The Conference Finals are amongst us, and the four teams left fighting for the Larry O’Brien Trophy bring much-needed parity to a league that has been run by familiar faces for the last two decades.
The Oklahoma City Thunder defeated Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets in Game Seven, 125–93—a defensive masterclass from the number one seed in the West. OKC seems to be hitting their stride as they prepare to face off with Anthony Edwards and the soaring Minnesota Timberwolves. These two teams split the season series, with each winning a game at home and on the road.
Consensus favorite for MVP this season, point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, is vying to reach his first NBA Finals in his young career. A tough series is on the horizon, and many believe it will go the full seven games.
In the East, the New York Knicks finished off the Boston Celtics in six games on Friday, setting up a conference semifinal rematch with the Indiana Pacers. Both teams are led by their All-Star guards—Jalen Brunson for New York and Tyrese Haliburton for Indiana. The Pacers are coming off a dominant series win over the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers, who never managed to get healthy throughout the matchup.
This Knicks team will be the first fully healthy squad the Pacers have faced this postseason. Last year, when the Pacers eliminated the Knicks, New York was without OG Anunoby after Game Two due to a hamstring injury, and they also did not have Karl-Anthony Towns.
This series will be different from last season’s for many reasons. Game One of the Eastern Conference Finals will be held at Madison Square Garden for the first time in 25 years on Wednesday at 8 p.m. Poignantly, the final TNT broadcast of the series will be called by Reggie Miller—an iconic name in Knicks–Pacers playoff lore. It doesn’t get much more poetic than that.
The Knicks have not won an NBA title since 1973. Meanwhile, the other three teams still in the hunt—Oklahoma City, Minnesota, and Indiana—have never won an NBA Championship. History is on the line, and fans around the league are fired up.
