Talk NBA Playoffs First Round Here

One thing I’ll give the Golden State Warriors. Their success wasn’t the singularly joyless experience the Lakers doing well is. It seems no one really enjoys it. Not the rest of the league, not the LA fans (not really, they feel entitled to titles), not the Laker players, no one.

Honestly, for all the complaining one hears about Knicks fans, what have the Knicks or their fans ever really done to anyone in the last two decades? Mostly they suffer. Suffer loudly, extravagantly, and somewhat conceitedly, I’ll grant, but suffer nonetheless. When they do well, they’re so happy (except for that one asshole who allegedly spit on Trae Young).

There is a whiff of the guard changing in the playoffs, and really, that’s fine. I’ve said before that there is probably a German word that means “While I respect your greatness, I am ready for your departure.” The root word is no doubt “lebron”.

Tonight’s featured an obliteration of Miami by Milwaukee (they appear to have solved their Miami problem), and also, ongoing or about to start, Los Angeles versus Phoenix, and Portland versus Denver.

Both series are interesting, with all right-thinking people hoping the Suns defeat the joyless juggernaut of Los Angeles. It’s also wonderful that a fifth fan base has been introduced to the joy and sorrow of having Chris Paul run their team.

The Portland Denver series is of course missing a key player, but doesn’t feature much defense, and two absolute peak offensive players in Jokic and Lillard.

Also, I join you in the schadenfreude of watching the LA Clippers get trounced (so far) by the team they engineered their record to play in the playoffs, even if that team is Dallas. The Clippers were, however, kind in that one of their managed losses gave Bill Worrell a parting victory.