Category: NBA Articles

With the NBA Playoffs just getting underway, it seems only right to pick who I think will take home the championship trophy. Much to no one’s surprise, I have the Brooklyn Nets winning the championship due to the super team they have built that includes James Harden, Kevin Durant, and Kyrie Irving.

The Eastern Conference has a few surprise teams in the playoffs including the Washington Wizards, Atlanta Hawks, and New York Knicks. All three teams missed the playoffs last season, but the Hawks and Knicks had a major turnaround during this 2021 NBA season. However, I don’t see anyone putting up much of a fight against Joel Embiid’s 76ers squad nor the super team in Brooklyn.

Although I have the 76ers forcing a game 7 against the Nets, I believe the Nets are just too stacked to not win the conference. Philadelphia is 2-1 vs Brooklyn this season, but none of the games had all 3 superstars of the Nets playing.

Speaking of turnaround seasons, the Phoenix Suns miraculously took the #2 seed in the Western Conference for this year’s playoffs. With the acquisition of Chris Paul, the Suns have finally given Devin Booker a good enough team to make the playoffs.

This will be Devin Booker’s first playoff series, but he will be forced to face the Lakers. As good of a regular season the Suns had, I don’t see them taking down LeBron in the first round of the playoffs. This will still be valuable experience for Booker and the rest of Phoenix’s roster that may lead to a deeper playoff run next year.

While I see the Clippers defeating the Mavericks in the opening round of the playoffs, I don’t see them making a Conference Finals appearance this season. Paul George is notorious for coming up short in the playoffs, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

The biggest surprise of all might be the Utah Jazz somehow snagging the #1 seed in the west, but they do have a fairly balanced team with six people averaging double digit points per game.

I have Portland upsetting the Denver Nuggets because Damian Lillard has been going on a tear this entire NBA season, and I don’t see him bowing out in the first round.

While I see the Lakers making it out of the West, I believe it will be very close for many of these playoff series.

Ultimately, I think the Nets should be heavily favored to win the championship purely based on their stacked roster. While LeBron won’t go out quietly, I think Brooklyn is too much to overcome for the Lakers to upset.

The only possible way for the Lakers to win is for LeBron to perform like he did against the Warriors in 2016 when he and the Cavaliers overcame a 3-1 deficit. However, that was 5 years ago, and I don’t think LeBron can pull out that performance again in a best of seven series.

Over their first two games in the bubble, the Houston Rockets have showcased why they can make a deep run in the NBA playoffs.

The first game was a back and forth battle between the Rockets and Mavericks. The Rockets overcame an alarming seven-point deficit with 45 seconds remaining in regulation and forced overtime, where they won by four.

In the game, Harden proved why he is one of the best players in the league by scoring 49 points, 9 rebounds, and 8 assists. Russell Westbrook also played a huge role in Houston’s win by adding 31 points, 11 rebounds, and 8 assists.

Last night, the Rockets played their second game against the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks. The Rockets found themselves down eight points with just over three minutes left in regulation, but they were able to hit a few clutch shots and force a few turnovers to complete the comeback.

Following these two games, they have rocketed themselves from the sixth seed in the Western Conference to the fourth seed. They are only one game behind the third-seeded Denver Nuggets and are set up for obtaining a decent seed in the playoffs.

If they can hold onto the fourth seed, they will be able to avoid a massive mismatch with the second seeded Los Angeles Clippers until the Western Conference Finals.

The Clippers have the two best perimeter defenders in the league, Paul George and Kawhi Leonard, which would be a major problem for the Houston offense since they want to shoot almost 45 three-pointers per game.

It is important to note that the Rockets have won two out of their four games against the Clippers. Even though the matchup might be tough for the rockets, they have shown that they can still win against great perimeter defense.

The Rockets are looking like a scary team to go against in the playoffs, especially since they have split their games between all three of the teams ahead of them in the Western Conference.

