NBA Playoffs 2018: When do the 2018 NBA Finals begin?
With the NBA Playoffs kicking off on Saturday, April 14, the regular season is coming to a close and that means one step closer to the NBA Finals.
The NBA season has seen its considerable ups-and-downs over the course of 2,460 games in 2017-18. A star was born and also sidelined in Boston on the first night as Gordon Hayward suffered a horrific leg injury, the Cavs were blown up . . . again, and Jason Kidd was shown the exit, along with young stars coming into their own.
The real NBA season begins on April 14 with first round action, culminating with the NBA Finals set to start on May 31. Two months of NBA playoffs — breathe it, taste it, feel it, this one might be a doozy.
With so many storylines in the regular season and the expectations rising as the postseason begins, it’s time to sit back and watch the elite turn it on for the next two months. In the East, the field is set and the only real questions left are the seedings. The Cavs are back and LeBron James is playing some of the best basketball of his career, with wins down the stretch coming against the Toronto Raptors (twice) and the Washington Wizards (two favorites in the East), the king has switched over to “Zero Dark Thirty” mode and cementing his legacy as the gate-keeper of the East.
The Sixers are poised to have us “trust the process,” led by Joel Embiid and point guard Ben Simmons, a likely Rookie of the Year, who has put the team on his back in Embiid’s recent absence due to injury. Over his last 10 games closing out the season, Simmons has averaged 30.7 minutes per night, 14.8 points, 10.4 rebounds, 10.5 assists, 1.9 steals and 0.9 blocks.
Ben Simmons is as advertised, clearly.
The rest of the East is filled with the unusual suspects — starting with the reenergized Indiana Pacers led by potential Most Improved Player, Victor Oladipo. There are the Raptors who changed for the better with the same squad, but a more potent bench resting as the No. 1 seed. The “everybody eats” Washington Wizards, the depleted Boston Celtics, sporadic Miami Heat, and the youthful 76ers.
Starting with the Wizards, they got back John Wall but heading into the NBA playoffs, they have lost their way, losing four-of-five games with two remaining. The Celtics are anything but doomed to come up short after Kyrie Irving was sidelined for the season, Brad Stevens is coaching like the Coach of the Year, but in the playoffs, the inexperience will rear its ugly head when it comes to his young roster. The Heat could possibly scare a team into a longer series, but with no perennial star outside of Goran Dragic or Josh Richardson, Eric Spoelstra’s team still needs one more impactful star.
An up-and-down Eastern Conference only proves one thing, the only sure thing is sitting in Cleveland, Ohio and his name is James. The East might have seen more parity this season, compared to seasons’ past, but with no team cementing its legacy, the East is, once again, LeBron’s for the taking.
Out of the Western Conference, most of the teams have been set at the top of the pecking order, with Houston and Golden State drawing their lines in the sand. The Rockets played the best basketball in the NBA led by MVP-hopeful James Harden and Point Guard Chris Paul. The feasting of 3-pointers this year changed the game and season for Houston. Shooting a league-high 42.2 per game, and making 15.3 of those for 36.3 percent has experts believing that these Rockets have a real shot at dethroning the Warriors. The Warriors, on the other hand, have been dealt the injury bug once again, notably to former MVP, Stephen Curry.
Curry is sidelined for at least the first round with an MCL sprain to his left knee. With Curry out and Klay Thompson along with Kevin Durant recently coming back from injuries, the West is hoping to “strike while the iron is hot,” looking for a chink in the armor of the boys from Oakland.
The rest of the Western Conference playoffs will be the Portland Trail Blazers, the Utah Jazz, New Orleans Pelicans, San Antonio Spurs, Oklahoma City Thunder and then either the Denver Nuggets or Minnesota Timberwolves.
The Trail Blazers are so close to taking the next step and with the exceptional play of Damian Lillard guiding the ship (“Dame-Time”), they can be a real headache for teams with their backcourt play, which may be the best in the NBA. Head Coach Quinn Snyder’s Jazz poses a similar threat to teams, the way they can spread the floor with Joe Ingles. The defensive-minded Rudy Gobert down low rim-protecting and the benefit of electric play from their rookie, Donovan Mitchell.
The Pelicans have “The Brow,” and I’ll take him any day in a seven-game series to cause some problems. The Thunder have the most upside of any team in the No. 2-No. 8 seeding, they can beat any team in this league and do it decisively, the question has always been and continues to be, which team will show up? The Spurs are still the Spurs, and let’s not count out a Willis Reed-esque comeback from star Kawhi Leonard in the first round — it’s gotta happen, right? With Greg Popovich still running things, the Spurs are always in this thing.
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With all this being said, the NBA Finals should pit the Cleveland Cavaliers versus the Houston Rockets. The East is LBJ’s to lose and consider it to be a shocker if it happens this year, the way the king has turned it on this season and the way he will come Game 1 for Cleveland leaves little doubt as to anyone able to dethrone him. The Rockets continued to answer the call all season, can they keep this up for 82 games, is Harden the legitimate MVP, can Chris Paul and Harden co-exist? All of these questions were answered with more to build upon as the Rockets being legit, the Warriors may be the best when operating on all cylinders, but that’s the point, they’re not . . .