Exciting games. Clutch plays. Close finishes.
Remember those?
The NBA playoffs have hit a lull. It has been 11 days since the last game decided by fewer than 10 points.
Longer competitive-game droughts have occurred – though not many, and never before the NBA Finals. The most common route for going so long without a competitive game is decisive victories to end the conference finals, a lengthy break before the Finals then decisive victories to start the Finals.
But we’re not to the Finals yet.
In this case, every second-round series ended in five or fewer games – culminating with the Celtics’ 114-112 win over the 76ers on May 9, the last single-digit game. Three league-wide off days followed. The Celtics routed the Cavaliers twice in Boston, and the Warriors and Rockets traded lopsided wins in Houston. Two more league-wide off days, Cleveland winning by 30 Saturday, Golden State winning by 41 last night, and we’re at 11 straight days without a competitive game.
Here are the longest-ever streaks of days between single-digit playoff games before the conference finals ended:
Both conference finals are as close as possible, 2-1 (favoring the Warriors and Celtics). But the individual games just haven’t matched the tightness.
Why is this happening?
The peculiar overlapping three off days for each conference finals certainly factored.
Maybe the Warriors and Cavaliers – who’ve met in the last three NBA Finals – are that much better than the rest of their conferences when locked in. Maybe the Warriors and Cavaliers know that, leaving them prone to bad losses the teams know they can rally from. Maybe the Celtics are just that good at home and that bad on the road. Maybe it’s just a random occurrence.
No matter the reason, the result is certain: We’ve gone a long time without seeing a competitive game.
Hopefully, Cleveland and Boston change that tonight.