NBA Playoffs 2018

By M. Santini

As the 2018 NBA regular season is officially over with 30 teams, the Playoffs contenders have been finally defined, but now reduced to 16 teams. This year we will continue seeing the same, old contenders as the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers, however, throughout the season several teams gained forces to reach their level; the Toronto Raptors, the Houston Rockets, the Philadelphia 76ers, the Oklahoma City Thunder, Milwaukee Bucks, the Utah Jazz, Boston Celtics and the New Orleans Pelicans. Below there is everything you need to know about the NBA playoffs:

What is the NBA Playoffs?

"The NBA Playoffs is an elimination tournament that occurs after the NBA regular season which determines the league's champion. It consists of the best seven games which have higher seeded teams playing with lower seeded teams. The playoffs started on April the 14th and ended on May 28th".
Source:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBA_playoffs

NBA regular season standings:

Eastern Conference:
1. Toronto Raptors
2. Boston Celtics
3. Philadelphia 76ers
4. Cleveland Cavaliers
5. Indiana Pacers
6. Miami Heat
7. Milwaukee Bucks
8. Washington Wizards

Western Conference:
1. Houston Rockets
2. Golden State Warriors
3. Portland Trail Blazers
4. Oklahoma City Thunder
5. Utah Jazz
6. New Orleans Pelicans
7. San Antonio Spurs
8. Minnesota Timberwolves

After all 82 regular season games, statistics show that these Playoffs can be an enormous threat to the Cleveland Cavaliers – Golden State Warriors reign. The Houston Rockets have slowly built a team in which by many is considered a contending-calibre club that can prevail over the two teams; Chris Paul, a 9x NBA All-Star, 8x All NBA Team, 9x NBA All-Defensive team was brought to lead the team with James Harden. Also, the Toronto Raptors comes full in strength to the playoffs, with two leading All-Stars: Demar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry each with more than 17 regular season points per game. However, we can never doubt a team which has Lebron James or Kevin Durant playing for it. 

​NBA playoffs schedule: