Jude Magnotti ‘26
EE Sports Columnist
The NBA playoffs are officially in full swing. With most game twos over as of when I am writing this article, we have a good picture on how each round 1 playoff series will go.
Starting in the Western Conference, we have what I believe will be the most exciting series of the first round: Clippers vs Suns.
The Suns, as you probably know, possesses young star Devin Booker as well as top 15 player of all time Kevin Durant. The Clippers on the other hand have another two all-time greats in Kawai Leonard and Russel Westbrook with all-star Paul George on injured reserve currently. Game one between these powerhouse teams was a nail biter, but eventually the Clips pulled ahead and were able to seal the win.
Now, as of writing this, the Suns have taken game 2 in convincing fashion and the series is knotted up at 1-1. The most interesting thing about this series is the amount of all-time great players. Especially the greats that are under immense pressure to win a championship such as Westbrook, Chris Paul, and Kevin Durant. All these stars in one first round series is what every NBA matchup needs!
Every player is playing their absolute hardest and stars are leaving nothing on the table. Another interesting dynamic in this series is the matchup between KD and “Westbrick” (Westbrook). The two were once teammates and friends on a budding contender, the OKC Thunder. However, after KD left to join the Warriors, Russ has never forgiven him and is clearly going at KD as much as he can.
In addition to the Clips-Suns series, there are other interesting ones as well. The Kings are currently up 2-0 on the defending champs the Warriors. It is still possible for the Warriors to come back but whether they do or not I believe that this playoff run will mark the end of an era for Golden State.
The Kings, on the other hand, are under immense pressure to win in the playoffs. After all, they just ended the longest playoff drought in modern sports history, so Kings fans are starved for some winning. Luckily for them, this up-and-coming team led by Clutch Player Of The Year De’aaron Fox has already proven themselves as playoff worthy and are poised to make some noise within the next few years.
Then, of course, we have the Lakers and the Grizzlies battling it out. LeBron James is still under pressure to win, and lucky for him things might just have worked out.
During the last five minutes of the Lakers-Grizzlies game 1, Grizzlies star point guard Ja Morant went out with a hand injury. It is possible that he might be out for the rest of the series, and Memphis can not afford to let that happen. Without Morant they would have no star power to match the Lakers and would lose. The fate of their team will all come down to Morant’s health.
Finally we have Timberwolves-Nuggets: Nikola Jokic is coming off another MVP-caliber season and is under pressure to prove his worth in the playoffs (as it seems like everybody is!). The Joker’s offense is without a doubt special. However, major questions have risen about his defense the past few months.
He is not a very good rim protector and is frequently burnt by guards on the perimeter. Now, fortunately for them, the Timberwolves will most likely be an easy sweep but Jokic’s defense will start to come more and more into question as the playoffs continue.
Traveling to the East, we start with another great matchup in Knicks-Cavs. While I do not believe that the east playoffs are as exciting as the West, this year there are still some great matchups. One of them is between the young Donovan Mitchell led Cavs and the Jalen Brunson led Knicks.
New York is another team under significant pressure to gain success as they lack even a conference finals appearance in the last 20 years.
Meanwhile the Cleveland Cavaliers have seemingly come out of nowhere. With two of the best rim protectors in the league with Jarret Allen and Evan Mobley, Cleveland had by far the best defense in the league this year. Combine this with the offensive duo of Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland and you get an unexperienced, yet very dangerous team.
The Cavs have been trying to rebuild since LeBron’s departure and it happened a lot quicker than even they might have thought. The series is currently tied 1-1, but I have a feeling that a power shift will happen very soon.
Either way, it will be awesome to bring the playoffs back to Madison Square garden and I believe these two will play some of the best games in this postseason.
We then have the Sixers vs the Nets. The Nets are in an extremely awkward position after trading away their two stars Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant mid season, yet somehow they find themselves still in the playoffs facing a Joel Embiid Sixers team. Mikal Bridges has been excellent, however, down 2-0 the Nets will most likely go down in 5 or a sweep.
Joel Embiid is simply unstoppable and both the Sixers and the Nets know it. However, Nets have slightly recovered from their recent trades and I believe that they have a bright future ahead of them.
Then we have the Celtics and Hawks. I don’t even need to sugarcoat this for you, there is no way in all of basketball that the Hawks are winning this series. Frankly, I would be shocked if they won a game. The Jayson Tatum Celtics led are just too good and Atlanta is a hot mess. That’s all I have to say about this series.
Last but not least is a series that has become more interesting than I anticipated: Heat vs Bucks. This should be a very quick series, but due to the injury of Giannis Antetokounmpo things are not looking great for the Bucks. We do not have a time-table on Giannis’s injury yet but if he’s out for the series the Bucks season could be over before it even starts.
The Bucks have been plagued by injuries all season yet still found a way to be the 1 seed. While the Bucks still will probably win without Giannis, the Heat could give them a serious run for their money and the Bucks could go into complete panic mode. All we can do is wait on Giannis’ injury and see how the series plays out.
Well, the matchups in the playoffs this year are certainly exciting. There are so many players who have something major to lose this season and all of them will be playing as hard as they can to win. Whether it is Jokic trying to bolster his MVP campaign or KD trying to win a ring without Steph Curry, we NBA fans are in for one hell of a ride.