The best time
of the NBA season is here. The playoffs have arrived, the 16-team
field that will vie for the Larry O’Brien Trophy is set, and here
are 10 storylines to watch along the way:
HOME
DROUGHTS
A pair of long
droughts for fans in Los Angeles and New York could end in the next
few days.
The last time
the Los Angeles Lakers won a playoff game in their own building,
Staples Center, was May 18, 2012. (Remember, everything last season
was at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.)
Let’s put how
long ago May 2012 was in some context: At that point, LeBron James
still had zero NBA championships, and the Lakers’ win that day was
against an Oklahoma City team that had Kevin Durant, Russell
Westbrook and James Harden.
And it has been
more than six years — since April 27, 2015 — since a home team won
a playoff game in New York. The Brooklyn Nets beat Atlanta that
day; the Nets haven’t won a home postseason contest since. The New
York Knicks open at home Saturday, against Atlanta, in their first
playoff game since 2013.
PLAYOFF
POOL
This season’s
NBA playoff pool is just over $20.8 million, down about 10.6% from
last year.
All 16 playoff
teams are guaranteed a piece of that pool, with the No. 7 and No. 8
seeds getting at least $310,745 just for making the first
round.
The Utah Jazz
have already secured no less than $1,436,750 — some of that for
finishing with the NBA’s best record, some more for winning the
West’s No. 1 seed. If the Jazz win the NBA title, they would wind
up with $6,104,876, or roughly 30% of the pool.
The Los Angeles
Lakers received $6,156,251 for winning last year’s title.
This is the
fourth consecutive season in which the pool will be at least $20
million.
LEBRON’S RECORDS
Lakers star
LeBron James enters these playoffs as the NBA’s all-time leader in
minutes, games, points, shots taken, shots made, free throws taken,
free throws made, steals and 3-point attempts. He’s second in 3’s
made with 414, which trails only Golden State’s Stephen Curry by
56.
That all said,
there are few records still within his short-term reach.
If the Lakers
make a deep run, he could catch San Antonio’s Tim Duncan for most
defensive rebounds; Duncan grabbed 2,081, James is up to 1,954.
There is one
milestone he could realistically hit. James is 142 points away from
43,000 for his career when combining both regular-season and
playoff games. Only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (44,149) has more.
EXPECT
FIREWORKS
Word to the
wise: Don’t look at the score of a Denver-Portland game after three
quarters and say “this one’s over.”
It might not be
the case.
The Nuggets and
Trail Blazers were two of the league’s best teams at engineering
fourth-quarter rallies this season. Denver won an NBA-high 13 games
when it wasn’t leading going into the final quarter; Portland won
12 such games, tied with Washington for second-most in the
league.
On the flip
side, the No. 1 seeds in these playoffs got there because they knew
how to finish games. Utah was a league-best 45-2 when leading after
three quarters, and Philadelphia was No. 2 in the NBA in that
department — going 39-3 in those situations.
DOC
WATCH
Philadelphia
coach Doc Rivers has some playoff milestones in sight.
He’s nine wins
shy of becoming the fifth coach in NBA history with 100 postseason
victories, joining Phil Jackson (229), Pat Riley (171), Gregg
Popovich (170) and Larry Brown (100). Red Auerbach (99) is
currently fifth on the list, Jerry Sloan (98) is sixth, Rivers (91)
is seventh and Miami’s Erik Spoelstra (85) is eighth.
Rivers has
coached in 180 playoff games, seventh-most all time and is within
reach of No. 6 George Karl (185), fifth-place Brown (193) and
fourth-place Sloan (202).
NOTHING
TO LOSE
Washington got
into the playoffs with a 34-38 regular season record, making the
Wizards the fourth team in the last two seasons — and the 47th team
since the league went to the 16-team playoff format in 1984 — to
reach the postseason despite finishing below .500.
Now comes the
tough part.
Only one of
those previous 46 teams in this format has won a playoff series;
the 1987 Seattle SuperSonics won two to reach the 1987 Western
Conference finals.
Since that
season, sub-.500 teams are 0-29 in first-round matchups. The
eighth-seeded Wizards meet No. 1 Philadelphia.
PICK
SIX
Here’s the
division winners this season: Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Atlanta,
Phoenix, Dallas and Utah.
History says
one of those six teams will win the NBA title.
Starting with
2012, every team to make the NBA Finals has done so after winning a
division championship. The 2011 Dallas Mavericks were the most
recent team not to win its division but make the finals; they won
the title that season.
BLOWOUT
REMEMBERED
Dallas beat the
Los Angeles Clippers by 51 points on Dec. 27, final score that day
124-73 in the third game of the season for both clubs, and now the
teams are about to meet in the first round of the Western
Conference playoffs.
It’s a unique
reunion.
The last time
two teams who had a game decided by 50 or more points wound up
meeting in that season’s playoffs was 34 years ago. Seattle beat
Houston in the 1987 Western Conference semifinals, five months
after the SuperSonics beat the Rockets 136-80 in a regular season
contest.
Blowouts seem
to be a bit of a trend in Dallas-Clippers games. The most one-sided
game in the playoffs last season was the Clippers beating the
Mavericks by 43 points, 154-111.
HELLO,
FINALLY
Washington’s
Alex Len has appeared in 531 regular-season games. New York
teammates Elfrid Payton and Julius Randle have played in 450 and
446, respectively.
None has ever
appeared in a playoff game. That all should change this
weekend.
Among active
players, they were the three in the NBA with the most games played
without a postseason appearance. Once they all get into a game —
Washington faces Philadelphia, while New York faces Atlanta in
Round 1 — the active player with the most appearances and no
playoff minutes will be Chicago’s Zach LaVine. He’s played in 411
games so far, all of them regular season.
AND
HELLO, MAYBE?
Phoenix’s Chris
Paul has played in 109 playoff games, but still has never been to
the NBA Finals.
He’s
approaching the record in that department.
Only five
players in NBA history — Al Horford (124), Joe Johnson (120), Paul
Millsap (120), Steve Nash (120) and Terry Cummings (110) — have
been in more postseason games without ever getting to the NBA
Finals.
Nash might get
there this year; he’s the coach of the East No. 2-seeded Brooklyn
Nets. Paul and the Suns also figure to have a real chance, since
they’re seeded No. 2 in the West for these playoffs.
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