We’ve reached the final four. No, not that Final Four, but the NBA version. You know, the one with far more entertaining and talented basketball players that you can actually recognize and you don’t feel like a complete dirtbag for supporting the billion dollar institution they’re affiliated with that actually compensates its players properly? Yeah, that final four.
Anywho, the four teams left vying for the Larry O’Brien Trophy are the Golden State Warriors, the Houston Rockets, the Atlanta Hawks and the Cleveland Cavaliers. There’s something different about this NBA postseason though, a certain uniqueness that has made it well…unique. The surprises have been non-stop since mid-April, and we’re going to rank the top five “Wait, what the hell?!?” moments of the NBA playoffs.
Editor’s note: Almost forgot to mention the absolute travesty of Warriors general manager Bob Myers stealing winning Executive of the Year over the Cavs David Griffin. With all respect due to Golden State, this was an Ocean’s Eleven level heist that cannot be defended. Anyway...
1) New Rules
The Lakers. The Spurs. The Mavericks. The Heat. The Celtics. The Bulls. The Pistons. These are the teams we’re accustomed to seeing standing around Memorial Day, and this has been the case for nearly four decades! In fact, one of those seven franchises has been involved in the NBA Finals in 33 out of the last 35 years! Even of the teams just eliminated, the Clippers, Wizards, Grizzlies and Bulls, only the Bulls have any sort of championship pedigree as an organization.
The Rockets last championship was 20 years ago. The Warriors last title was 40 years ago. The Hawks last held the crown 57 years ago. And the Cavs have never won a title in their entire 45 year history. The The blue bloods have given way to fresh blood— get used to it.
2) Old Man Game Lives On
On the flip side, Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki and Paul Pierce were all drafted in the late 1990s (check this: the babies that were born the year Duncan was drafted are now gearing up for their freshman year of college). And somehow, not only are all three of these players sticking to the NBA like good barbeque sticks to your ribs in the summer time, they were all significant contributors on playoff teams.
Dirk, while playing on a severely overmatched team that fell victim to the “Rondo Screwjob”, upped his scoring average four points to 21.2 and his rebound average by 4.5 per game from regular season to playoffs (his minutes and FGAs went up too, but whatever). Tim Duncan was easily the best player on his own team…still…and Paul Pierce was nothing short of magnificent in the playoffs.
Love him or hate him — let’s keep it 100: most people HATE him — the playoffs have been infinitely more entertaining because of Paul Pierce. Challenging an entire franchise, and by extension, an entire nation and winning, was awesome in the first round. The Truth hit buzzer beaters. He challenged his baby-superstar teammates (and Otto Porter— yeah, I’m gonna go ahead and give Pierce the credit that too) and made them better players for it. And even when he lost, he still kinda won.
Let’s hope that’s not the last time we see any of these living legends.
3) Pump The Breaks On The Kawhi Leonard Super-duper-star Talk
Let’s slow your role on the coronation. Sure, he balled out during the end of the regular season and was the Finals MVP last summer. But when the Spurs really needed him most, everybody’s favorite rising superstar not named Anthony Davis flamed out at the end of the Clippers series. Kawhi averaged 24.8 points and shot .609 in Games 1-4, but Cyril Figgis’ed his way to a mere 14.3 points and .295 shooting in the final three games of the series. He was particularly ghost in the second halves of those games.
Nobody is saying Kawhi isn’t a hooper. But in the absence of Duncan putting up 30 and 15 a night, Manu Ginobili being near-washed and Tony Parker playing hurt, Leonard needed to be THE MAN for the first time, but couldn’t hold up over seven games, which was shocking. Chris Paul was also giving him baskets in Game 7 on one leg.
He’s only 23, so there’s plenty of time for more growth. But maybe he’s not quite ready to be the lead dog on the Spurs once that core group finally hangs em up. Just maybe.
4) The Bulls Fade Away Like Jordan
The way Chicago just allowed the Cleveland Cavaliers to snatch their heart out Kano style in their own gym was in a word, disheartening. The core of the Bulls has played with so much passion year after year, you really have to knock them out of the playoffs because they typically won’t do it to themselves. This time though, they closed up shop after a what amounted to a small skirmish. The Cavs didn’t bring anything remotely close to their A game, but Matthew Dellavedova and Iman Shumpert put the Bulls out to pasture with ease in Game 6. It’s hard to imagine coach Tom Thibodeau coming back at this point .
We said all along Cleveland had no reason to fear Chicago, and after bouncing Rose, Noah & Co. from the postseason for the fourth time in five years, it’s pretty safe to say what Lil B is to Kevin Durant, LeBron James is to the Chicago Bulls.
5) Clippers Collapse
Where to begin?
Nothing was more astounding from the first two rounds of the playoffs than the Clippers blowing a 3-1 series lead (only the ninth team ever to do that, yet somehow Doc Rivers has coached two of those teams), while holding a 19-point lead with 14 minutes to go at home in Game 6 with James Harden on the bench. Even writing that sentence almost made my computer freeze.
It was absolutely the most Clipper thing that could’ve happened, which in it of itself was part of the problem. Everybody knew the Clips had never made the conference finals. Everyone knew Chris Paul hadn’t either. Everyone in that gym knew, including the Rockets, and the feeling was palpable in the Staples Center. With every missed jumper by the role players and every missed Blake Griffin bull-in-china-shop move that failed, the haze of pressure that hung over the court multiplied. It multiplied again with every Corey Brewer bucket and every Josh Smith step-back three. Before you knew it, the Clippers had wilted like Greg Norman at the ’96 Masters. It was one of the most remarkable collapses basketball has ever witnessed.
Sidebar: Kudos to you, Rockets fans. Your team was awesome when it counted the most. But miss me with the “Don’t ever underestimate the heart of a champion” stuff. The effort the Rockets put forth in the early part of that series could’ve given poor Rudy T a stroke. You shouldn’t be proud of that.
Imagine if Paul Pierce had taken the same leadership and big-time shot making he imparted on the Wizards to the Clippers. LA might’ve seriously won the NBA Championship. Instead they’re all at home now, and that’s pretty surprising.