One more chance to register an NBA Finals prediction in permanent ink
Otherwise: The Numbers Game compilation I owe you is the featured material in this Finals Week Edition of the Tuesday Newsletter Extravaganza
There's still time.
The NBA Finals begin Thursday night after nearly a week with no NBA playoff games, which means you have two days and change to register a formal prediction for the series that will endure for all of eternity … before Game 1 tipoff at the TD Garden arrives at 8:30 PM ET and our Community Predictions Thread is locked.
The file to make your selection has been embedded in this sentence. Conference finals prediction results have been tabulated lower down.
Turner Sports' Chris Haynes and I are chasing another podcast preview or two to drop before Game 1 to keep getting you ready for the series. Here are some other links for your prep work in case you missed any of this stuff:
🏀 This Week In Basketball can only ponder the true meaning of home-court advantage in the modern NBA
The Mavericks took the long way, in many ways an uncharted path, to the NBA Finals
This Week In Basketball can only marvel at Dallas' second-half surge for the ages ... and mourn the desperately sad loss of Bill Walton
You've almost made it.
The Stein Line is a reader-supported newsletter with both Free and Paid subscriptions available … and those who opt for the Paid edition are taking an active role in the reporting by providing vital assistance to bolster my independent coverage of #thisleague. Feel free to forward this post to family and friends interested in the NBA and please consider becoming a Paid subscriber to have full access to all of my posts.
As a reminder: Tuesday editions, on this and every Newsletter Tuesday, go out free to anyone who signs up, just as my Tuesday pieces did in their New York Times incarnation.
Conference Finals Prediction Results
A handful of residents in The Stein Line community correctly picked the two teams that advanced to the NBA Finals.
Fifteen to be exact.
None of those 15, however, were able to forecast the precise number of games (Celtics in 4 and Mavericks in 5) in both cases. Jay Appaji of Mavs Film Room came the closest by nailing Mavs in 5 over Minnesota.
The screenshots and the tallies, as always, are courtesy of longtime subscriber Deven P. Your newsletter curator, if we must review this ground, did pretty poorly with my touts of Celtics in 6 and Timberwolves in 7.
Numbers Game
(Editor's Note: Numbers Game took a one-week hiatus last week because I wanted the last Tuesday Newsletter Extravaganza to be all about Bill Walton. Normal service resumes today.)
🏀 18
Think it's safe to say that the Lakers and their fans are rooting for Dallas in these NBA Finals. The Celtics are chasing their 18th championship, which would break Boston's 17-all tie with the purple and gold.
🏀 44
The Celtics and Lakers have combined to win 44% of the championships in the NBA's first 77 seasons.
🏀 2022
Excellent point raised recently by my fellow Substacker
: In 2021-22, Boston nearly added itself to the very short list of teams I've been citing often recently that went on to win a championship after making an in-season trade in the 40-plus years of the NBA's 16-team playoff era dating to 1983-84. The Celtics acquired Derrick White from San Antonio at the trade deadline in February 2022, promptly went 11-3 that March under first-year coach Ime Udoka and went on to reach the NBA Finals before losing in six games to Golden State.🏀 3
Because that Celtics team fell short of the championship, we generally recognize only three teams in the 16-team playoff era for going on a title run immediately after making an in-season trade: Houston (as defending champions) after acquiring Clyde Drexler from Portland in 1995, Detroit after acquiring Rasheed Wallace from Atlanta in 2004 and Toronto after acquiring Marc Gasol from Memphis in 2019.
🏀 5
One correction on a recent stat we ran: There are actually five teams in league history — not three — that have beaten three 50-win teams en route to reaching the NBA Finals. Three of them were defending champions: Houston in 1995 and the Lakers in both 2001 and 2010. The other two teams to do so: The Lakers in 2008 before ultimately losing to Boston in the Finals — and after making an in-season trade to acquire Pau Gasol from Memphis — and this season's microwaved Mavericks.
🏀 31
Since Larry Bird's retirement after the 1991-92 season, Boston has won only one championship in the past 31 seasons.
🏀 38
Thursday's Game 1 of the NBA Finals will feature the first game action for Boston's Kristaps Porziņģis in 38 days dating to April 29.
🏀 102
Boston's Jayson Tatum and Jalen Brown have played 102 playoff games without winning a championship -- fifth most in league history for a pair of teammates.
🏀 172
Utah's Karl Malone and John Stockton hold the lead in that unwanted category at 172 playoff games as a duo without a championship. Next in line: The Lakers' Jerry West and Elgin Baylor (110 games), New York's Patrick Ewing and Charles Oakley (106) and Indiana's Reggie Miller and Dale Davis (105).
🏀 50
Good one from my fellow Substacker
: In the last 25 NBA Finals, only four of the 50 teams competing did not have an All-NBA first or second team selection on their roster. Both Dallas and Boston are covered in these Finals thanks to Luka Dončić and Jayson Tatum.🏀 11
Eleven of the 15 players from this season's three All-NBA teams are from the Western Conference.
🏀 2
The Suns and the Lakers were the only two teams in the league to place two players each on the three All-NBA teams. They combined to win one playoff game and both fired their coaches after the season.
🏀 10
Conference finals exits for the Timberwolves and the Pacers mean that 10 existing NBA franchises remain without a championship in their current or previous cities: Brooklyn, Charlotte, Indiana, LA Clippers, Memphis, Minnesota, New Orleans, Orlando, Phoenix and Utah.
Im a bit surprised that EVERY single pundit picks boston. I was reading david thorpe who said boston was appreciatively better and had faced tougher opponents (say what?). You mean the ones without their stars (lillard and giannis, and halliburton and donovan mitchell and brunson and robinson , Butler etc etc). The path was made very easy. And boston cruised. Stats favour boston. Unless you look at dallas post trade. This is a team that really gelled. And then we have the issue of tatum's heart. Metaphorically speaking. And mazulla's brain...literally speaking. Boston on paper wins this. But its not played on paper. And dallas has the mojo right now AND the best player in the post season. 2nd best in the league. Luka wins this for dallas.
Mavs in 7, though I'm not confident. I think this will be a really good series. I almost went 6, but I like the thought of Luka winning on their floor (and somewhat sadly keeping the streak of DFW teams never winning a championship at home.)