2023 NBA Playoff Dominance:
Photo by Film Daily
The NBA playoffs this year have hosted multiple exhilarating series. Keeping fans on their feet, the playoffs have created exciting and unfamiliar matchups this year. Some teams have lived up to the expectations of their fans and predictions while others have fallen short. Let’s take a look into which teams have exemplified dominance in this year’s NBA brackets.
The Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings in the Western Conference first-round had nothing short of entertainment. The Kings had a seed advantage over the seasoned Warriors, as they were number three in the west. Despite this unusual matchup, the series ran to a full game-seven series where Stephen Curry displayed complete dominance. Curry had an outstanding 50-point performance in this crucial game seven. Though the Kings obtained a more even spread of scorers in this game, it still was not enough to stop Chef Curry from cooking up a spread of his own. However, #30 did not show dominance all on his own. His team exemplified more leverage in almost every stat across the board except personal fouls, in which they were even with Sacramento.
Next up on this list is the Los Angeles Clippers against the Phoenix Suns in the West Conference first round. Los Angeles stole the first game of this series, beating Phoenix in their arena. The Suns then seized and capitalized on their competition against the Clippers as they closed out wins in all four of the following games. Leading scorers for the Suns were none other than Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Deandre Ayton, and Chris Paul. While they were all fairly consistent throughout this series, CP3’s performances were a tad quiet compared to some of his previous playoff appearances. Although the Suns did not stay in the brackets for long this year, they dominated their opening series.
While Golden State and Phoenix showed glimpses of dominance in their opening series this year, the Miami Heat and Denver Nuggets are ultimately the last two teams standing. But what have these two teams done to end up in the final matchup? Both have dominated their way through. Winning the first three games of the Eastern Conference Finals (ECF), Miami charged their way early on for a ticket to the NBA Finals. However, the Heat came fairly close to elimination this year to the thrilling and resilient Boston Celtics team that also won three straight games of this series. It all boiled down to a game seven in which the Heat star player, Jimmy Butler, stated that Miami would get the job done. Butler was confident in Miami’s dominance that they would come out on top, and they did. Boston’s famous duo, Jalen Brown and Jayson Tatum, only combined for thirty-three points. On the contrary, Caleb Martin and Butler combined for a total of 54 points. But that is not all the flames the Heat brought. Miami shot over twice as many as Boston’s three-pointer percentage, took the lead on assists, snagged more defensive rebounds, and had fewer turnovers. Miami brought the Heat that cashed them a ticket to the finals this year.
There is not a full discussion of this year’s dominance without mentioning the Heat’s ultimate competitor, the Denver Nuggets. Before the NBA Finals, the Nuggets played the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals (WCF). Needless to say, Denver not only dominated but swept the Lakers in the WCF completely. They put up an entertaining performance every night with multiple outstanding passes and buzzer-beaters throughout this short series. Now while playing for a title, will Denver’s or Miami’s roster dominate their way to the trophy?