Will the Nuggets repeat? Will the Celtics finally put it all together and win a title after 4 conference championship appearances? Will a young team like the Thunder or Twolves pull off the unthinkable? These are all valid questions about this year’s NBA Playoffs, which are already underway. Headlined by stars of new and old, the last hoorah of the old era against the first of the new echelon of stars. Will players like Anthony Edwards and Shai Gilgeous Alexander start to build their legacies, or will older stars like KD or LeBron cement and finalize theirs?
About halfway through the first round, it looks as if we have entered a new era of NBA basketball. The Timberwolves and Anthony Edwards swept the Phoenix Suns and Kevin Durant, and are moving on to play the winner of the Nuggets Lakers series, where the Nuggets were up 3-0 before dropping game 4 to the Lakers. No team has ever come back from 3-0. The Thunder are up 3-0 against the Pelicans, while the 4 and 5 seed matchup Mavericks vs. The Clippers are tied at two games apiece. I expect all the higher seeds in the west to win, giving us Timberwolves vs Nuggets and Thunder vs Clippers. I think the Clippers and Nuggets will win, giving us a matchup between the two time MVP Nikola Jokic and the last hurrah of 2010s stars, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden. I expect the Nuggets to win handily.
In the east, the Cavs and Magic are tied at two games apiece. The Pacers lead a Giannis and Dame-less Bucks team 3-1 on the backs of elite performances by Pascal Siakam, the former raptor. The underseeded 76ers have had their heart broken by the 2 seeded Knicks in almost every game, down 3-1 in the series off the back of an elite 47 point 10 assist performance by Jalen Brunson. The Heat, without Jimmy Butler, have surprisingly put up a bit of a fight against easily the best team in the league, the Boston Celtics, only being down 2-1 in the series. However, I expect the Celtics, Knicks, and Pacers to win easily, with the Magic squeaking out a win through seven games against the Cavs. From there, the Celtics will easily defeat either the Cavs or Magic, and the Knicks will take care of the Pacers, giving us an exciting Knicks vs Celtics matchup in the Eastern Conference Finals. As strong as the Celtics look on paper, I would take the Knicks and their power of friendship over the Celtic Superteam.
In a very interesting finals matchup, I think the Nuggets would be almost unstoppable. Nikola Jokic is easily the best player in the world and would show it in this series. The Knicks would put up a good fight, as the former Villanova teammates of Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, and Donte Divincenzo have carried the Knicks thus far, but will ultimately come up short. At the end of the day, these have already been some of the better playoffs in recent memory, with great competition and young stars finally breaking through in their ultimate conquest towards a championship.
