NBA Conference Finals Round-Up

The first match-up to discuss occurred in the Eastern Conference, between the NBA’s most successful franchise, the Boston Celtics and, shockingly, the Miami Heat who had just defeated the Milwaukee Bucks and reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Celtics would go into the finals high on confidence as despite the Heat’s shock performance they were still favourites. However, from the beginning Miami would play with their trademark tenacity and determination and surprise the Celtics early on despite the efforts of Tatum for Boston. Rookie Tyler Herro had a coming-of-age series to cement himself as an NBA player and regular All-Star Jimmy Butler impressed on both sides of the floor, but it was Bam Adebayo who was the star as he led the Heat in 4/5 categories. The Celtic stars, aside from Tatum, faltered and failed to live up to expectations with particular disappointment being directed to Kemba Walker, the replacement to Kyrie Irving, who was repeatedly inefficient and wasteful. Boston may have won the 3rd and 5th games of this series convincingly, but it was the grit and desire shown by Miami which saw them win games 1, 2, 4 and 6 to, once again, shock the basketball world and advance to the NBA finals. 

The other surprise package of the NBA playoffs was in the West with the Denver Nuggets, who had just knocked out the favourites-to-win-it-all LA Clippers, and they would come up against the LA Lakers, led by the consensus best player in the world, LeBron James. The Lakers had an extra week to prepare for this series due to Denver needing to go to 7 after mounting their comeback, but in the end the most important factor in these games was defence. The Lakers defended well and used their size and quick adjustments to keep Denver’s best players, Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, quiet while the Anthony Davis-led Lakers offence continued their post season trends of scoring a lot of points in the paint and on the fast-break. When the Nuggets attempted to change things up and play small ball the Lakers were able to adjust and match them, as they had been doing all series. Ultimately, the Lakers always had control of this match-up and, despite the Nuggets taking game 3, would go on to advance in 5 games to their 32nd NBA finals.