The NBA’s version of the Final Four starts tonight with the Western Conference championship round and continues Tuesday with the Eastern Conference final.

Western Conference:

After taking out the overachieving Portland Trailblazers in five games, the defending-champion Golden State Warriors waited a few extra days for the Oklahoma City Thunder to “upset” the San Antonio Spurs in six games. The question of Stephen Curry’s health hasn’t been totally answered, but the 17-point overtime explosion that he had in Game 4, which was the game before winning his second-straight regular season league MVP award, signaled it was pretty much moot.

The Thunder are playing some of the best basketball of the Durant/Westbrook era. The Spurs were the favorite in the series, but they often looked old and slow against the Thunder. That won’t happen against the Warriors, but it will be great to see three of the best offensive players in the world on the floor at one time. Durant, Westbrook and Curry are the best the NBA has to offer. Sit back and enjoy what I think will be a long series. I look for the Warriors to pull out the last win at home. Golden State wins in seven games 4-3.

 

Eastern Conference:

The Cleveland Cavaliers have been awaiting the winner between the Toronto Raptors and the Miami Heat for over a week and now the Toronto Raptors will play in the conference final for the first time in team history against a well-rested LeBron James and company. Kyrie Irvin and Kevin Love seem to finally be comfortable as members of the Cavs Big 3.  They look like a team focused on returning to compete for the big prize.  I’m not sure anyone in the Eastern Conference ever had a chance to beat them, even before they began playing their best basketball.

The Raptors survived a full seven-game series against the undersized Heat, while the Cavs breezed through with little problem against the superstar-less Atlanta Hawks in four games. I don’t see why that won’t be the case again, with the Raptors maybe sneaking away with one victory at home in desperation. I wouldn’t be surprised by another sweep, but I’ll take the Cavs in five games 4-1.

I want take a minute to recognize the winners of the NBA regular season awards. The big one, of course, being Stephen Curry’s repeat MVP win. He definitely deserved the award and the fact that he was the first unanimous selection makes it historic, but it should only be the cherry on top of the Warriors 73-win season as they attempt get the big prize and repeat as champs.

Rookie of the Year was Karl-Anthony Towns of the Minnesota Timberwolves. New head coach Tom Thibodeau will be happy to have Towns back for a very young, but talented team. If he doesn’t run the big man into the ground, it should be a very good fit for both. For the Trailblazers C.J. McCollum, winning the Most Improved Player award should serve as great motivation for him and his All-Star caliber backcourt mate Damian Lillard to continue improving. The Blazers had a unexpectedly great season after losing four starters a season ago and still making the playoffs. Now, can they build off that? The rest of the awards are pretty self-explanatory: Sixth Man – Jamal Crawford; Defensive Player – Kawhi Leonard.

After what has been an underwhelming first two rounds of the playoffs, the hope is that both of the next rounds deliver a lot more drama and more importantly better basketball. The rematch between Golden State and Cleveland seems almost inevitable, but the games must be played. Hopefully, we get a few classics out of the bunch.