BBL playoff predictions

By Kyle Campbell

The BBL regular season came to a conclusion this previous Sunday and with all teams finishing their scheduled games we now know which teams have qualified for the playoffs and also the matchups. The Final BBL league table finished as followed

The first quarterfinal matchup

#1 Riders vs #8 Patriots

Leicester Riders have been on a real tear this season and are the leading scorers in the league which has made them an almost unstoppable force this season apart from their 2 losses. Plymouth City Patriots who secured the last spot in this years playoffs have done well considering its their debut season. Despite finishing 8th out of the 10 teams the Plymouth based club finished the season in the top 5 for field goal, 2 point and 3 point percentage as well as being the best team in the league in terms of grabbing rebounds gives the 8th place team and the whole British basketball community a reason not to count them out of this series yet. With all this in mind however I still cannot overlook the dominance of Leicester this year which is why my prediction is a Riders win on aggregate over the two games

The Winner of the Riders vs Patriots game will go up against the winners of the #2 Sheffield Sharks vs #7 Glasgow Rocks. Despite a 10 point difference in the regular season the 7th placed Glasgow Rocks scored just under 300 points more than Sheffield over the 27 games. Being ranked 9th worst team in total points in the season shows how impressive the sharks have been on the defensive side of the game to rack up the second most wins in the league. In the playoffs however with 8 players all around the same PPG average for the season all it would take is for one of them to take the next step to launch Sheffield through this round. A favourite for me is 29 year old American point guard Rodney Glasgow JR who led the team in assists and was 0.1 behind the PPG leader for the team. On the other hand the rocks have proved to be an elite offensive team with 5 players averaging more points per game than anyone on the Sheffield Sharks roster. Their leading player is Jamaican born Jordan Johnson who averages 18.4 points and 8.4 assists in his 24 games this season and could easily get the rocks an "upset win" in this tie if he catches fire in the 2 games.

The third of 4 quarter final is #3 London Lions vs #6 Cheshire Phoenix. The Lions who are coming off a second placed finish in last years championship season have had another impressive campaign with a 16-11 record 3 of which came against the Cheshire side who were unable to beat the Lions. The phoenix ended the season with 26 points and a 13-14 record being 1 of 3 teams who qualified for the playoffs with a negative record. They do have some good players who can cause damage in the playoffs for example Namon Wright who played all but 1 game for the Phoenix and put up over 17.1 points per game. With the head to head record in mind I believe the London Lions will be the ones to advance to the semi finals.

If the Lions do get through they will face the winners of Manchester's own #4 Manchester Giants vs #5 Bristol Flyers. This is most likely going to be the closest tie in the quarter finals with both teams finishing on the same total of 28 points. The Giants who are led by March's player of the month Tyrik Armstrong will host the first leg of this tie at their home stadium in Belle Vue and will hope to bring an advantage with them to Bristol. Another key player for the Giants will be team GB captain and Team of the Year candidate Dan Clark who's enjoyed an impressive debut season in the BBL. The Flyers have a very balanced squad with a range of good scorers and defenders for example the American Marcus Evans who has put up 17 points per game this season. I think this is a tie that can go either way but as a Giants fan and knowing how important this will be to them after not being in the playoffs for 8 years I fully back the team to get the job done in this scenario.

I had a go at predicting the playoffs before they begin as showed below. In my opinion I think the Leicester Riders will continue their run of dominance in the playoffs beating the Patriots, Sharks and Giants on their way to the championship

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