They have also been playing without Eric Gordon due to an ankle injury that he suffered during the final scrimmage game. Gordon is one of Houston’s best three-point shooters and has hit many clutch shots throughout his career.

Gordon’s level of play has been very turbulent throughout this season, but he has looked better in the second half of the year.

Gordon was able to score 50 points against the Utah Jazz, which is his current career-high. He should be healthy before the playoffs start and might even be back for their final regular season game against the Philadelphia 76ers.

The Rockets are certainly not a team to be taken lightly and are in the conversation to win the NBA Finals.  

About a week ago, Lou Williams was given an excused absence from the NBA’s Orlando Campus to attend a wake for his friend’s father. However, Williams also met up with Jack Harlow at an Atlanta strip club during his excused absence.

Despite Harlow erasing the picture he posted with Williams, the NBA began investigating where Williams had gone during his absence. The NBA recently decided to quarantine Williams for 10 days to ensure the safety of the season.

This is an intelligent move by the league because it will prevent any concern about COVID-19 within the bubble, and will allow the season to continue as planned. With the official NBA season finally set to come back tonight, the Los Angeles Clippers will be forced to play without Lou Williams for their first two games.

Williams is currently averaging 18.7 points per game off the bench and has had five games with at least 30 points. He is also boasting an 86.3% free throw percentage, which will come in handy during close games. Alongside this, he has proven his massive impact as a bench player by winning the last two Sixth Man of the Year awards.

Since there are only eight more games for this NBA regular season, Williams being forced to miss two games is a heavy loss for the Clippers. They will be playing the Los Angeles Lakers tonight, who are the first place team in the Western Conference. Although the Clippers have won two out of their three games against the Lakers, not having Lou Williams should allow the Lakers to win handily.

Their second game is against the 10th place New Orleans Pelicans, which should be an easy victory. Even though Williams will only miss two games, it will probably take an extra few games for him to smoothly fit into the rotation of the lineup.

The Clippers are good enough to overcome this obstacle, but it will more than likely lower their seeding from second place. We are still likely to have a Lakers vs. Clippers matchup in the Western Conference Finals, but this certainly makes the Western Conference even more interesting than it already was.

Everyone has been eager for sports to come back, and we are finally just nine days away from the continuation of the NBA season. This season is definitely going to be one for the history books since fans are not able to attend any of the games. Even without the playoff atmosphere provided by the fans, these playoffs might be the most interesting in recent memory. The Eastern Conference seems to be heavily favored toward the first-place Milwaukee Bucks, but the third-place Boston Celtics have gone 1-1 against the Bucks this season. The Celtics win occurred within the first 5 games of the season, which makes it a little less convincing of a statistic. However, Kemba Walker has torched the Bucks in both games by scoring 32 points in their win and 40 points in their narrow defeat. Even if the Bucks might struggle against the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Playoffs, they should have a much easier path to the NBA Finals than any team from the Western Conference. This is because the Eastern Conference contains four teams with 40+ wins, the Western Conference has a staggering seven teams with 40+ wins. The favorites to win the Western Conference are the Los Angeles Lakers, but their road to the NBA Finals will be grueling. They have lost two out of three games to the second-place Los Angeles Clippers, and the sixth place Houston Rockets have gone 1-1 against the Lakers this season. The Rockets have also won three out of four against the Clippers, which is a testament to how unpredictable the Western conference Playoffs could be. The safe bet is to say that the Lakers will make it through the gauntlet behind their two legendary players, LeBron James and Anthony Davis, but many teams they will face have their fair share of star power as well. Ultimately, I believe that LeBron James and Anthony Davis will find a way to get through the Western Conference, and Giannis Antetokounmpo will handily guide the Bucks through the Eastern Conference. Although the Lakers will be exhausted from the demanding games in the West, I believe that they will be more prepared for clutch moments than the Bucks. Since it will be an extremely close series, I think the more competitive nature of the West will ultimately help the Lakers defeat the Bucks in a six or seven-game series.