After a hot start to the NBA Playoffs with drama surrounding multiple series, it seems like we’ve hit a wall with the NBA Playoffs. This is probably a blog post you could write every year, but it seems like the second and third rounds do not have as much as juice as the first round. All of the series currently sit at 3-0 or 3-1 with all four teams facing elimination early this week. Only Boston-Philadelphia featured two very good basketball games, and the Sixers should be down 2-1 or up 2-1 if not for meltdowns in Game 2 and 3. Other than that, it looks like Cleveland, Houston and Golden State are all playing chess while the others are playing checkers.

This isn’t bad for basketball per say. A conference finals featuring LeBron, Steph, Harden and the scrappy Celtics is a fantastic foursome, yet, the excitement might not be there right away. Houston-Golden State feels like the best conference finals matchup we’ve seen in a long time. If it’s Celtics-Cavaliers round II, I’m not sure it’s a given that LeBron wins in five games like he did last season. These are clearly the four best teams, and the teams who are facing elimination have some serious issues with their team that’s preventing it from being a close series.

Toronto is a hot mess when Cleveland is their opponent. It’s like your friend who sees a person they’ve been digging for awhile at the bar, and they turn into a complete idiot around them. That’s Toronto. They play unlike themselves when facing LeBron. It should be 2-1 to the Cavs, potentially 2-1 Raptors. We already mentioned Philly, but it’s clear their youth is showing up in this series. New Orleans cannot play a lick of defense. It showed up in Game 3, but it’s not sustainable. Pelicans are fun and will be a tough team moving forward. Utah will always have the what if about Ricky Rubio. He may play in Game 5, but that changed the dynamic of the series and forced Donovan Mitchell to play differently which threw him off.

Can one of these four teams make a run this week and create some drama? Philadelphia is the obvious favorite with Utah trailing if Rubio can come back for Game 5. New Orleans and Toronto feel dead in the water. Steph and LeBron both have a sense for when blood is in the water, and they don’t lose closeout games at home very often.

Charlie.