If you haven’t been following the NBA Playoffs, let’s get you caught up really quick!
Western Conference Finals!
#1 Oklahoma City Thunder vs #2 San Antonio Spurs
Youth vs Youth in this version of the Western Conference Finals. The average age is 25 years old between these two team. The reigning champions, Oklahoma City Thunder will have a slight edge in this series. The Thunder will be fully healthy with the return of Jalen Williams who missed the previous round due to hamstring soreness and I’m willing to bet even if he was healthy enough to go, a decision was made to not use him at all. They didn’t really need him at all. They are definitely going to need him this series. The phenom in Victor Wembanyama is going to be a big, big problem. There’s no doubt this young San Antonio team can carry it’s own weight to compete and win a couple games even if Webmanyama has a bad game. Just his presence along changes the complexity of any basketball game. And when playoff games matter towards the end in halfcourt situations, it will take 2-3 defenders to hold up tight if they want a shot at a back to back title.
Eastern Conference Finals!
#3 New York Knicks #4 Cleveland Cavaliers:
The time has to be now for the New York Knicks. There’s no Indiana Pacer player in sight that’s going to stop them this time. Jalen Brunson and Karl Anthony-Towns will try again to get this New York team back to the NBA Finals since 1999! I’m not even going to tell you what the hottest song or top grossing movie was that year. Let’s just say I was a sophomore in High School and Latrell Sprewell was a scoring machine that I couldn’t tolerate. Yes, that team beat my Indiana Pacers in a classic Eastern Conference Finals that I or any hooper fan would forget. Donovan Mitchell has finally broke into a Conference Finals series, a long awaited maturation since he last carried his former Utah Jazz team close to that point. This time he’ll have a former MVP in James Harden by his side as he makes his 3rd trip to a Conference Finals. Cleveland will need both stars and their talented role players to weather what this Knick team is about to bring upon them in this series. We’re going to see what the Cavaliers are made of as they head into the Mecca of professional basketball.
Crowd Noise Weekly 