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The NBA is the premier basketball league in the world. All of the top players come to America to play the game created by James Naismith. As the best league in the world, any team should be able to defeat any other team on a given night. That idea is holding true in some of the NBA playoff matchups but in some it is not. The fact that LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers have not lost a game in the playoffs is a little ridiculous. This means there is not really a balance in the NBA anymore (if there ever really was). Basically, the 2017 NBA playoffs have shown some things to make the average viewer and not so average viewer realize the balance in this league is not what it should be.
There is plenty of time to talk about how the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors are super teams compared to the rest of the league. For the sake of not making an article about how the NBA consists of two big teams and a handful of others that can sniff a deep playoff run, let's focus on the Boston Celtics and Washington Wizards series. This has been one of the strangest playoff basketball series’ in recent memory. Boston won Games 1 and 2 by double digits and Washington won Games 3 and 4 by double-digits. The series 2-2, even though Washington has won every first quarter of this series except Game 4.
Each winning team manages to go on ridiculous runs during their wins. Why is this happening?
As earlier mentioned, the NBA has the best players in the world. If that is the case, no NBA playoff game should have a 26-0 run in the middle of it. Well that happened in Game 4 of this series. What causes something like this to happen though? There is no real rhyme or reason. The same team that gave up a 26-0 run limited the Wizards to 16 points in the entire third quarter of Game 1. Also no one has accused the Celtics of having issues scoring. At the end of the day it has to do with mental makeup and the ability to overcome obstacles. The Washington Wizards have had the chance to win every single one of the games in this series. That same statement cannot be said for the Boston Celtics. Boston got off to a strong start in the series, but actually had to battle back in both of those wins. Washington could have swept this series already, if they played a little better.
All together Scott Brooks’ side has put together 3 massive runs in this series. They had a 26-0 run, a 22-0 run and a 16-0 run. That is a staggering amount against the team that had the best record in the Eastern Conference. Boston should be concerned about the type of offense and defense the Wizards are putting together. If you are on the wrong side of a 26-0 run that is really tough to come out of. Washington is showing that they are a team that will be a force in the 2017 playoffs. The Celtics are also proving that they may not be the team the rest of the league thought they were. This series has been a strange, but fun one to watch. We will see if the Wizards continue the hot streak and pull forward in the series for the first time. Who knows, maybe LeBron James may have to worry about the hot Washington Wizards in the next round.