The NBA's new-look Final Four starts now and a special computer's widely questioned championship series projection from October, which was shared with you via this Substack, is still alive
IND with an all time choke job - two unforced turnovers in final 30 seconds of regulation when up 3 points. Will be tough mentally recovering knowing they HAD Game 1
Can you remember a team that has had an easier ride to the NBA Finals than Boston? Miami, Cleveland and possibly Indiana? That is as easy as it gets. Though the Knicks would have made it even easier due to their injuries. Pretty amazing if you think about it.
The Nuggets last year faced 8th seed Minnesota, 4th seed Phoenix (minus Chris Paul for most of the series), the play-in Lakers, and the play-in Heat. That wasn't exactly a gauntlet, especially for a typically difficult WC.
But you can look at a lot of the EC runs by Finals teams and find runs that don't look so impressive in hindsight. For example, the Cavs run in '14-15 was against a 40-42 Celtic club whose best players were Isaiah Thomas (before his breakout all-star caliber season) and Avery Bradley, against a 50-32 Bulls club whose best players were a 4th year MIP Jimmy Butler, a post-injury Derrick Rose, and an aging Pau Gasol (who missed 2 games with injury), and then against a 60-22 paper-tiger Hawks club whose best players were Paul Millsap, Al Horford, and Jeff Teague and lost their secret weapon (Kyle Korver) to injury in game 2.
The Celtics did get lucky facing a Bulter-less Heat and an Allen-less Cavalier team. They also dispatched them handily. They also just had a fairly poor EC in general, so there wasn't any path that was going to be particularly challenging. Orlando? Milwaukee minus Giannis? Knicks, especially if they made the ECF with all those injuries piling up? Maybe Philly in the 1st round could have been a challenge, but there was a reason Philly just eeked into the playoffs (i.e., the tempestuous health of Embiid).
Fun fact: The +14 game difference between them and the 2nd seeded Knicks was the 2nd largest ever, trailing only the '75-76 Warrior team, that had a +16 game edge (the defending champion Warriors would lose in the WCF to the Phoenix Suns). They do have to continue to show their mettle, but, fwiw, they've met what minimal challenges they have faced thus far (e.g., losing on their home court vs. CLE; taking IND best punch in game 1).
IND with an all time choke job - two unforced turnovers in final 30 seconds of regulation when up 3 points. Will be tough mentally recovering knowing they HAD Game 1
Can you remember a team that has had an easier ride to the NBA Finals than Boston? Miami, Cleveland and possibly Indiana? That is as easy as it gets. Though the Knicks would have made it even easier due to their injuries. Pretty amazing if you think about it.
The Nuggets last year faced 8th seed Minnesota, 4th seed Phoenix (minus Chris Paul for most of the series), the play-in Lakers, and the play-in Heat. That wasn't exactly a gauntlet, especially for a typically difficult WC.
But you can look at a lot of the EC runs by Finals teams and find runs that don't look so impressive in hindsight. For example, the Cavs run in '14-15 was against a 40-42 Celtic club whose best players were Isaiah Thomas (before his breakout all-star caliber season) and Avery Bradley, against a 50-32 Bulls club whose best players were a 4th year MIP Jimmy Butler, a post-injury Derrick Rose, and an aging Pau Gasol (who missed 2 games with injury), and then against a 60-22 paper-tiger Hawks club whose best players were Paul Millsap, Al Horford, and Jeff Teague and lost their secret weapon (Kyle Korver) to injury in game 2.
The Celtics did get lucky facing a Bulter-less Heat and an Allen-less Cavalier team. They also dispatched them handily. They also just had a fairly poor EC in general, so there wasn't any path that was going to be particularly challenging. Orlando? Milwaukee minus Giannis? Knicks, especially if they made the ECF with all those injuries piling up? Maybe Philly in the 1st round could have been a challenge, but there was a reason Philly just eeked into the playoffs (i.e., the tempestuous health of Embiid).
Fun fact: The +14 game difference between them and the 2nd seeded Knicks was the 2nd largest ever, trailing only the '75-76 Warrior team, that had a +16 game edge (the defending champion Warriors would lose in the WCF to the Phoenix Suns). They do have to continue to show their mettle, but, fwiw, they've met what minimal challenges they have faced thus far (e.g., losing on their home court vs. CLE; taking IND best punch in game 1).