It’s been preached about from atop Olympic Tower for years now and, finally, the NBA can open its eyes because this wasn’t a dream.
“82 games, 82 games, 82 games” — whether it was commissioner Adam Silver, deputy commissioner Mark Tatum or executive vice president Joe Dumars, those words kept ringing. And they were heeded. Whether it's the NFL-style parity Silver has so desired that’s come to fruition in the regular season and not just the championship round, or the mere madness of team building, the last week of the NBA season was downright chaotic.
The last day delivered an overtime thriller between the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Clippers, as the Clippers, who won 124-119, continued their quiet resurgence over the past two months, finishing with 50 wins to tie the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets for third-most in the West.
The Clippers have gone back to being the overlooked stepchild of a franchise after years of not meeting high expectations, and yet, they’ve been stalking everyone since Kawhi Leonard returned to finish the season with a vengeance.
This is what happens when so much attention is extended to other places, then augmented by some of the wildest, most unexpected decisions in NBA history. The Nuggets — the Clippers’ opponent in Round 1 — cleaned out their top decision-makers with just days remaining in the regular season, firing head coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth.
They outdid the boldness of the Memphis Grizzlies, who fired head coach Taylor Jenkins a short period before, perhaps a sign of parity creating some unrealistic expectations for franchises who felt they were stuck. Not stuck in the dreaded middle ground of being good but not good enough, or the middle ground of bad but not terrible enough for a top draft pick, but 50 wins good — which is seemingly a baseline when evaluating championship contenders.
One supposes that’s where the beauty of this NBA season lies. The Warriors were sprinting toward 50 wins before sputtering in the final week, dropping a shocker to the lottery-bound San Antonio Spurs and being sent to the Play-In Tournament due to the loss to the Clippers.
So, while it’s conceivable the Warriors of Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler meet up with the Luka Dončić-LeBron James (or reverse that) version of the Los Angeles Lakers in Round 2 — a ratings bonanza — it’s also possible they miss the postseason altogether if they lose to the Grizzlies at home and then to the winner of the Kings-Mavericks game three days later.
All because of 82 games, 82 games, 82 games.
Last season, the top seed wasn’t determined until the last day, when the Oklahoma City Thunder beat Dallas — trouncing the Mavs, actually, to keep pace with the Denver Nuggets at 57-25 and taking the No. 1 spot on a tiebreaker. Funny how it didn’t matter, that beating, because Dallas exacted the win that mattered in the second round, upsetting the Thunder in six.
Those top three ...
