Eight teams are still alive — including five with zero titles between them — and none of us has a clue what’s going to happen from here.
Is it possible this is the wildest, strangest, most wide-open NBA postseason since before Larry Bird’s Celtics vs. Magic Johnson’s Lakers was a thing? Look, just bear with us here. The last decade was nothing but LeBron James and/or Stephen Curry in the Finals. Before that, you had Kobe Bryant’s Lakers and the Celtics’ Big Three. Before that, the heart of the Spurs’ dynasty. Before that, the Kobe-Shaq Lakers three-peat. Before that, a little something we like to call six Bulls championships. Before that, the Pistons’ heyday. We’re back in the 1980s now, folks. And just look at who’s still alive this year. The 76ers are aiming for their first title since 1983. The Bucks are trying to win it all for the first time since five weeks before Lew Alcindor changed his name in 1971. The Hawks haven’t pulled it off since 1958, a decade before they moved from St. Louis to Atlanta. The other five quarterfinalists — Nets, Jazz, Suns, Clippers and Nuggets — have a grand total of zero NBA championships. Sorry, Nets, but your ABA crowns in 1974 and 1976 don’t count. Sheesh, you were still known as the New York Nets back then. And though the Nets entered these playoffs as the favorites, they watched superstar James Harden walk off the court in the second-round opener with a hamstring injury. How long will he be out? And will he be able to stick around if and when he comes back? Eight teams left in the NBA playoffs, and none of us has a clue what’s coming.
