Warriors back in November but lost their other three regular-season meetings with the defending champions. Like Bucks vs Pistons, this series ends in four games.
'Oklahoma City will upset Portland to reach the Western Conference semi-finals'
Although they claimed the third seed in the West, injuries and an awful recent playoff history leave the Portland Trail Blazers looking vulnerable to an upset at the hands of the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Blazers have lost 10 successive playoff games over the past three seasons, with their opponents finding ways to overcome the twin backcourt scoring threat of Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum, so successful in regular season basketball, in a postseason setting.
To make matters worse for the Blazers, McCollum has just returned from injury and played just two games since March 16. Starting center Jusuf Nurkic is out for the season (and possibly a lot longer) after suffering a horrific leg injury. His replacement, Enes Kanter, is little more than a revolving door on defense and the Thunder will take full advantage of him.
Moreover, the strength and physicality of Thunder guard Russell Westbrook guarantee Lillard will face a tough task getting his points. He may erupt to win one or two games, but the Thunder, who were undefeated in four regular season games against Portland, will win this series and extend the Blazers' postseason misery.
'After a season of turmoil, the Celtics will find true form against the Pacers'
The fact the Boston Celtics winning 49 games and claiming the fourth seed represents underachievement shows you how talented their roster is, on paper at least. This is a team, after all, that reached the Eastern Conference Finals last year without two of their best players, Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward.
Last year's deep playoff run was built on the emergence of young stars Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, important contributions from numerous bench players and the veteran leadership and defensive solidity of Al Horford.
This season, thanks to the return of Irving and Hayward, Tatum and Hayward had to adjust to different roles and bench stars like Terry Rozier had less opportunity than last year. Add to that speculation about Irving's future and his unique take of team leadership (publicly calling out team-mates, walking back comments pledging his future to the Celtics) and a season many predicted would see them become the East's best team has turned into a campaign of struggle.
The Pacers, robbed by season-ending injury of their best player Victor Oladipo, came together and became greater than the sum of their remaining parts to keep pace in the playoff race. Myles Turner, Bojan Bogdanovic and Domantas Sabonis have been excellent since Oladipo's exit.
That will not be enough against the Celtics. Pacers point guard Darren Collison is no match for Irving, who could have a huge offensive series as a result. Hayward, who struggled mightily to rediscover his best form after returning from a season-long injury absence, finally started to look more like his old self in the final 10 games of the regular season. Brown improved enormously after the All-Star break, raising his three-point shooting percentage by almost 10 per cent.
The Celtics win this series in five games.