NBA Playoff Takeaways: Round 3 + NBA Finals Prediction

Photo by Michael Conroy from The Associated Press

One half of NBA fans are very excited that two excellent basketball teams will face off in the Finals.

Another half of NBA fans are upset that they aren’t big markets so the ratings won’t be good.

The latter half are nerds, and you shouldn’t listen to them.

Here is what we learned from the conference finals.

Thunder defeat Timberwolves 4-1

The Thunder are the Thunder.

We know this.

But the Timberwolves ran into a problem in this series.

Anthony Edwards needs to learn to be more selfish.

Usually, we judge those who are ball hogs.

Get your teammates involved. They’re NBA talent as well.

But sometimes, your best player needs to simply be your best player, and Edwards spending two of the five games only taking 13 shots just isn’t going to cut it.

The Wolves needed more from Edwards, and frankly, I think I’d feel better about them if they lost because Edwards tried to do too much.

Not doing enough reminds me of James Harden. And that’s never good.

Pacers defeat Knicks 4-2

The Pacers have devil magic.

There is no reason Haliburton’s shot in game 1 should have gone in, but it did.

Pascal Siakam went from “good player” to “can’t miss” in this series.

They have won three games this postseason in which they were down by 7 points in the final minute. That feels impossible, and yet it is true.

But the story is the Knicks, who are frankly at a crossroads.

Their coach is Tom Thibodeau, a man who expects his starters to play lots of minutes, and excellent defense.

Their two best players are Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns, who are insane liabilities defensively.

I don’t know where the Knicks go from here.

Maybe Brunson and KAT spend the offseason working on their defense. Maybe Thibs spends the regular season trusting his bench more to give his starters rest come playoff time.

But either way, I think we saw the ceiling for this squad as is.

It’s up to the Knicks to determine if that’s good enough or not.

NBA Finals Prediction

This Pacers team feels like a team of destiny.

They were better than the Bucks, Cavs, and Knicks on their way to the Finals. Tyrese Haliburton is playing great basketball and is becoming a superstar in front of our eyes, and they are winning basketball games they have absolutely no business winning.

And that’s all great.

…they are about to run into a buzzsaw.

The Oklahoma City Thunder Win the NBA Finals