Now we are getting down to the real nitty-gritty part of the playoffs. The first rounds went pretty much as expected as the match-ups were fairly one sided to begin with, not so for the second round. Now we get to the cream of the crop. Now there are only 8 teams left in competition for the 2019 NBA Championship.
The Houston Rockets found that out right away as they were beaten on the road by the number one seeded Golden State Warriors, even though the Rockets outscored the Warriors by 3 points in the final period. Both James Harden and Kevin Durant scored 35 points during the contest.
Golden State did have a bit of a rough go against Doc Rivers’ LA Clippers taking them all the way to game six before moving on after a see-saw series. Finally it took Kevin Durant scoring 50 points to defeat the Clippers in the final game against the Warrior’s in-state rivals.
The Milwaukee Bucks whipped the Detroit Pistons handily in a four game sweep that left them among the top contenders after the first round. They came into game one of the second round on their home court and full of confidence, only to be defeated by a determined Boston Celtics team which beat the favored Bucks by 22 points, 112 to 90. The Celtics swept four straight from the Indiana Pacers to take round one.
The Toronto Raptors lost to the Orlando Magic at home for the opening game of the first round. Then the Raptors turned it around and won the next four games straight to take round one and move on to meet Ben Simmons and the Philadelphia 76ers who, just like the Raptors, lost the first game of the first round series to the Brooklyn Nets, and then went on to win four games straight and move on into the second round.
The only series to go the full seven games in the first round of the 2019 NBA Playoffs was between the Denver Nuggets and Coach Gregg Popovich’s San Antonio Spurs, and it was a heavily contested series from the tipoff with the Nuggets finally grinding out a win in a low scoring 90-86 game seven.
The final round of eight is called the Conference Semifinals and will require another seven games for each series to determine which teams move on the Conference Finals, or the NBA’s Final Four. The dates for the Championship rounds have not yet been determined but will take place in the first week of June with the NBA Draft beginning on June 20.
