The NBA playoffs kicked off two weeks ago, and we are on to the second round. The NBA’s two conferences’ first round was completely different. The Eastern Conference went as expected, with the top four teams all advancing very easily. The #1 seed Cavaliers swept the Heat and had no problems at all. The Celtics and Pacers pulled off a gentleman’s sweep with the Celtics beating the Magic and the Pacers beating the Bucks. The Knicks won in six games but clearly had the advantage all throughout the series.
The Western Conference, on the other hand, was complete chaos with two series going all the way to Game 7. The top-seeded Thunder ended up sweeping the Grizzlies and looked like the best team in the league. The No. 2-seeded Rockets took on Steph Curry and the Warriors in a series that ended up going to seven games. The Warriors took a 3-1 series lead before the Rockets came storming back to tie the series at 3-3. In Game 7, the Warriors dominated the game and won the series, moving on to the 2nd round. The Lakers took on the Timberwolves in the first round with
Luka Doncic and LeBron are making their playoff debut together. The series did not end up how people thought with the Lakers underperforming and the Timberwolves won the series in a Game 5 win.
Ending the first round, the Nuggets and Clippers had by far the most entertaining series of the first round. Game 1 ended in an overtime win for the Nuggets before the Clippers bounced back and stole another close game in Denver. The Clippers dominated Game 3, looking like they were going to end up winning the series. Game 4 ended with a Nikola Jokic lob up to Aaron Gordon for a buzzer-beating dunk to win the game. Game 5 and 6 went as expected and we went to a game 7 in Denver. The Nuggets started the game off hot and didn’t look back after that with complete domination over the entirety of the game.
The second round matches have just started with every game the lower seed has won so far, looking like we could see an upset-heavy second round.
