NBA Playoffs Preview: Beasts of the East

The NBA Playoffs bracket is set and ready to go.

Two conferences, each conference with eight of it's elite battling it out to become the representatives of their group in the biggest stage in all of basketball.

The road to the NBA Finals has begun.

But first, we will take a look at each match-up and study them to determine who among these teams will likely find their way to the second round. Let's start with the East.

For starters, the Detroit Pistons will be entering the NBA Playoffs as the no.1 seed and will have homecourt advantage throughout these crazy playoff wars.

These Pistons are on a roll and it looks like nothing can stop them at this point. They will face-off with the Milwaukee Bucks, who survived just enough to hold on to that no.8 and final playoff spot in the East.

This series could be a fast one. Yes, faster than you can say, ''D-e-e-e-t-r-o-o-o-i-i-i-t B-a-a-a-s-k-e-e-e-t-b-a-a-a-l-l!''

The Pistons have four all-stars in their line-up, the likes of Rasheed Wallace, Ben Wallace, Richard Hamilton and Chauncey Billups. The Bucks do have Michael Redd but he can't stop Detroit's four-star attack.

Pistons win in four games.

The somewhat struggling Miami Heat will be at the no.2 seed as they play the Chicago Bulls as the no.7 team.

The Heat can't seem to get it together during the later stages of the season. Maybe perhaps the wear and tear of the 82-game season is catching up to them or they just can't find that chemistry a team needs to win with all those egos in the same uniform.

BUT STILL, Shaquille O'Neal is Shaquille O'Neal and when the Bulls guards of Kirk Hinrich and Ben Gordon goes face to face with the seven-foot monster, you will witness how flies go down with a single swat on the basketball court.

And oh yes, there's also this guy from Miami named Dwyane Wade...

The no.3 seed belongs to the red hot New Jersey Nets as they face-off with no.6 seed, Indiana Pacers.

The Pacers can expose New Jersey's weakness in this series, the absence of a solid low-post threat. Pacer forward Jermaine O'Neal will definitely have a big series.

However, that's all there is when you look at the Pacers.

The New Jersey trio of Jason Kidd, Richard Jefferson, and the ridiculously-awesome Vince Carter, will just be enough to put these Pacers away in six games.

The Pacers may OWN the inside game in this series but everything else belongs to New Jersey.

At the no.4 seed lies LeBron James and his Cleveland Cavaliers, as they face-off with the surging Washington Wizards after solidifying their spot at no.5.

This match-up could very well be the most exciting one from the East. The Cavaliers have LBJ and Larry Hughes, who is slowly finding his way back to form.

However, the Wizards have explosive scorers in Gilbert Arenas, Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler.

This three-headed monster will definitely be bad news to the Cavalier cause and if Larry Hughes can't find his true form back soon, considering the fact that he will be playing against his former team, the Wizards could pull away with an upset.

Bodog has the odds on the coming NBA Playoffs. Pick your favorites from the Detroit Pistons down to the Milwaukee Bucks. Log on and check out Bodog now.