Has the NBA Playoff magic gone away?

The first two rounds of the postseason made it look like we were headed for the best Final Four in NBA history. Close games, dramatic comebacks, surprises and the superstars coming out, the compelling matchups seemed like they would escalate into the conference and NBA Finals.

The Celtics swept the talented Nets in four games and then survived a tense back-and-forth, seven-game series with Milwaukee.

In the West, the team with the best record in the regular season, Phoenix, got blown out at home in Game 7 by the 4th-seeded Mavericks.

And if the sensational Ja Morant hadn’t been knocked out with an injury, second-seeded Memphis would have toppled the Warriors and Stephen Curry in the other semifinal.

So what happened?

Boston was outscored 39-14 in the third quarter by Miami and lost when the Heat’s Jimmy “Buckets” Butler finished with 41 points. The blogs and talking heads were already counting out the Celtics, who played the first game without NBA Defensive Player of the Year Marcus Smart.

Two nights later still in Miami, Smart returned to contain Butler, and his team lit it up on offense to lead by 25 at the half and cruised to the blowout win. Trust me, today, the talking heads will be all in on Boston.

While the Warriors were a slight favorite over the Mavericks, they surprisingly went away from Curry and rolled to a complete team victory. That obviously disappointed Curry fans.

Dallas star Luka Doncic was nowhere near as effective as against the 64-win Suns, and this too was a dud one-sided Game 1 in San Francisco.

The TV networks and likely bookies are hoping for a cross-country Celtics-Warriors NBA Finals, with Jayson Tatum, Smart and their mates going against Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green.

For such a classic series to happen, the competition will have to even out so we all won’t lose interest with the waffling talking heads, who are trying to figure out which team will win by playing badly part of the time.

 

Featured image via Associated Press/Jed Jacobsohn

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