The burden of being unbeaten in the NBA Playoffs

Several teams swept through the first two rounds of the playoffs. Only one has won the NBA championship. Is there any reason why dominance is short lived?

NBA pundits often say the NBA Playoffs are a second season. The challenges a team faces in the postseason are completely different than in the regular season. The time and attention put into each game and focus put into the opponent’s minute details make the playoffs a steeper challenge. Teams cannot roll into town with a talent advantage anymore. Everything is tailor-made to stop the opponent.

If the regular season is checkers, a game of simple strategy, the playoffs are chess. Teams that succeed in the regular season find it more difficult to find the same success in the postseason. It is a battle.

Read More: Late draft picks thriving in the 2017 NBA Playoffs

That is why the four-game sweep is still one of the more difficult accomplishments in the sport. These are NBA teams, and particularly as you get deeper into the postseason, each team has at least one good game in them where things click and luck falls their way. The “Gentlemen’s Sweep” of a five-game series is probably more from one dominant team rather than a straight sweep.

To pull off a clean sweep it in two straight series? That is something truly special. A sign of dominance over the rest of the conference leading into the Conference Finals.

Or is it?

The logical argument — or the narrative everyone puts out this time of year — is a team needs to be challenged on their way through the playoffs. A team that does not face adversity will not know how to handle it when the competition really steps up. They may become too full of themselves or get caught by a team that has been battle-tested in the playoffs. That is the argument at least.

The more experienced teams will say the benefit of rest is more important. And, in this analytics-based world that values rest for players, there is currency to that. A team like the Cleveland Cavaliers, who just completed a second straight 8-0 run through the first two rounds, knows what it takes to win deep in the playoffs. It is just about surviving.

Since the NBA went to a best-of-seven series for every playoff series in 2003, five teams have won their first eight games, to sweep their way into the Conference Finals. Four of those teams lost in the Conference Finals.

The only team to break that trend? The Cavaliers last year. They won the first two games, faced some adversity against the Toronto Raptors, and then advanced to the Finals. The rest, as they say, is history — with 3-1 blown leads and all. The Cavaliers did it again this year becoming the sixth team to pull off the two-round sweep to start the playoffs. There is seemingly very little in common between the teams that pulled this off and why they failed to win the title.

The 2005 Miami Heat were the first year with Shaquille O’Neal and Dwyane Wade playing together. Wade was in his second year in the league and still finding his place in the league. They took on a watered-down Eastern Conference topping the last stages of the Vince Carter-Richard Jefferson-Jason Kidd trio with the New Jersey Nets and Gilbert Arenas and the Washington Wizards. Miami led the postseason that year with a +5.4 net rating.

When the Heat ran into the veteran Detroit Pistons, they hit a wall. Wade with his youth and Stan Van Gundy’s relative inexperience allowed the Pistons to escape with a seven-game series win on Miami’s home floor. The Heat bounced back and won the title the next year.

In 2009, LeBron James led the Cavaliers to a rout of the Eastern Conference through the first two rounds. The aging Pistons stood no chance. Neither did the consistently mediocre Hawks. James’ coronation to his first championship seemed all but certain. This was a young team, but James seemed ready. All four conference finalists were the top four in net rating. The Cavaliers had a +7.9 net rating, the second best in the postseason.

Cleveland ran into the Orlando Magic and Dwight Howard. That did not slow down LeBron James — he averaged 38.5 points per game, 8.3 rebounds per game and 8.0 assists per game. It slowed down everyone else. The Magic won the series in six games, dashing dreams for James’ first title. The team lost to the Boston Celtics the next year and James took his talents elsewhere the following summer.

It was the Magic’s turn in 2010. Orlando was not an inexperienced team, having gone to the Finals the year before. They seemed to have control over the top-seeded Cavaliers and every opportunity to make the Finals again. Orlando finished 33-8 to end the season and won the next eight games. The Magic defeated the Hawks in the second round by an average margin of 25.3 points per game. The closest game was 14 points.

The Boston Celtics went up 3-0, stealing the first two games at the Amway Arena in Orlando, and won the series in six. The Magic crumpled — thanks to a pair of missed Vince Carter free throws, among other big issues like the Celtics being an experienced championship team. That began the Magic’s fall and the Dwight Howard saga that followed.

The only Western Conference team to win the first eight games of the Playoffs was the 2012 San Antonio Spurs. The Spurs swept the Utah Jazz and the Los Angeles Clippers in the lockout-shortened year. This was Chris Paul’s first year and the first bitter defeat for that franchise with that group. San Antonio even won the first two games against the Oklahoma City Thunder before getting swept in the final four games. The experienced Spurs gave way to the up-and-coming Thunder.

The Cavaliers became the first team to sweep the first two rounds and win the title last year.

It is easy to see how this narrative of needing to face some adversity in the first two rounds came about. The track record is these teams lose and there is no rhyme or reason to it. Teams that were dominant suddenly look mortal. Experienced teams lose as often as rising teams do in this exceedingly rare circumstance.

Of course, the reality is more likely that each series is actually its own mini season, independent of everything else. There is no relationship between sweeping one series and sweeping the next. A team can struggle through the first round and find themselves in the Finals playing for a championship.

Next: LeBron's easiest path to the NBA Finals?

Both the 2017 Cleveland Cavaliers (8-0) and the 2017 Golden State Warriors (7-0) know this. They have been through plenty of playoff battles. Both have won championships recently. Their dominance is simply dominance over their opponents. Adversity is likely coming — no team has swept through the first three rounds since 2003 — but what they have done so far seems to have no bearing on what they will do in the future. They just have to win the next four games.