WESTERN CONFERENCE

For more, you can check out our Thunder blog Welcome To Loud City and our Rockets blog The Dream Shake.

My prediction: Thunder in 5

For more, you can check out our Spurs blog Pounding The Rock and our Lakers blog Silver Screen and Roll. And seriously, I know we love to hate the Lakers, but the guys at SSR do some really good work. All of the blogs I'm linking you to do good work, but I feel the need to specifically justify sending you to a Lakers blog.

My prediction: Spurs in 6

For more, you can check out our Nuggets blog Denver Stiffs and our Warriors blog Golden State of Mind.

My prediction: Nuggets in 6

For more, check out our Clippers blog Clips Nation and our Grizzlies blog Grizzly Bear Blues.

My prediction: Clippers in 7

EASTERN CONFERENCE

Pop quiz: What's the difference between the Kings and the 8th seed in the East? The answer is 10 wins. It's cliche to discuss how much worse the East is than the West, but the Bucks are the 8th seed with 38 wins. For context, the Nuggets won 38 games at home this season. For more context, the Lakers and Rockets (the 7 and 8 seeds in the West) have the same record as Chicago, the 5 seed in the East. So this series is a total joke, right? Yes and no.

For more, check out our Heat blog Hot Hot Hoops and our Bucks blog BrewHoop.

My prediction: Heat in 4

For more, check out our Celtics Blog…uh, Celtics Blog, and our Knicks blog Posting and Toasting.

My prediction: Celtics in 6

For more, check out our Pacers blog Indy Cornrows and our Hawks blog Peachtree Hoops.

My prediction: Pacers in 5

While the smart money is probably on the Nets, I think the Bulls will pull this one out. Mostly I'm rooting for this because it will be a fascinating storyline if the Bulls reach the second round and Rose still isn't ready to return. Or even better, if he is.

For more on this series, check out our Nets blog Nets Daily and our Bulls blog Blog-A-Bull.

My prediction: Bulls in 7

Programming Note

The games kick off at 3pm ET Saturday. Use this thread for discussions throughout the day.

For those of you on Twitter, I'll be taking over SB Nation NBA's twitter account for the two early games. Be sure to follow @SBNationNBA and enjoy my ramblings.