So far, the playoffs have made good on much of the promise that we were all waiting for during the long, often tedious prelude of the NBA’s regular season.
They have been intense at times — witness how testy things got between the Celtics and Sixers in their series, or the way Russell Westbrook lashed out at Utah fans as he left the court after being eliminated by the Jazz, or Miami’s Justise Winslow earning a $15,000 fine for stepping on the protective face mask of the Sixers’ Joel Embiid. A little chippiness always makes things more entertaining.
They have also been at least occasionally dramatic, including the two buzzer-beaters that LeBron James made in wins over Indiana and Toronto. In addition to that, the playoffs have done what they are supposed to in providing definitive answers to some of the questions that everyone around the league speculated about all season.
Can Paul George and Carmelo Anthony mesh well enough with Russell Westbrook to turn OKC back into a serious championship threat? (No.) Is this the year that the Raptors finally stop getting bullied by LeBron in the playoffs? (Hell no.)
It has, then, been an intriguing postseason in many ways, but a competitive one? Not so much. Granted, two Eastern Conference series have gone seven games — the Celtics-Bucks and Cavs-Pacers in the first round — but in the West, there has been only one — Utah-OKC — that reached Game 6.
In light of how strong the Western Conference was this season and how closely bunched so many of the playoff contenders were in the standings, it’s somewhat surprising that playoffs in the West have been so one-sided.
The playoffs haven’t been bad, just sort of bland, particularly on the Western side of the bracket. The league and its viewers could really use an epic postseason series to spice things up right about now, one in which two evenly matched teams play at a high level and push each other to the limit, something on the order, say, of the Western Conference final in 2016 when the Thunder took a 3-1 lead only to have the Warriors come back to win in 7. The NBA needs a series that lives up to the hype.
Hello, Warriors and Rockets.
Warriors fans may be hoping that the Hamptons 5 finish things in four, that the Warriors lock up Chris Paul, avoid falling prey to James Harden’s draw-the-foul isolations and move on to the Finals quickly, but everyone without a rooting interest is looking forward to a long series in which the two teams take turns staggering each other with haymakers on the way to a memorable Game 7. It would be the signature series for a postseason that so far hasn’t produced one.
A tight series could also set up the kind of high-profile, long-term rivalry, ala Celtics-Lakers or Knicks-Heat, that’s always good for the league’s popularity. The Warriors-Cavs rivalry currently fits that description, of course, but that one will be laid to rest if James goes elsewhere next season.
The Rockets, on the other hand, seem likely to be a worthy adversary for a while. They already have some playoff history together, but this series could take their rivalry to another level. The outcome of this series will have a lot to do with the immediate future of the league. If the Warriors dispatch the Rockets as easily as some predict (none other than Charles Barkley has forecast the Warriors in 5), it will be fair to wonder whether anyone can beat them in the foreseeable future.
The Warriors don’t much care about any of that, nor do they care that the Rockets, who have been carefully constructed by general Daryl Morey with the goal of beating the Warriors in mind, have made no secret of their eagerness to take them down.
As Draymond Green said after they eliminated New Orleans on Tuesday night, “We won two championships in three years. We don’t have to run around talking about how bad we want to play somebody. We want to win another championship and it don’t matter who is in the way of that. If you in the way of that, then you happen to be in the way.”
That’s a perfectly reasonable attitude for a champion to have, but the reality is that the Rockets represent a different kind of postseason threat than the Warriors are used to, both because Houston is the rare team that has the firepower to go toe-to-toe with them in a shootout (not to mention the defensive ability to perhaps avoid one), and because the Rockets have the home court advantage, the first time the Warriors have been in that position since their first-round loss to the Clippers in 2014.
The revamped Rockets represent a fresh challenge for a Warrior team that has seen almost everything now in Year 4 of their run as an elite team, and the Warriors represent the ultimate challenge for a Houston team that believes itself ready to knock them off the throne.
In a postseason in which both teams haven’t been truly pushed yet, they should bring out the best in each other, which would in turn be the best thing for the league. Observers around the league have spent the season wondering what the Warriors could do if they were forced to lock in completely and consistently. We may be about to find out.
(Top photo: Bill Baptist/NBAE via Getty Images)
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