Good game last night in Cleveland as the defending champ Celtics reminded all of us why they’re still the team to beat this spring in the NBA Playoffs.
The Celtics are starting to get that look of a team focusing in on the goal achieving arc of what it takes to repeat in the very challenging landscape in the NBA Collective Bargaining Era. It’s tough to repeat. Only the Kansas City Chiefs currently have had success in this regard amongst our four major sports leagues.
The Thunder play tonight and OKC is currently the No. 1 seed overall in the NBA. OKC…39-9, Cleveland, 40-10, and Boston 36-15.
My odds right now go…1 Boston, 2 OKC, and 3 Cleveland. If OKC were to meet Boston in the NBA Finals with homecourt, I’d probably be picking OKC to win in seven games. If OKC were to play Cleveland…I’d probably take the Thunder in six games.
So while the Thunder probably aren’t going to be able to pull off the 70-12 feat, I think it would be a fairly substantial accomplishment to have homecourt throughout the playoffs.
On the 70 win deal…the Thunder still have mathmatical chance. They would have to reel off a 31-3 to reach that incredible goal in the era of load management.
But, hey…they’ve got a chance and Shai shouldn’t be sitting because he’ll be dueling with Nicola for the MVP.
So…there’s a lot of interest in these final 34 games for NBA people like me to keep a close eye on the Thunder.
The Luka-Anthony Davis trade? I don’t know yet. I want to see if Dallas or the Lakers make anymore moves on the trade deadline before I cement my view on the trade. I want to see LA’s final roster as pertaining to the center position after tomorrow. Dallas should be a contender if AD plays as he should. I think for me the emergence of PJ Washington as a star and the addition of Max Christie make me think Dallas got the better of the deal for this season. But let’s see what happens tomorrow.
Closing…if I were Adam Silver… I would have fined the Milwaukee Bucks at a minimum $100,000 for that bullshit team they put on the floor in Oklahoma City the other night. What an insult to the overall integrity of an NBA regular season game which was a rematch of the Emirates NBA Cup Finals in December.
Pathetic.
Have a nice evening.
Mike J