The NBA Playoff schedule, unlike its college equivalent, is the result of extreme exertion, coaching battles and a test of endurance rarely seen in other sports. It also puts a premium on being good early to be able to save yourself for the end. If a playoff team goes to seven games in every series (an unlikely possibility), it would play an extra 28 games, or about a third of the regular NBA season. Because of this, teams look to explode out of the gate to get some extra rest, and this year the West is a battlefield while the East is, for the most part, a cakewalk.
The Atlanta Hawks and Cleveland Cavaliers headline the East. The Hawks have taken on a new system of increased specialization and incredible efficiency to take the top seed without a legitimate MVP candidate. The Cavaliers took the opposite approach with the newest version of the NBA’s Big 3 trend. The holdover superstar Kyrie Irving, combined with the return of LeBron James and the addition of Kevin Love, makes the Cavs a legit title contender. The biggest story for the Cavs is the midseason addition of Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith to add the kind of spark that Cleveland had previously been missing. The rest of the conference seems to be at least one step behind each of these teams, so we may see an incredible battle of matchup vs. system that tends to have long-lasting implications for how teams are formed.
The West, as mentioned before, is more competitive than it has been in a long time. The last team in, the New Orleans Pelicans, beat out the Oklahoma City Thunder, who feature scoring title holder Russell Westbrook. The Pelicans are tough inside and out with Anthony Davis becoming the superstar everyone thought he would be. They will presumably get rocked by the Warriors, whose combination of Steph Curry and Klay Thompson makes up the best shooting backcourt of all time. The Warriors are now getting enough out of young stalwarts like Draymond Green to think they can make a title run. Seeds two through six is where the real tension lies. As of a few weeks ago, the San Antonio Spurs were sitting in the seventh seed, went on an 11-game winning streak, got up to the second seed, lost once and dropped to sixth seed, where they sit now. The Spurs are one of the most consistent teams in the history of sports but have a tough first-round matchup with the Los Angeles Clippers.
I see the Clippers being able to take the Spurs in a long-and-hard fight series and actually pull a huge upset over the Rockets to meet up with the Warriors in Western Conference Finals. The bad blood between these two teams is no secret and would give reverence to the Lakers vs. Kings battles of the early Shaq and Kobe vs. Chris Webber days. The shooting of Steph Curry and the surprisingly strong interior will let the Warriors sneak past the Clippers only to be met by a storming Cavaliers team. I think the emotion of returning home and getting that close lets Cleveland take home their first title since 1964. LeBron would cement his legacy as one of the greatest players ever and probably have a life-size statue built outside the stadium before the confetti hit the floor.
