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.