A little disappointed that neither of the conference finals went seven games; I thought for sure that at least Dallas-Phoenix would. Phoenix made a great run this year, and even though I wanted Dallas to win, I would've loved to see another game 7. I see Miami taking home the hardware in another great series. I think the finals is going 7, which means we would get two straight years of finals going the distance, after 10 years of not seeing that happen, since Knicks-Rockets in 1994.
Me, Danny and Ricky were talking basketball the other day and made the point that for the most part, excluding the last couple of years, the NBA playoffs haven't been very exciting since our generation started watching them. Basically, we have three years' worth of Bulls' championships, where they never went seven games in the finals, never fell behind 0-2 or 1-3, and the few game 7's they had in the Eastern conference, you never felt like they were in trouble. Throughout their whole dynasty, you always knew that MJ would pull it out. When Michael retired, the Rockets won two straight championships, and did have some exciting series (Mario Elie's buzzer beaters against the Suns, finals vs. the Knicks, Hakeem wrecking David Robinson after getting screwed in the MVP vote), but then it was back to MJ and the Bulls rolling everyone. The '99 playoffs were sweet (Knicks beating the Heat with Allan Houston's shot, which was kind of the end of the best NBA rivalry of the 90's, and also the best series I've ever watched), watching my Knicks go to the finals as an 8 seed, but not a lot of people took that year seriously because of the strike, plus everyone knew the Knicks had no chance against the Spurs, making for a boring finals. Then it was the Lakers' era, winning 3 straight and basically walking through the playoffs each year (thanks for showing up, Sixers and Nets). Not much drama there, except for the conference finals against the Blazers where they made the amazing 4th quarter comeback. Finally, the last couple years have been good. The Pistons shocked the world by dismantling the Lakers in '04, we had the finals go seven games with the Pistons and Spurs last year, and even though the style of ball wasn't the most exciting, you had the undisputed two best teams playing for the title for the first time since probably '98 with the Bulls and Jazz. Then this year, where between the Lakers-Suns (maybe the best series I have ever watched between two teams I don't care about), the Wizards-Cavs, Heat-Bulls, Suns-Clips, Cavs-Pistons, Mavs-Spurs (amazing) and Mavs-Suns, you might have the most exciting playoffs since we were old enough to follow the NBA. There's no dominant team to remind you in the back of your head that no matter how great the playoffs have been, the champion is inevitable. No Bulls, no Lakers, no Spurs, just a wide-open race. Here's hoping the finals caps it all off. I'll be watching like I do every year, but this year it will be on the edge of my seat.
