The National Basketball Association (NBA)’s finals are dawning upon the basketball fans from all around the world. As of Monday 28th of May 2018, the Cleavland Cavaliers are already qualified and are waiting for the Western finals to end to know who they will face.
The structure of the playoffs in the NBA are unique. The NBA is made of 30 teams divided into two conferences (West and East) of 15 teams each. The regular season spans over 7 months. The 2018 season (the 69th season in the history of the NBA) started on the 17th of October 2017 and ended the 11th of April 2018. During this team period, each team play 82 games. This results in a ranking in each conference. The 8 first teams of each conference are qualified. The 1st team (or seed) plays against the 8th seed, the second seed against the 7th, … Each series is to the best of four games and the first team to win 4 games advances to the next round. The winners of the conference finals (from each conference) face each other for the NBA champion title.
This year, the playoffs started the 18th of April 2018. In the East, the Cleveland Cavaliers faced the Boston Celtics in the finals. The Cleveland Cavaliers won 4 games to 3. The series started well for Boston who won the first two games at home by more than 10 points each time. Then, back in Cleveland, the Cavaliers won two games at well, tying the series. Boston won game five and took a 3-2 lead. However, due to incredible games by LeBron James (Cleveland Cavaliers) who scored 46 points to tie the series and another 35 points to win game 7, Cleveland gets to the finals for the 5th time in a row.
In the West, the finals are not yet over. The series oppose the Golden State Warriors from California to the Houston Rockets from Texas. The two teams traded wins for the first four games. Then, in game 5, Houston won by 4 points to get a decisive 3-2 lead against the previous NBA champions. The Warriors won the next game by 30 points to tie the series, with the superstar Stephen Curry scoring 18 points in the third quarter alone. The next game is scheduled for Tuesday 29th of April 2018, in Houston. The game is undecided, however, Chris Paul’s hamstring injury in game 6 can and will affect their game, giving an advantage to the Warriors.
The first round of the playoffs broke an audience record that was set in 2012 with 2.9% of the market. This shows the importance of the NBA finals to Americans, and the NBA finals are projected to beat the 20.6% record for an audience set last year in the finals opposing the Warriors and the Cavaliers.
These finals are projected to be the most watched of all time and the most spectacular, so go watch them!
-By Augustin N.
The Tower Times Blog 