It’s crazy how quickly and how often narratives can change with the benefit of only a few days’ distance.Before the conference semifinals began, this article was meant to be a look into the Bucks-Nets series, in anticipation of a heavy-hitter matchup that appeared to be a de facto NBA finals matchup… And then Brooklyn absolutely crushed the first two games and I decided to change the theme to discuss Brooklyn’s guaranteed championship… And now I don’t know what to think. So, I’ll take you back in time to look through some of the things I had written before the series started, after the Nets went up 2-0, and finish with my thoughts now that the series is tied at 3-3.
“Whenever a team or a player has never made it to the mountaintop before, people get skeptical real quick. After two straight disappointing playoff losses, Giannis and the Bucks were a team that nobody cared about in the regular season. Even worse, they headed into a first round matchup against a Miami team that embarrassed them in the bubble last season. Lots of people were pushing the underdog Miami pick in this series, assuming that history would repeat itself. Fortunately for the Bucks, things were not the same. The Jrue Holiday piece (not surprisingly) turned out to be an incredible upgrade over Eric Bledsoe. Coupled with a stifling Milwaukee defense and a Miami offense that had nothing to speak of, the series ended in a decisive sweep.
The Bucks looked really, really good in this series. It can be hard to judge a series sometimes when the opponent isn’t very good, but it was just obvious that the defense of players like Giannis and Holiday, in particular, in combination with great team defensive principles and the size of the roster, made them a formidable contender.
The first round series for the Nets didn’t really mean much. It’s hard to imagine that a single soul would’ve picked an injured Celtics squad to win any games, much less drag the series to five games like they did.
In the regular season, the Nets’ big three of Harden, Kyrie and Durant played less than 10 games together. Blake Griffin could barely move in Detroit before he was bought out. Even though everyone expected them to win against the Celtics, there is just no precedent for a team that has played together as little as this Brooklyn team to actually stay healthy and figure it out in the playoffs. After an entire season of these dudes being injured, do we just expect them to be fully healthy as the playoffs continue?
With this being said, when they are healthy, this Nets team has the greatest trio of offensive talent the league has ever seen, and has the potential to be absolutely dominant in every single game.
What I am trying to say here is that these two teams are the best teams remaining in the playoffs this year, and this means that this second round matchup in the Eastern Conference is actually the NBA finals. It is more than likely that these two teams will be duking it out for the right to win the championship.”
After the Nets went up 2-0:
“It’s currently the conference semifinals, aka the second round, of the NBA playoffs. At this point, not only are we potentially watching the finals matchup already, but we may actually be watching a team win the NBA championship in the second round.
It seems as if the Brooklyn Nets will sleepwalk into a championship, leaving a highly anticipated series against the Milwaukee Bucks in the dust.
This was supposed to be an incredible matchup. As scared as people were of the Nets and their big three, watching the Bucks destroy Miami in the first round made it seem like Milwaukee had a real chance to grind out a series against Brooklyn and make it to the finals.
It became even more interesting in the first few minutes of Game 1 when Harden got injured and the Bucks’ size looked unstoppable. By the way, it shouldn’t be shocking that Harden got injured in that first game, simply because he hasn’t been in shape all year.
So with this being said, it really felt like the second round matchup between these two teams was a toss up.
And then the Nets dominated the first two games, and for anybody who hadn’t already, it was time to face a reality: this series is the NBA finals, and the Brooklyn Nets might win the championship in the second round.”
Am I exposing myself for being guilty of overreacting by doing this? Indeed I am. But the point is this: When healthy, it is painfully obvious that the Brooklyn Nets are the better team, yet the series is now tied 3-3. And through all of this, my main ideas before this series, and really before the playoffs even started, still hold. The first is that I still believe this may be the NBA finals. Despite the, at times, perplexing and ugly Milwaukee offense at the end of games, their stifling defense in conjunction with their top pieces (assuming Holiday can play a little better) means that if they can perform exceptionally well this series, they can still make it through an untrustworthy 76ers (or Atlanta) team and through to the finals.
Thinking about the Western Conference--Clippers, Suns, Jazz--as weird as it is, one of those teams is going to be in the NBA finals (Sorry Denver fans). All three teams are pretty good but none of those teams were also overwhelming favorites at any time. The Jazz were a somewhat uninspiring number one seed, and who even knows what to think about a Clippers team that nearly choked in the first round. Even the Phoenix Suns, who actually look scary and are poised to make a real run at a title, in reality would probably not have made it out of the first round had it not been for Anthony Davis’ injury. None of these teams are absolute juggernauts, and none of them are likely favored to beat either a healthy Nets or Bucks squad.
The second point that I had felt passionately about during the regular season is about the health of the Nets. The big three have basically never played together, and there was always at least somebody that wasn’t playing on any given night. Kevin Durant couldn’t put together 10 straight games, Harden was getting injured and was out of shape, and Kyrie Irving was straight up just missing games because he felt like it. Why on Earth were people assuming that on day one of playoff basketball that everybody would just be ready? I just felt like that isn’t how it works, and it is not shocking to me that both Harden and Kyrie have gotten injured now in the second round, completely turning around the series.
The scary part was watching those first two games in this series and realizing that the Nets might be able to just coast to a title, even without all their players. It was scary because it would mean that a team that barely even tried to play together in a regular season just knew they would be better than everybody else, and would just win--rewriting and potentially altering how teams approach the regular season, and threatening to ruin the NBA regular season for good.
But who knows now? With both Harden and Kyrie out, the Bucks just have to win two out of the next three games. Maybe this will be an unlucky year for Steve Nash and the Nets, and will give fans some hope that the regular season still matters. Maybe Kevin Durant will be so good that he carries them through the series by himself regardless of who else is on the floor. After these two rounds, it is hard to pinpoint what the Milwaukee Bucks are. Sometimes they look like a team that doesn’t deserve to win at all, and is banging their head on the ceiling of a superstar in Giannis that can’t contribute in crunch time. No matter what, it has become clear that these playoffs are just an extension of what has been a really weird season in totality.
