One of the most boring playoffs ever hosted by the NBA has come to an end, and by the end only Celtics fans were still watching. For the second year in a row, the NBA finals lasted only five games, and most of those games were not interesting (home teams listed first):
06/06/24: Boston 107 - 89 Dallas
06/09/24: Boston 105 - 98 Dallas
06/12/24: Dallas 99 - 106 Boston
06/14/24: Dallas 122 - 84 Boston
06/17/24: Boston 106 - 88 Dallas
Remarkably, it has now been eight seasons since the last Game Seven in the NBA Finals. This year, Boston did not even play a Game Six. Over four rounds of the playoffs, the Celtics went 16-3 to capture their second title of the post-Larry Bird era. That has to be one of the most dominant performances of all time. But of course, last year Denver went 16-4, and this year the Nuggets couldn't make the Conference Final. So it's too early to judge how great the Celtics really are.
Since COVID hit, we have had five different NBA Champions:
2020: L.A. Lakers
2021: Milwaukee
2022: Golden St.
2023: Denver
2024: Boston
I don't think we've seen anything like this since the late 1970's:
1975: Golden St.
1976: Boston
1977: Portland
1978: Washington
1979: Seattle
1980: L.A. Lakers
Of course, that 1980 Lakers team marked the beginning of something new. All we can do now is wait until next year to see if the Celtics (or the Nuggets) are more than just one-hit wonders.
The whole playoffs were awful. I hope the Wizards get Reed Sheppard.
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