LY: THE BONKERS NBA PLAYOFFS

By: Allan Ly
RP Show Intern

This year’s NBA playoffs are insane. Five out of the seven teams remaining ( Phoenix Suns, LA Clippers, Brooklyn Nets, Utah Jazz and the Atlanta Hawks) never won an NBA championship.

The Milwaukee Bucks and the Philadelphia 76ers are the only exceptions; neither have won in a long time, with the Bucks in 1971 and 76ers in 1983. Both teams did great, with the 76ers finishing first while the Bucks finished third this year.

This playoff is a breath of fresh air for new contenders in the NBA playoffs considering the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors battled it out from 2015-2018 for the NBA finals.

Currently, the Suns are in the Western Conference Finals, and this is excellent news for the star point guard and elder statesman of the team Chris Paul.

The 16 year NBA veteran is fifth in all-time with NBA assists, a NBA All-Star MVP and a multiple NBA All-star recipient but unfortunately has never won an NBA championship.

Paul has the particular kind of magic that helps bad teams; prior to joining the Suns, he brought the Oklahoma City Thunder to the playoffs last year.

The Thunder finished fifth last year and lost to the Houston Rockets in seven games in the first round.

Paul’s magic even worked with the Suns as prior to Paul joining the Suns, from 2010-2020 they did not make the playoffs.

Unfortunately for Paul, he is now in COVID protocol and is out indefinitely for the Suns, but they should not lose hope.

Devin Booker is playing out of his mind alongside his running mate Deandre Ayton to help the Suns in Paul’s absence.

The Brooklyn Nets are considered the favourites in this year’s playoffs as they have a stacked team of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, James Harden and Blake Griffin.

People are excited for the Nets because they have one of the best Canadian players to play basketball as their head coach: Steve Nash.

“If you don’t like Steve Nash, you don’t like basketball, and you don’t like Canada basketball,” said TSN’s Rod Black on the June 16 edition of the Rod Pedersen show praising Nash as the Head Coach of the Nets. “I like the way he manages the game.”

This is not the first time the Nets tried to trade away their future to get to the NBA title, as their experiment with Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Deron Williams and Joe Johnson did not go so well.

The ageing Nets group did not make it to the finals, much less the conference finals, as they failed to make it out of the second round in 2014 and failed to get out of the first round the following year.

The Nets are currently battling Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Milwaukee Bucks in the playoffs and the series is currently tied at three games a piece.

Another team that deserves recognition in the playoffs is the Atlanta Hawks because they were once considered the laughing stocks of the NBA.

For example, the Hawks were in the bottom three each of the last three seasons until this year when they reached fifth place. The Hawks are currently facing off against the Philadelphia 76ers and they lead three games to two in the seven game series.

This year, one of the powerhouses is the Utah Jazz in the West, and they look to be primed for a Championship run.

The Jazz have one of the best records in the West(52 wins and 20 losses), Donovan Mitchell is having a career year with 26 points per game, and Rudy Gobert won this year’s Defensive player of the year.

Is it possible for the Jazz to make it to the finals this year? I think so; unfortunately, standing in their way is the LA Clippers. The Jazz are behind three games to two in this series.

The Clippers, like the other teams, share the same qualities of not winning an NBA championship.

In the past, the Clippers were a powerhouse with “Lob City”, which consisted of Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan; however, they never had much success other than the conference semifinals they made in 2012,2014 and 2015.

The Clippers lead their series with the Jazz three games to two but their star player Kawhi Leonard is injured and the Clippers will be missing out on Leonard’s 30 points per game in the playoffs.

As a basketball fan, this has been one of the best NBA playoffs in a while, and I can not wait to see who will win it all.

(Follow Allan Ly on Twitter @AllanTheIntern)