The 2015 NBA Playoffs are becoming a blur, in which one game feels strangely like another.
They’re also becoming a volatile postseason journey unlike anything since the late 1970s.
There are so many things to say about these playoffs, now that four lower seeds have gained 2-1 leads over higher seeds in the second round. Even if you read this piece after a possible Cleveland win over Chicago on Sunday afternoon, the reality of a chaotic postseason has been firmly established. Everything feels up in the air… because it is.
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We were spoiled — or if not spoiled, led to expect relentless consistency — by the 35 years that have preceded the 2015 playoffs.
The Sixers, Celtics and Lakers in the 1980s, with an occasional sprinkle of Rockets and the late-stage emergence of the Bad Boy Detroit Pistons.
The Bulls of the 1990s, against a formidable but inferior array of Western Conference champions, especially those from Phoenix and Utah.
The Lakers, Spurs and Heat of the 21st century, with Kobe, Duncan or Wade making 16 straight NBA Finals, a streak that will end this year.
The NBA has become a familiar kind of league, one in which we’re used to seeing the same stories and the same NBA Finals protagonists. Once the San Antonio Spurs were knocked out of the first round (oh, how they must be smarting right now, seeing so many unproven teams wobble under the weight of expectations…), we knew there would be a new NBA champion. We also knew there was a strong likelihood of seeing both a Finals matchup and an ultimate champion which had not emerged in a very long time, if ever.
Only now, though — after four Game 3s of 1-1 series claimed by the lower-seeded team — is it beginning to become apparent just how fluid these new playoffs look like.
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Two lower seeds in the Eastern Conference used improbable straight-on bank shots, not the more sensible wing banks used by Tim Duncan, to score buzzer-beating Game 3 wins over the weekend. In the West, Memphis and the Los Angeles Clippers controlled Game 3s, but the Grizzlies had to sweat out the final minutes against Golden State, while the Clippers pulled away from Houston.
As you continue to link — and separate — these four conference semifinals, you’ll find more cross-matches and separations. Washington and Memphis faltered but did manage to hang on in their Game 3s. Conversely, Atlanta and Golden State — though in huge trouble entering Game 4 — can at least say that they awakened late in each Game 3, the possible source of a sorely-needed jump-start to seasons that are on the verge of ugly flameouts.
Memphis and the Clippers are playing with point guards who are well below 100 percent of their physical capacities, yet are receiving inspired performances from role players such as Kosta Koufos and Courtney Lee, or J.J. Redick and Austin Rivers.
Washington is getting the best of Otto Porter to offset the absence of John Wall. Chicago coach Tom Thibodeau’s willingness to give Nikola Mirotic more minutes — chronicled by staff writer Bryan Gibberman here — was a welcome consequence of adjusted circumstances for the Bulls, and with Pau Gasol injured, it could become the very thing which gives Chicago a way forward against Cleveland.
On the losing side of the divide, Stephen Curry of Golden State and Kyle Korver of Atlanta just can’t shoot threes right now, serving as the most prominent individual manifestations of team-wide jump-shooting woes. Cleveland and Houston are linked in that they are finding out how much they miss Kevin Love and Patrick Beverley, players who filled very essential roles for each ballclub. They are also similar in that star scorers Kyrie Irving and James Harden are not defending well enough to get the job done.
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What do these new playoffs look like? Beyond the injuries and the bank shots — beyond Paul Millsap and Kyrie just not looking right, or D-Rose and Paul Pierce kissing in game-winning shots — we’ve seen a lot of individual snapshots that explain the up-for-grabs nature of this postseason, as well as the struggles of the teams that are in trouble.
The new and unfamiliar nature of these playoffs was never more apparent than in the final minute of Hawks-Wizards Game 3 on Saturday, when Will Bynum and Mike Muscala became central figures in the drama. The injury to John Wall and the spectacular ineffectiveness of Jeff Teague have turned the Atlanta-Washington series into a theater of the obscure on the big stage.
The crisis faced by Golden State is far more than just a shooting problem. The Warriors are coughing up the ball nearly 20 times a game, a problem shown most clearly when Draymond Green tries to dribble into traffic. Draymond and Blake Griffin both showed in Game 3s over the weekend that they need to give the ball to point guards instead of trying to make open-court plays on the dribble.
Houston and Atlanta looked very much like the same team in Game 3s over the weekend, until the fourth quarters, when the two teams cut in very different directions (yet still shared the ultimate disappointment of a loss). Both the Rockets and the Hawks were badly beaten at the defensive end of the floor, lagging way behind on screens and cuts. For all the ways in which Houston and Atlanta can improve at the offensive end, their defensive struggles cost them the most in Game 3.
Cleveland and Golden State are finding moments of inspiration from role players such as J.R. Smith, Matthew Dellavedova (Cavs) and Harrison Barnes (Warriors), but both teams would love to see their MVP-level players, LeBron James and Stephen Curry, find their shooting touch on three-point attempts. That one breakthrough, if achieved, would do so much to not only improve confidence throughout each roster, but space the floor at the offensive end.
We said at the beginning of this piece that the 2015 NBA Playoffs are becoming a blur.
Try to keep track of the similarities and the differences, before one of the best scenarios in professional sports emerges four separate times:
My favorite game in any series is when the underdog is up 2-1 playing Game 4 at home. Getting four of those this round.
— Mike Prada. (PRAY-duh) (@MikePradaNBA) May 10, 2015
