By Furtakes
For what many considered to be a boring year in the NBA, it is finally becoming a really exciting time to be an NBA fan. The Celtics are now up on the Cavs 3-2, while the Warriors and Rockets are tied at 2-2. Nobody really saw this happening. Lebron James was supposed run through the east on the way to the finals and the Warriors were figured to coast through the west and eventually win the NBA title again with the loaded team of all-stars, including Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. Things aren’t playing out like this at all though.
The Cavs lost all three games to the Celtics on the road, which wasn’t expected. Brad Stevens is doing a terrific job with the Celtics after losing both Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving during the regular season, but beat the 76ers and the Bucks on the way to the eastern conference finals. He’s made young players look like seasoned veterans in Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Terry Rozier. Al Horford is the veteran presence that is the typical experience that you would see in a sports movie. LeBron James is taking things in to his own hands putting up wild stats. He could put up 40 points and people now will think that would be normal. He broke the record for most field goals made in the playoffs. An incredible record, LeBron is really doing everything in his power to advance to the finals one more time. It will be fun to see if he can take down the next great dynasty in the east, which looks to actually be the Celtics and not the 76ers. Maybe you shouldn’t trust the process.
In the west, the Rockets are really messing with people. After games one and three it looks like the Warriors were going to kill the Rockets, but now Houston has brought it back to a tied series. Even though the Rockets won the west in the regular season, People didn’t think they would have a shot at being even compared to the talent of the Warriors, but they are proving a lot of people wrong, even myself. The addition of Chris Paul and role players like P.J. Tucker are helping them play the small ball game that has made the Warriors such a dominant team. Clint Capela is being a huge difference maker in the western conference finals with his shot blocking and the ability to help defend smaller players on the pick and roll plays. The Warriors haven’t lost a home game in the Kevin Durant error until Game 4 in a close loss to the Rockets, which shows us they can be beaten.
I really think both series will go to seven games and my picks will be the Warriors and Celtics will go to the finals as I said in my podcast. I’m excited to see any combination of teams in the finals because each team has their own storyline which makes it exciting. The Celtics are the young team who nobody saw being here. The Warriors are the proven champions of the NBA. The Cavs have the greatest player of all time in LeBron James. Will he be able to do enough to get them again to the NBA finals? The Rockets are the team who loaded up just to be able to compete with the Warriors. Was it enough to be able to beat them? We will find out soon enough which of these teams will be on their way to the finals and all sports fans should be excited for whoever makes it.
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