The regular season is in the books, and the playoffs are over, which means it’s time for the NBA playoffs in 2022. Although the first round may have some serious discrepancies with the participation of some of the teams with higher positions, still there is something to get excited about most of these matches. These include the return of Kyrie Irving to Boston in a playoff atmosphere, Ja Morant vs. Anthony Edwards and the debut of James Harden in the playoffs with the Philadelphia 76ers.
Several of these series have the potential to go through a full seven games, while several others may have four games. With so many actions to focus on, we ranked the matches from the first round from the least exciting to the most.
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As great as it was to watch the Pelicans fight the Clippers to secure a place in the playoffs, I don’t see that they can fight much against a Suns team that can play in June. It will be exciting to watch Brandon Ingram in the postseason for the first time in his career, and CJ McCollum has the ability to score huge numbers in the playoffs, but Phoenix is just too talented and too deep to make me think this series doesn’t goes very far.
I’ll probably regret putting Hawks and Heath so low, because watching Trey Young set the Cavaliers on fire for 38 points on the road to a comeback victory over Cleveland was filled with all the drama and fun you want in the playoffs. But Miami is not Cleveland, and Clint Capella’s knee injury puts Atlanta another important starter if he can’t play any part of the series. Young will probably show wild statistics in the course of this series, but he alone will not be able to beat a team from Miami, which has very few weaknesses when facing the Hawks. As special as Young may be, I would be surprised if this series goes through five games.
This series did have the potential to be exciting, but the tension in Luka Doncic’s calves did reduce that. Doncic is not expected to play in Match 1, and may not be ready to enter the second match, which means that Jazz should have the upper hand here. But still don’t write off Dallas. Jalen Brunson and Spencer Dinuidi have the potential to win some Mavs games, and if guys like Dorian Feeney-Smith and Reggie Bullock break down their open looks, then Dallas has little chance of winning without their star points.
But if Utah takes care of the business and plays like the highest-ranked striker they’ve had in a regular season, then this could be another disappointing exit from the first round for the Mavericks. There is also the possibility that Doncic will return at some point in this series, and if he is 100 percent healthy, then that will certainly change the story.
Although the Bucks have a significant advantage in this series, given that they beat the Bulls all four times they have met this season and accidentally hire Janice Adetokunmpo, there are still some fun things to watch in this series . We will see the post-season debut of Zack Lavigne, who has often played a second violin of Demar DeRosan this season. DeRozan deserves full recognition after making an extremely effective season and was the main reason why the Bulls are even in the playoffs. But seeing how LaVine plays when games start to matter a little more will be tempting. He also happens to be ready for a maximum contract this summer, so you know he’ll want to retire now to prove he’s worth every penny Chicago throws at him.
The match also has the potential to become a bit irritating after Bucks guard Grayson Allen played a role in Alex Caruso’s injury earlier in the season. After that happened, Allen received a lot of booing in the two times Milwaukee played in Chicago. These two arenas are also located two hours apart on Lake Michigan, so there are some rival ties between the two fans.
4. (4) Philadelphia 76ers vs. (5) Toronto Raptors
We will see James Harden and Joel Embiid together for the first time in the playoffs against an underrated Raptors team that includes one of the most exciting rookies in its class at Scotty Barnes. Philadelphia has a mountain of expectations after Harden’s exchange with the expectation of competing for the championship this season. Will Philly give Harden the treatment of Ben Simmons if he doesn’t live up to expectations? Will Doc Rivers lose his job if the Raptors surprise the Sixers and send them home to pack their luggage in the first round?
There are several storylines to watch in this series, such as the fact that Philadelphia will be left without its best defender in Matisse Tiboul for road games because he has not been vaccinated, which is not in line with Canada’s mandate for a vaccine against COVID. On the Raptors side, they have the opportunity to show everyone that they have been seriously overlooked this season as Pascal Siakam has re-established himself as an All-NBA player. Add the recently cut All Star Fred VanVleet, the two-way capabilities of OG Anunoby and this series can be close all the time.
Stephen Curry is ready for Game 1 after missing the last 12 games of the regular season with a leg injury. However, he is expected to have a limit of minutes at the beginning of the series. This could be a really fun match, as the Warriors will bring together their big three Curry, Clay Thompson and Draymond Green together again in the playoffs for the first time since the 2019 finals.
On the other side of the match is the current MVP in the league, who can very well win his second consecutive award this year. Although Nikola Jokic will be without Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr., he alone is enough to worry about the Warriors. There is no other player in the league who is as influential in every area of the attacking game as Jokic. The Nuggets may be outnumbered as they are not in full force, but that just means we have to be in some really special performances from Jokic, who will try to lead his team to frustration against a stronger-than-ever Warriors team.
Do you like the brave young teams that have all the trust in the world? Two tall guards at Morant and Edwards, who are human highlight drums? How about piles and piles of rubbish talking? Well, then this series is for you. That would be number one if the teams were more equal, but the Grizzlies could easily take care of the Wolves. However, we have seen how destructive Patrick Beverly can be in Minnesota’s victory over the Clippers, and he will certainly try to do the same against a young Memphis team. But the Grizzlies have their own defenders in Dylan Brooks and Jaren Jackson Jr., who can change the game and just as easily get into the head of the opposing team. It doesn’t matter if this series includes only four games or seven, each of which will be a mandatory television.
After losing to the Celtics in early March, in which Irving hears whistles every time he touches a ball from TD Garden fans, the All-Star guard compared Boston fans to a “despised ex-girlfriend who asked for an explanation for why I left, but still I want to say a message back. “I will certainly say that the booing that Irving will hear while the Celtics is hosting the Nets will not sound like anything he has not heard before. But aside from that, this series is without a doubt the most Kevin Durant plays Jason Tatum and Jaylan Brown Marcus Smart tries to lock Irving away Oh, and then there’s the potential for Ben Simmons to make his long-awaited season debut Simmons heads to Game 4 to return early which can add a whole new wrinkle to this series.
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