And then there were four!

The 2022 NBA season is drawing to its close and at best we can look forward to 21 more games, but the good news is that however many it takes to settle this they should be crackers. The top two seeds have made it through in the East, while we have the three & four facing off in the West. All four are playing as well now as at any time in the season and it is hard to call the eventual finalists. However, predictions need to be made so let’s do this…

 

Eastern Conference Final

Miami Heat v Boston Celtics

As stated the two best teams in the conference are in the final and both overcame stiff opposition to get here. The Celtics had to come from behind three times in the series that turned in game six thanks to a monumental performance by Jayson Tatum.  That seemed to knock the stuffing out of the Bucks and Boston dominated game seven, winning 109-81. They have had the harder postseason but are indeed battle-hardened.

The Heat have looked might impressive and despite letting the 76ers back into it with a couple of sloppy performances in games 3 & 4 they never really looked likely to lose the series. Jimmy Butler is peaking at just the right moment and even his 3 point shooting has improved!

This should be a close game but the Heat are almost totally dependent on Butler and he has been battling injury for much of the season. If he stays fit then they should keep it close but overall we think the Celtics just have too much depth for them.

Prediction Celtics 4 Heat 2

 

Western Conference Final

Stephen Curry

Image Credit Keith Allison from Hanover, MD, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0  via Wikimedia Commons

Dallas Mavericks v Golden State Warriors

The Mavs were 2-0 and 3-2 down in the series against the Suns but thanks to some outstanding performance from  Luka Doncic here they are in the final. They completely dominated game seven and have some nice momentum going. They will need it though as they didn’t look good in their early games against the Suns and they are heavily dependent on Doncic.

The Warriors as we expected beat a very good Grizzlies team with a little to spare and they are loaded all over the court. With Curry, Green & Thompson they have three-game changers and even the supporting cast includes former no one pick, Andrew Wiggins. Thus even if someone is having an off day they have plenty of talent to take up the slack. The Mavs won three of the four regular-season meetings but of course, Draymond Green missed most of those.

Overall we think that having a home-court advantage will get Golden State into the final. The Mavericks have shown that they never give up but a full-strength Warriors squad should be just too much for them. Right now we can’t see anyone stopping Golden State from winning it all. Sorry Warriors fans we might just have jinxed you!

Prediction Warriors 4 Mavericks 2

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