No Curry, Durant, and James in the second-round / first-round recap

The National Basketball Association playoffs are in full swing, and already, after one round, we have three of the 75 greatest players of all time at home for the rest of the 2024 playoffs.

Players who are least to make a conference finals appearance are racing against Father Time to try and add just one more championship to their resume and, for a few, their first championship.

The Minnesota Timberwolves shocked fans by completely sweeping the Phoenix Suns. I don’t think many fans would be that shocked if the Timberwolves won the series.

Many felt they were a title contender in the first round, leaving the slot with more questions than answers. The Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets series was quite bizarre. If you watched all five games through the first three quarters, you wouldn’t think the Lakers would be sitting at home right now. Los Angeles Lakers Lebron James dominated the defending champs this series. But the “Lakeshow” forgot to do the most important thing: win the game.

The East had three series in the first round where a few key players had to sit out due to injury, making the Eastern Conference opening round a sleeper. But, one series nobody is talking about is the Cleveland Cavaliers and Orlando Magic, whose series went to game seven. It’s astonishing how Cleveland managed to get the higher seed if they lost this series to a young, fresh Magic team. Cleveland would have been a cold, cold place this summer, as there would have been endless questions about the state of the franchise.

Overall, I expect the second round to be much more competitive; besides the Boston Celtics and Denver Nuggets, we could very well see a new challenger step up to the plate and leave their mark on this year’s NBA playoffs. Who knows, we may even crown a brand-new champion.