As the NBA playoffs continue on, the pool of who has the chance to win the championship has gone down to two.
Representing the Eastern Conference is the Boston Celtics, led by forward Jayson Tatum and guard Jaylen Brown. They’ve had a pretty smooth road to the NBA championship, gentleman sweeping the Miami Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round and conference semifinals respectively. Then in the Conference finals, they overpowered the Indiana Pacers with Brown winning the Larry Bird trophy, given to the MVP of the Eastern Conference.
Their opponent, the Dallas Mavericks have new age superstar Luka Dončić and old superstar and 2016 NBA finals winner Kyrie Irving. They’ve had a pretty smooth road to the championship, beating the Los Angeles Clippers and the number one seeded Oklahoma City Thunder in six. Then getting the Timberwolves in 5.
There have been many great moments in the playoffs such as Pacers’ forward Obi Toppins through the legs dunk against the Knicks in the conference semi finals or one of Timberwolves’ guard Anthony Edwards’ many dunks. A moment that stood out though was Brown’s clutch 3 in the first game of the Eastern Conference Finals.
“For me I thought that the play was cool because of how perfectly timed it was,” sophomore David Lunar said. “I feel like it set the tone for the series and just showed how impressive the Celtics are.”
There have been many impactful players in this year’s playoffs. Dončić, Nikola Jokić, Tatum, Jaylen Brunson and many others. There has been one player though that has really been on a whole different level compared to his peers and stepped up big time in the playoffs.
“My personal MVP of the playoffs is Anthony Edwards,” Lunar said. “It’s hard for me to say being a Mavericks fan and a big Luka fan but Anthony Edwards has just been different this year. I just love the energy he brings to the court and how he’s just been on something different and he’s really turning into a superstar.”
There were a total of three sweeps in the playoffs this year. The Oklahoma City Thunder took down the New Orleans Pelicans, Minnesota Timberwolves took down the Phoenix Suns and then the Boston Celtics eliminated the Indiana Pacers in the Conference finals. Although those were all impressive, one really takes the cake.
“The way that the Celtics beat the Pacers was impressive,” freshman Noah Hergert said. “The Pacers were a really strong team with players like Tyrese Haliburton and Myles Turner, but the Celtics made them look like a bunch of chumps.”
The playoffs are known as a time for players to step up and make a name for themselves and create a legacy. Sadly some players weren’t able to and made a bad impression on their careers.
“I had high expectations for Jamal Murray this year and he didn’t meet them for me and for a lot of people,” Hergert said. “People always knew him as a top tier playoff performer but he kind of just sputtered out.”
Both the Celtics and the Mavericks have great amounts of star power backed up with solid depth players. With Luka being a top three player in the league and then Tatum and Brown arguably being top ten players in the league, the series is certainly seeming to come out as a good one.
With both teams being in playoff contention for the past few years, but never being able to make it over the hump, the series should be filled with ambition for a ring.
“Although it would be great and very memorable if Luka was able to carry his team to a ring, I can’t see anyone but the Celtics winning,” junior Alex Dynek said. “The duo of Tatum and Brown are going to have to win a championship sooner or later and I feel like this is their year.”
