Last Updated on May 16, 2022 5:29 pm by Erwin Noguera
The emotions of the 2021-22 season of the best basketball in the world, the NBA, continue. Now we are reaching the final stretch and only 4 teams are still alive in search of the ring. One of the points to highlight is that the current league champions, the Milwaukee Bucks, are out of the competition; so they will not be able to perform the feat of being champions for the second consecutive year.
Another surprise was the elimination of the favorites in these playoffs and who showed an impeccable level of play throughout the season, the Phoenix Suns, who again left much to talk about, after being eliminated for the second consecutive year as the clear favorites to win the championship.
Now, last Sunday, May 15, 2022, the last two games of the conference semifinals were played, which corresponded to game 7 of their respective series. The Mavericks achieved the task and eliminated the Suns; while the Celtics crushed the Bucks to advance to the conference finals. At this point in the season, there is no room for error; so we will be enjoying top-level basketball in these two conference finals.
Conference Final (East)
Playoffs NBA: Miami Heat vs. Boston Celtics
Miami Heat and Boston Celtics will meet this Tuesday, May 17, 2022, at the FTX Arena, home of the Miami Heat, to play the first game of the 2022 NBA Playoffs Conference Finals.
It is no coincidence that these teams are fighting to be the champions of their conference. The Miami Heat finished the regular season with an excellent record of 53 wins and 29 losses; which made them finish in the first place in the Eastern Conference. On the other hand, the Boston Celtics finished the season as one of the best teams in the league; managing to close the regular round with 51 wins and 31 losses, in second place in the table.
Their Way Up Here
The Boston Celtics are the team that is fashionable in the NBA since they managed to exhibit an extraordinary defense in the first round of the playoffs, which led them to an excellent victory against the super-team Brooklyn Nets, and in the second round, they eliminated the current champions of the league, Milwaukee Bucks, but we must not forget that they now face their first round with home-court advantage against the Heat who want their second NBA Finals in three years.
The Boston Celtics got an excellent victory this Sunday, May 15, against the Milwaukee Bucks at the TD Garden. They managed to turn the series around, as they were trailing 3-2, so they forced the series to game seven and took the win.
The star of the Celtics is, without a doubt, Jayson Tatum, but not only has he stood out in these playoffs, but he has the help of other excellent players such as shooting guard Jaylen Brown, point guard Marcus Smart and power forward Grant Williams, who was one of the most important players last weekend against the team led by Giannis Antetokounmpo, who finished with 27 points.
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On the other hand, the Miami Heat managed to continue demonstrating their incredible level of play and reaffirming what they had been doing throughout the season, playing excellent basketball and crushing each of the rivals they faced. In the first round of the playoffs, they crushed the Atlanta Hawks in just 5 games with a score of 4-to-1. In this series, Miami practically did not mess up to get the victory.
Then, they played a much more complicated series against the Philadelphia 76ers, a team led by James Harden and Joel Embiid. The Heat started this entire series by winning both games at home, but when they moved to Philadelphia, they slowed down and allowed the Sixers to take the lead and even the series 2-2. But returning to FTX Arena, they once again crushed them by a 35-point margin and, in Game 6, repeated the dose with a score of 99-90 to reach these conference finals.
The Heat have Jimmy Butler as their key player. The 32-year-old shooting guard is in the best moment of his NBA career and wants to repeat what was achieved in the 2019-2020 season when they managed to be champions of the Eastern Conference after just beating Boston, but fell in the grand final against LeBron James’s Los Angeles Lakers.
Conference Final (West)
Playoffs NBA: Golden State Warriors vs. Dallas Mavericks
Golden State Warriors and Dallas Mavericks will meet this Wednesday, May 18, 2022, at the Chase Center, home of the Warriors, to play the first of the Conference Finals.
The Warriors are one of the teams that have had the most ups and downs when it comes to this 2021-22 NBA season. After spending several weeks fighting for first place with the Phoenix Suns, they then fell several positions after a significant string of losses and finished at full speed to close the regular round in third place and a record of 53 wins and 29 losses. Meanwhile, the Mavericks had an excellent second half of the season and, led by Luka Doncic, managed to climb to fourth place in the standings and finished with a record of 52 wins and 30 losses.
Semifinals
The Dallas Mavericks arrive at this conference final with tremendous drive and confidence and, not surprisingly, since they managed to eliminate the favorite team to win the championship, the Phoenix Suns with an impressive score of 123-90 in the Talking Stick Resort Arena. Like Boston, the Mavericks had to come from behind in the series, which they were losing 2-3, to eliminate their rival and be in these conference finals.
In this last and decisive game, Dallas never let Phoenix react and from the first quarter, they took an abysmal advantage. Doncic had a spectacular first-half scoring 27 points. In the second half, Doncic lowered the intensity of his game and finished with 35 points and 10 rebounds. Neither Chris Paul nor Devin Booker could counter the Slovenian’s offense.
On the other hand, we have the Golden State Warriors, a team that, after the awakening of its star Steph Curry and the incorporation of his colleague and friend Klay Thompson, has radically changed the level of play of their team. The Warriors comfortably beat the Memphis Grizzlies 4-2, who managed to win twice, once with their star Ja Morant and once without him.
Their stars got their best versions back, Green was ejected in the first game, but then he showed that he is at his optimum level and that he is ready for these games where experience is required more than anything. Thompson is very close to his best level of play and Curry, as always, is the deadliest on the floor.
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