You don’t have to waste time with a preamble. We’ve seen 16 teams play in 12 different playoff series so far in the 2022 postseason. Some of those series have been pretty good. others? Not so much. So with the first two rounds now in the books, let’s rank the dozens of matchups we’ve seen so far based on the quality of basketball, historical ramifications, and overall quantity of fun.
This was a pretty standard No. 1 seed vs. No. 8 seed “gentleman’s sweep”. Denver won the first two home games quite comfortably. Things got tougher in Minnesota, but the Nuggets still picked up the split and then settled things at home for Game 5. It certainly wasn’t a bad series. It was the perfect warm-up round for Denver, and Anthony Edwards was incredible for the Timberwolves, averaging 35 points over the final four games of the series, cementing his status as one of the league’s most promising young stars. But this was one of the few postseason series where the outcome was never in any doubt. That gives him automatic placement at number 12.
The basketball was pretty disappointing here, but the drama? That was much more fun. This game spawned a whole discourse about groin shots. James Harden played against the team he dumped a year earlier… except everyone he played with had also left and the player he was traded for (Ben Simmons) was nowhere to be found. The Nets also created an interesting template to defend Joel Embiid by doubling down relentlessly and forcing the rest of the 76ers to beat them. As sweeps go, this wasn’t half bad.
There are rock fights and then there are Knicks-Cavs. Cleveland averaged the fewest half-court points per 100 possessions (102.2) of the playoffs, and the Knicks finished the postseason with a miserable 88.5 points per 100 half-court games, thanks in large part to their battle against Cleveland. The basketball was hard to watch on this series, but again, drama carries the day. Facing the team that nearly traded him over the summer, Donovan Mitchell was outplayed by Jalen Brunson for the second consecutive postseason. Cleveland’s twin rookies of Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen were bullied inside by New York’s heavier big men, and now the Cavaliers must go back to the drawing board and figure out how to better surround their young core.
There’s something immensely compelling about a contender facing their own mortality. The whole lead-up to the first round was about how many teams wanted to avoid Phoenix, the betting favorite to win the Western Conference before the playoffs began. The Clippers pulled the game and without Paul George (and later Kawhi Leonard) they didn’t really stand a chance. But they managed to win a game and their four losses were only 37 combined points. The Clippers would never beat the Suns, but they showed us just how flawed Phoenix was in the end.
Hey, about “Are we sure the favorite is okay?” series, we have a Celtics-Hawks series that looked like a two-game walkover. And then the last four games were all decided by single numbers. Atlanta scored at least 119 points in all four, and suddenly seemed to beat the vaunted Boston defense that everyone had suppressed for the past year and a half. Parity has been one of the overarching themes of this postseason. The computer models suggested that despite their record, Boston was by far the best team in the field. The Atlanta series poked holes in that idea and made it clear that the championship was completely up for grabs. Throw in the resurrection of Trae Young’s reputation and this was a fairly entertaining match.
7. Miami Heat v New York Knicks
The basketball itself was similar to what we saw between New York and Cleveland: ugly and defensive-minded. As far as these two teams are concerned, that is of course preferable. The Knicks and Heat played versions of this exact series back in the 1990s, and while it would be boring to see this style of play too often, it’s a nice change every now and then. Throw in Jalen Brunson’s heroics in New York’s losing effort and Knicks-Heat not only turned out to be more fun than expected, but spawned a renewed rivalry that should last for years to come.
Most of the fun of this series took place off the field rather than on it. Dillon Brooks asked the basketball gods for LeBron James, and he was punished for it. James may not have dropped a 40 on him, but the Lakers won the Game 6 clincher with 40, and now it looks like Brooks is out of work. There were two close games in this series, but they were both quite fun. The first ended with Austin Reaves proclaiming that he was in fact “it.” The second turned on one throwback layout from James. All in all, this series was a delight and could easily have scored much higher.
There’s nothing like a good meltdown, right? With Milwaukee leading by double digits in the fourth quarter of Game 4, the entire basketball world assumed the Bucks would storm to an easy series victory with Giannis Antetokounmpo back on the court. Jimmy Butler had other plans. With 98 combined points in the last two games, the Heat overcame double-digit deficits in Games 4 and 5 to steal the series. That made the Bucks the sixth No. 1 seed to lose in the first round, and the defeat cost Milwaukee coach Mike Budenholzer his job. It’s just another feather in Butler’s hat, The most terrifying underdog in NBA history.
4. Boston Celtics vs Philadelphia 76ers
This series would rank #2 before Game 7. And then we actually witnessed Game 7. Yes, Jayson Tatum’s historic performance made it worth watching, but after years of Doc Rivers and James Harden collapsing in elimination games, we should no longer be surprised because of the kind of things we saw on Sunday. Harden may have wrong-footed us with arguably the two best playoff games of his career earlier in the series, but a 33-10 decimation in the third quarter was testament to how little has really changed. Harden and Embiid combined for just 24 points, and the Process-era 76ers went down with an absolute whimper.
This series was everything that makes the playoffs great. Yes, the historical ramifications of James facing Stephen Curry for a fifth time and potentially ending the Golden State dynasty were huge, but this series was also a tactical gold mine. The Lakers took advantage of Golden State’s two big lineups by having Anthony Davis function as a full-time edge protector in Game 1. The Warriors responded with JaMychal Green in Game 2, forcing Davis to acknowledge a decent shooter in Game 2 . by putting Jarred Vanderbilt on Draymond Green so they could switch the Curry-Green pick-and-roll. The Warriors countered the counter by starting Gary Payton II and using him to screen Curry, which dragged Davis to the perimeter and away from the rim. The Lakers countered the counter by switching all ball screens. So yes, a casual fan could enjoy the big names and drama, but this series was also a diehard’s dream. It was a tactical chess match between a four-time champion and a rookie head coach. The rookie won.
2. Denver Nuggets vs. Phoenix Suns
Have you ever wondered how far two players can drag an understaffed team against the possible championship favorite? The apparent answer is six games. Kevin Durant and Devin Booker combined to score just over 56% of Phoenix’s points against Denver, and Game 3’s total of 87 was one of the best two-teammate performances you’ll ever see. Unfortunately, neither of them was the best player in the series. Nikola Jokic defeated the Suns by averaging a staggering 34.5 point triple-double on just under 60% shooting. Individual versions define post-seasons. No one has been better than Jokic and Booker in this series.
Quality basketball? Account. Two games were decided in the last minute, while two others were almost as close. Historical consequences? Account. A four-time champion faced a team in the playoffs for the first time since 2006. Drama? Account. Green stomped on Domantas Sabonis’s chest and then got angry when Sabonis wouldn’t shake his hand after the series. Great individual performance? That’s a big check, as Curry posted the first 50-point Game 7 in NBA history. This was a perfect playoff series. No notes. It will be next to impossible for nothing to unseat Kings-Warriors for the remainder of the postseason.