The NBA playoffs began earlier this month, and some teams are off to a great start. The Golden State Warriors swept the New Orleans Pelicans, putting them out the playoffs in four exciting games. The Memphis Grizzles are likely to be Golden State’s second round opponent, after jumping out to a 3-0 lead over the Portland Trail Blazers; however, the Blazers held on to win last night and force a Game 5.
In the other half of the Western Conference bracket, the Houston Rockets are playing the Dallas Mavericks. Heading into Game 5, the Rockets lead the series 3-1. Lastly, the most competitive series of the first round is between the Los Angles Clippers and the San Antonio Spurs, with the teams currently tied 2-2.
In the East, the top-seeded Atlanta Hawks are now tied 2-1 against the Brooklyn Nets, a team that lost more games than it won this season. The Toronto Raptors showed no fight in being swept by the Washington Wizards and now will have a lot of questions heading into next season about what went wrong.
In the other half of the Eastern Conference bracket, the Cleveland Cavaliers showed no mercy against the young players on the Boston Celtics. The Cavs completed the 4-0 sweep over the weekend, but they lost Kevin Love due to injury for at least the next round as well as J.R. Smith for a couple of games with a suspension. Last but not least the Chicago Bulls are playing the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bulls were leading the series 3-0 and could have finished the series in Game 4, but they let the Bucks get a W at the buzzer. They followed that up with another loss in Game 5, making it 3-2 Bulls.
Not surprisingly, the two teams who won their series 4-0 (Golden State and Cleveland) will be the teams the media and other students around Prep say will be the teams that eventually meet in the NBA Finals, and if so, that’s going to be a great Finals matchup.