I know I’ve been talking about the NBA playoffs a lot, but can you blame me?
Think about it Lebron James is one of the greatest players ever in the game (some may argue that, but I doubt many would) and he has the defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers humming along with six straight wins so far in this postseason.
King James just passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the All-Time NBA post-season scoring list and is only 211 points behind Michael Jordan (who is the NBA All-time leading scorer in the playoffs). By the way, Michael Jordan scored 5,987 points in his career in the playoffs and Lebron is now sitting behind “MJ” with 5,777 Points. That is just one of the many records James has already set this postseason and we are only in the semi-final round.
If the performance of the Lebron and the Cavs isn’t enough to convince you that this NBA postseason has been “FAN”- tastic, How about the performances of Russell Westbrook? The new “Triple-Double King” was fantastic in the opening round of the playoffs while trying to keep the Oklahoma City alive. Westbrook averaged 37 points 11 rebounds and 10 assists in the five games the Thunder played against Houston, before “The Beard” and the Rockets eliminated OKC 4 games to 1.
Speaking of “The Beard”, How about James Harden and Trevor Ariza leading the Houston Rockets in a 27 point blowout of the San Antonio Spurs in game one of their Western Conference Semi-final. It had to be exciting watching the Rockets convert 22 three-point buckets and beating the Spurs by that many points on San Antonios’ home court. That was not supposed to happen as the Spurs quickly proved by winning game two of the series with game three being played tonight in Houston.
Do you need more to help you with how you would rate this season’s NBA Playoffs? How about the upstart Milwaukee Bucks led by former player and now head coach Jason Kidd giving the Toronto Raptors (the third seed in the Eastern Conference) a hard way to go before bowing out of the playoffs 4 games to 2 in the first round. Milwaukee big man Giannis Antetokounmpo aka “The Greek Freak” averaged 24 points per game for Kidd and the Bucks not to mention added some exciting dunks during that six-game series.
And if that isn’t enough for you to give this years’ NBA Playoffs a rating of approval. The story of Isaiah Thomas and how has dealt with the death of his sister just before the Playoffs began has tugged at everyone’s heartstrings. The Boston point guards younger sister was killed in an auto accident 24 hours before the Celtics first playoff game in round one. Thomas in dealing while trying to get a handle on the horrible news decided to play and played well dropping in 33 points in that win over the Chicago Bulls. Thomas and the Celtics went on to win that first round series and while still dealing with his sisters passing Isaiah and the Celtics are now lead the Washington Wizards in their NBA Eastern Conference Semi-final two games to one with game four scheduled for Sunday in D.C.
Now there are many other performances I did not mention like the Grizzlies giving the San Antonio Spurs a hard time in round one and the Utah Jazz upsetting the L.A. Clippers in seven games to advance to their Western Conference Semifinal meeting with the Golden State Warriors. As a matter of fact, I have not even mentioned Steph Curry and the Warriors, but the playoffs are not even close to being over.
If you ask me the NBA playoffs so far this postseason get an A plus, But then again I’m an NBA fan.
Trevin A Jones
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