The NBA playoffs are heating up, as the 16 best teams in the NBA are battling to hoist the Larry O’Brien trophy.
Students and staff at Prospect are following the playoffs closely and have some favorites and predictions for how things are going to go down.
“I would say it’s where your name is etched in history and where your reputation is made,” religious studies and basketball coach John Camardella said.
According to ESPN, the opening weekend amassed over 35 million viewers, which is the highest in 15 years for the NBA.
However, the postseason NBA after the playoffs is just different basketball.
“In the playoffs, it’s win or go home,” Bulls legend Scottie Pippen said in 2011. “You might not have a chance to look back at a game and say, ’Man, we didn’t box out here.’”
The pace of the game is different, too. According to Sportico, “In all but two seasons since 1980, there were fewer possessions per game in the playoffs than in the regular season,” which means less bad quick shots and more working the shot clock.
According to Sportico, the slower pace leads to more possessions where the offense clears out one side of the court for a top scorer to go one-on-one, known as an isolation. Isolation possessions increase from 6.8% in the regular season to 10% in the playoffs.
This is because after two or three games the other teams may know what plays you run and what kind of offense sets, so many teams just put the ball in their best scorer’s hand.
Camardella expects the coaching adjustments to include “benches get shorter,” with starters playing more minutes, like the top-seeded Bulls back in 2013 where they put the ball in the hands of scorers like Derrick Rose. The 2024 Knicks also ran a short bench.
With key players like Og Anunoby, Julius Randle and Mitchell Robinson all hurt, head coach Tom Thibodeau played guys like Donte Divencenzo, Josh Hart and Jalen Brunson nearly every minute.
This year, players such as Amen Thompson are playing up to 44 minutes per game on average in the playoffs, and players like Cade Cunnigham and Jabari Smith are playing upwards of 40 of the 48 minutes in a game for 4-7 games.
At the start of the playoffs, the odds-on favorite to win it all was the Oklahoma City Thunder and right behind them was the Spurs and Celtics, although the Celtics lost in an upset in the first round to Philadelphia.
The Thunder, the reigning NBA champs, are favored to repeat after a stellar season by star guard Shai Gilgeous Alexander, known as SGA, and an all-star level starting five from top to bottom with SGA, Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren, Lu Dort and Isaiah Hartstein. The Thunder are top five in offensive PPG (122.8), field goal percentage (48.7%), and point differential (+17.2).
”Thunder, Cavs, Nuggets, and Celtics are [probably] the favorites, just because all those teams can play defense and they all have at least one or even two superstars,” freshman Connor Bondora said in an interview during the first round.
Freshman Nemo Rodriguez is going with the defending champs.
”My biggest threat to win it all would probably be the Oklahoma City Thunder,” he said. While repeating as champs might seem impossible, they sound like a strong team on paper, and they have the reigning MVP, SGA.
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