BY: Andrew Edwards
Coming down the stretch in late March and early April, it seemed like we were going to get less NBA matchups for the 2018-19 season. The narrative for the West was that the Golden State Warriors were going to coast until the finals, the Oklahoma City Thunder would find their footing and win their series easily, and the Denver Nuggets would prove everyone wrong and uphold their second seed status.
In the east, that narrative was that the Raptors would finally break their playoff curse because of the acquisition of Khawi Leonard this past offseason, and that the 76ers wouldn’t look past a lesser opponent in the Nets.
What if I told you this was all, so far, a lie? Would you believe it?
If you said yes, then you wouldn’t be getting fooled at all. This has been the perhaps the most hectic and unpredictable start to a NBA playoffs that we have seen in quite some time. It all started with the Nets upsetting the 76ers this past Saturday after a poor shooting performance by Philadelphia PG Ben Simmons. This was followed up by an absolutely incredible performance by D.J. Augustin and the Orlando Magic to take down the Raptors on a game winning three point shot. To cap that night off, the spurs went into Denver, one of the hardest places to play in the league, and took them down.
Sunday night, we saw the Trail Blazers shut down the former MVP candidate in Paul George and the OKC Thunder on their way to a 104-99 win. The most unusual out of all of these, however, might have been the Los Angeles Clippers defeating the two-time defending champion Golden State Warriors on their way to a 135-131 victory to tie the series 1-1. The pour slat in the wound, the Warriors blew a 31 point lead in this game and a 14 point lead heading into the fourth quarter. Teams with a 14 point or more lead in the fourth quarter have won 110 straight playoff games. No one saw this coming at all.
I’m not saying that all of these series will hold up. The original predictions could all still come true. As for now, however, we have a little bit more chaos than we originally predicted, and that’s perfectly fine with me.
