What Happened to The NBA Playoffs?
Do you have any clue what is wrong with this photo of Stan Van Gundy? It is the playoffs and he is not pacing nervously, sweating profusely or looking dejected.
What kind of NBA playoffs are we currently being subjected to? The Magic-Hawks series should be under the word dismantling, blowout, or complete annihilation in the dictionary. They won each game by an average of 25 points...25! If you would call that series entertaining to anyone but the Orlando faithful, then I would call Betty White downright sexy.
Shuffle down the road a few time zones and the San Antonio Spurs are busy being swept by a team whose number they have had for the past decade. The Suns have been the proverbial whipping boy of San Antonio for years, and yet they dispatched of them in four, nearly uneventful games.
The main thing extracted from the San Antonio-Phoenix series is that the Suns have the ability to climb out of a hole, albeit against an aging, tired-looking Spurs team. The Suns were down early, but most of the time the drama was over by the end of the third, and the only thing left was for the Suns to hold off the Spurs.
Take a drive up north and you have a Lakers team currently putting the shakedown on the Jazz. They have played a few rather close games, and have been fun to watch, but it seems like the games have followed the same old, Laker winning script.
The Laker-Jazz series did feature a buzzer beater, and possibly the most entertaining game of this round, but it has not featured any instant classics or jaw-dropping performances (possibly with the only one in this round being the Rajon Rondo triple-double game).
The Cavs and Celtics have not played a game in which they are on the same page. The game has either displayed the Cavs playing embarrassingly bad or the Celtics stumbling over themselves to keep up with the Cavs (once again with Rondo as the exception, who always seems to be in every play).
The first game did feature entertaining basketball, but since, the two teams have either shot the lights out, or been completely anemic, each on different occasions.
This is, of course, is in contrast to one of the greatest Stanley Cup Playoffs I have ever witnessed. The Canucks are forcing the Blackhawks to take them seriously, Philly is somehow pulling out wins after being down 3-0 to the Bruins, and the Habs and Pens are playing classic game after classic game, creating one of the best series' of playoff hockey in recent memory.
I have found myself on many nights switching from TNT to Versus to watch Sid the Kid or Patrick Kane instead of Kobe Bryant or Steve Nash.
On paper this should have been an extremely exciting round of basketball. All of the teams had the potential to win their respective series and even the ability to go on to the NBA Finals, but for some reason, the perfect storm of dull has hit and we have been left with what we have.
Not one ESPN Expert predicted a sweep in Orlando. Not one predicted a sweep in Phoenix. Not one predicted a sweep in Los Angeles. This should not have happened, and I'm sure that David Stern is cursing every blowout marked with a non-sweat-stained suit from Stan Van Gundy.
Hopefully the Cavs and Celts will pull it together at the same time and have a few great games before that series is over. And, as I type, the Jazz are rallying in Utah, so maybe I have jinxed the dull out of the playoffs. Here's hoping I have.
