N ow that the riff-raff is out of the way, basketball fans can concentrate on the rest of the National Basketball Association season.
The regular season is behind us now and the playoffs are continuing. All that’s left are the conference finals and the championship series.
Hallelujah!
Boston and Cleveland are competing for the Eastern Division title while Golden State and Houston are vying for the Western Division championship.
It is important to remember that teams have been playing since the middle of October for the right to compete for the NBA title. That is a long time!
Basketball fans seem not to care how long it takes to decide on a champion. That may be because there are so many players on different teams to watch. Although there are only 12 players on each team, each player is an all-star player worthy of attention.
There was a lot of discussion a year ago regarding the league’s Most Valuable Player which is awarded at the end of each season. The discussion starts about midseason and continues right up to the announcement of the winner. Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook won a year ago although there was a great deal of support for Houston’s James Harden.
Harden has a lot of support again this year as he has continued to lead the Houston Rockets in both offense and defense through the season and has his team in the Western Division finals against the defending champion Golden State Warriors.
Meanwhile, the Cleveland Cavaliers with Lebron James are battling the Boston Celtics for the Eastern Conference title. The Celtics are not the dominating franchise as they were in the 1950’s and ‘60’s, but they are still competitive, finishing second a year ago behind the Cavaliers and may just surprise everybody this year and beat Cleveland to reach the championship series. Brad Stevens is no Red Auerbach, but he’s certainly one of the better coaches in the NBA.
The last time Boston won an NBA title was 2008 under Head Coach Doc Rivers.
That was the 17th NBA championship for the Celtics and now they are fighting for another in the history of the storied franchise.
I remember Auerbach would light up a cigar sitting on the bench in the final minute of the game if his Celtics were leading. It became a tradition.
Today, the closest thing the NBA has to the Celtics of Red Auerbach is the Golden State Warriors, a franchise that is the defending NBA champs and runners up the year before when the blew a three-games-to-one lead in the finals, allowing the Cavaliers to come back and win the title. The final game was played in the Bay area, on the Warrior’s home court.
Unbelievable!
Fans should not just assume the Warriors are going to win, but it would be easy. They make it look so easy. A few years ago, the Warriors met the Memphis Grizzlies in the Western Conference finals. Memphis was up, 2-1, and looking good. Suddenly, the Warriors won the next three games to win the division title, four games to two.
That was 2014.
A year ago, the Warriors were up, 3-1, and lost the Western conference series, 4-3, to Cleveland.
Never count Lebron James out. He has adequate teammates, but never underestimate Lebron James’ talent. He came right out of high school and went to the NBA. That is how good he was and still is.
My favorite player and choice for Most Valuable Player: Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors. No team counts on a player like the Warriors count on Curry. And, by the same token, no player delivers like Curry.
The only knock on Curry is that he is injured a lot. Like the saying goes, he’s hell when he’s well, but he’s hurt a lot. But, at the same time, he plays hurt a lot and just having him in the lineup gives the Warriors an edge.
Enjoy the rest of the playoffs. The 2018-19 season will be here before you know it!
