The NBA postseason is winding down. Just four teams remain in the hunt for the Larry O'Brien Trophy and a chance to be named the best team in all of basketball. This year's four remaining teams are pretty similar to last year's teams with just one exception: the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The first two rounds were exciting and gave fans game-winning shots, high-powered dunks, and a lot of drama. Just not many surprises. All four teams left are the highest seeded teams in the NBA.
We begin with a rematch of last year's Eastern Conference Finals between the Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers. The Pacers have been one of the weirdest teams in recent memory after finishing the season on a terrible note. Center Roy Hibbert went through the worst slump of his career and was benched on a regular basis by coach Frank Vogel. Despite the terrible ending, the Pacers still finished the season as the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference and have home court advantage.
The Miami Heat are trying to become a dynasty. They've won the East every year since LeBron James "took his talents to South Beach" and are the defending champs. These two teams met each other last year in the conference finals and the Heat won it in seven games.
During the regular season, these two teams faced each other four times and split evenly two games each . The good news for the Pacers is the home team won all four of those games. But as we all saw last round against the Brooklyn Nets, regular season games don't matter much right now.
Even with Roy Hibbert playing inconsistent, the Pacers defense has still been good. Forward David West has been the best player for the Pacers during the postseason and has stepped up as the team leader. Paul George on the other hand has a lot of responsibility ahead as he will have to score more and will be guarded a lot by LeBron James. The Heat have role players to help out the big three such as Ray Allen, Norris Cole, and Mario Chalmers.
Game one of this series begins Sunday at 3:30 p.m. EDT on ABC .
Over in the West, fans get a matchup of two teams that really don't like each other. The No. 1 seed San Antonio Spurs host the No. 2 seed Oklahoma City Thunder. This is a rematch of the 2012 Western Conference Finals, which the Thunder won four games to two.
The Spurs are the No. 1 seed and will have home court advantage, but this may not be a good matchup for them. During the regular season, the Thunder won all four games against the Spurs . The Spurs success is driven by older veteran players like Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker. They also have younger players contributing such as Danny Green and Kawhi Leonard. Center Tiago Splitter has been playing fantastic defense thus far in the postseason. The biggest advantage for the Spurs will be coaching.
The Thunder are led by Kevin Durant and he's very familiar with playing the Spurs. Durant and Russell Westbrook have been the most impressive duo so far in the first two rounds. In the past, Westbrook has had his way with Tony Parker one on one. It's going to be up to Westbrook and Durant to set the tone early.
Game one of this series begins Monday at 9:00 PM EDT on TNT .
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