The NBA playoffs semifinals round is nearly complete. It’s been a long, strange road to get here. This season started way back in late October of 2019. If the finals go to game seven, we might get to see a year-long NBA season. There are still two series to get through before we get to the finals though, so here is a look who has made it this far and how they got here.
In the eastern conference is to different teams from last year, the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics. These teams may come off a s a bit of surprise, but as the season has gone on, they’ve shown that they deserve to be here.
Eastern Conference
The Celtics have been a very solid team for the past few years, but they haven’t quite been able to get over that hump yet. Jayson Tatum, Gordon Hayward, Kemba Walker, and Jaylen Brown are some of the top players that the Celtics have been acquiring over the past several seasons.
It seems like everything has finally come together this season. The Celtics went 53-19 this season putting them third in the East. The first leg of the playoffs was no problem either. They brought out the brooms to sweep the Philadelphia 76ers 4-0 in the first round of the playoffs.
Round two was much more entertaining. The Celtics had to take on the reigning NBA champions and this years number two seed, the Toronto Raptors. It went to game seven with the Celtics winning 92-87.
The other team to make the conference finals in the East is the Heat. Miami was fifth in the East with a 44-29 record. In the first round of the playoffs played the Indiana Pacers with their brooms too. They won the series in a four-game sweep.
The Heat were faced with a challenge in round two, playing the number one seed Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks have been on a short list of title contenders all season, but Miami was able to trounce them 4-1 in the series.
The Heat are led by Jimmy Butler who they traded for this past offseason. He has been a key component in taking the Heat from a team who missed the playoffs last year, to potentially making it to the NBA finals.
However, no number five seed has ever one the big one. Only two teams below the one, two or three seeds has taken the finals.
Western Conference
In the west, we only know one of the teams making it to the conference finals, the Los Angeles Lakers. The other place in the game is still being fought for between another L.A. team, the Clippers, and the Denver Nuggets.
On Sunday, game six of the semi-final series between the Nuggets and Clippers was played. The Nuggets won the game 111-98 after coming back after a bad first half. This tied the series 3-3 with the next coming on Tuesday.
The Clippers and Nuggets were second and third in the west respectively, so a close matchup was expected. The Clippers have been a heavy favorite for the entire season with their recently acquired duo of Paul George and last years finals MVP, Kawhi Leonard.
On the other side of the court with the Nuggets is Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray. Both players are young, rising stars in the NBA.
As mentioned, the winner between these two teams will have to go on to play the Lakers led by LeBron James. This team turned it around this season. They missed the playoffs last year which is something new for King James who has made it to the finals every year since 2010.
The Lakers have been at the top of the west for a large part of the season and finished the regular season before. Between the LeBron and his newest number two, Anthony Davis, they’ll be tough to beat for whomever they face.