2024 Conference Finals Previews
Mar 11, 2024 9:08:34 GMT -5
Tampa Bay Bull Sharks and crossover (Golden St. GM) like this
Post by Miege22 on Mar 11, 2024 9:08:34 GMT -5
EAST: Brooklyn vs. Tampa Bay
How They Got Here
Brooklyn is the #1 seed in the East, finishing the regular season 14-2. They defeated the 5th seed Washington Wizards in round 1, 7-2, advancing to their 9th conference finals in franchise history. Including the playoffs, Brooklyn has won 8 straight games, last losing in mid-December.
Tampa Bay is the #3 seed in the East. They finished 2nd in the Southeast division, tying with the Orlando Magic at 11-5 (but losing the season series, and tiebreaker, 2-0). They avenged their two regular season losses against the Magic in the first round, taking out Orlando by a score of 5-4. The Bull Sharks are also appearing in their 9th conference finals, tying the Nets for most in league history.
Regular Season Meeting(s)
The Nets and Bull Sharks played in week 3 (Nov. 6-12). The Nets won, 4-4-1, claiming the points tiebreaker after a late stat change awarded Ausar Thompson with a block that was missed, tying the category and sending it to points.
KEY INJURIES
Brooklyn – Evan Mobley (ankle - out); Victor Wembanyama (ankle – DTD); Devin Vassell (hip – DTD); Jaren Jackson Jr. (maybe tanking? TBD); Vince Williams Jr. (knee – DTD); Ausar Thompson (illness - DTD); Gary Trent Jr. (groin/tanking - DTD)
Tampa Bay – LeBron James (ankle – DTD); Karl-Anthony Towns (knee – out); Eric Gordon (knee – DTD); Dereck Lively II (personal, unknown – DTD)
HOW DID THESE TWO GET HERE?
The Brooklyn Nets finished the regular season playing their best basketball, and that continued after their short break. The Wizards dealt with some rough injury luck, but the Nets left no doubt as to who the better team was. They led all playoff teams in points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks. They were second in threes. Simply put, they were dominant. And they were led by their destroyer of worlds rookie, Victor Wembanyama. Wemby picked up an ankle injury that kept him out of the last two games, but the numbers he put up in the series prior to that were absurd. He averaged 21-12-5, blocked 22(!) shots, and made 12 threes, all while shooting 50% from the floor and 84% from the line. If there’s cause for concern, beyond Wemby’s ankle, it’s that the team is getting battered by injuries at the exact wrong time. Mobley is out with an ankle injury. Vassell picked up a hip injury. Vince Williams has a sore knee, and JJJ is a rest candidate on the tanking Grizz. As good as the Nets looked in round 1, there was a clear challenger nipping at their heels…
And that was the Tampa Bay Bull Sharks. Tampa led all teams in threes in the first round, and they were right behind Brooklyn in steals, assists, and points. In the five games before he sat with an ankle injury, LeBron averaged 28 points, 6 boards, and 9 assists. He made 13 threes and shot 57% from the floor. However, don’t overlook his real life teammate, D’Angelo Russell, who was right behind him putting up 27-5-6 and hit 25 threes. The Bull Sharks did get some devastating injury news of their own late last round when it was discovered that KAT suffered a torn meniscus in his left knee. That injury will, in all likelihood, keep him out of the rest of the postseason. It’s an extremely tough blow for KAT as he’d seemingly finally found his place, and for the Bull Sharks who now head into the ECF down a star.
WHAT DID THE PLAYERS TO WATCH DO?
For Brooklyn, we tabbed Devin Vassell as the guy to watch, and he was fantastic until missing the final game of the week with a hip injury. In the five games he did play, he averaged 23-6-6, grabbed 8 steals, swatted 4 shots, and shot 50% from the field. He did exactly what the Nets needed him to do, but the injury looms large (particularly with the Spurs having a back-to-back right off the bat in this one, meaning he could potentially miss two games).
LeBron was Tampa’s player to watch, and he, like Vassell, was fantastic until an ankle kept him out of a game late in the series. We mentioned his stats above, but the ankle will need to be watched. LeBron is also only scheduled for 5 games over the next two weeks, so just one or two missed games would prove disastrous.
IS THERE HISTORY HERE?
LOL… how much time you got? It’s kind of like the Godzilla vs. King Kong of fantasy basketball. This will be the EIGHT time these two have faced off in the postseason, with the Bull Sharks leading the postseason series, 4-3. They also won the most recent meeting in the 2022 first round. Four of those previous seven appearances took place in the ECF, with each team having one twice (Brooklyn in 2019 and 2020; Tampa Bay in 2015 and 2016). In those four years, the winner has gone on to take the NBA title three times, with the lone exception being in 2020 when the Finals were canceled due to COVID. This will be the 11th time in 15 years that the East is represented by either the Nets or Bull Sharks in the Finals. Tampa is looking for their fourth title, which would tie Brooklyn for most all-time. Somehow, despite numerous sequels, these match-ups, much like Godzilla/Kong, always end up being entertaining. We’ll see if this one follows suit.
WHAT’S AT STAKE?
We covered most of that in the first round previews, and some more of it above in the history section, but just to add some context to what each team has done…
It’s not often that one player has entered the league and so singularly transformed not just a team, but forced us to reevaluate what we thought was possible. Typically, these sorts of things happen when players mature and reach their prime. Think LeBron James or Kevin Durant in the early 2010’s showing us that players could just be good at… everything. Think Steph Curry of the late 2010’s taking the ceiling off the term “shooter.” Think post-KD Russell Westbrook who seemingly decided on a whim that he was just going to get nothing but triple-doubles. We could go on, but the point is those guys changed the landscape after getting their feet wet and honing their games. What Victor Wembanyama is doing is different. To this point, Wemby is averaging 20 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 blocks, 1 steal, and 1.7 threes per game. No one, ever, in the entire history of the NBA, has put up those numbers over a full season. Only four players, again, ever, have managed to do that without the threes. He is doing it AS A ROOKIE. Who knows what he’s capable of in 2, 3, 4 years? It is with that context that we propose that perhaps no other trade has been more impactful than the Nets swapping Seth Curry for the future OKC first that became Wembanyama. The Nets spent the better part of three years, following the cancelled 2020 Finals, trying to find the right lotto ticket. And on an otherwise innocuous summer day in 2022, they finally found it. Now they’re here, hoping that this is, potentially, the start of something special.
This current Tampa Bay run can really be traced back to the summer of 2018. Following a dreadful 2-14 season, Tampa Bay immediately jumped back into contention. They traded for Karl-Anthony Towns and Domantas Sabonis, rebounded to 9-7, and made it back to the ECF. There they lost to these Nets, who were in the midst of their second straight title run. The next year, they went 13-3, finishing second in the East and advancing to another ECF… where they would lose to the undefeated Brooklyn Nets. In 2021, with the Nets out of the way, and LeBron James now on their side, Tampa Bay cruised to the best record in the league. They made their third straight ECF… and were stunned by the Chicago Bulls, who would go on to win their first NBA title. Undeterred, the Bull Sharks once again finished near the top of the East, going 11-5 in 2022 and knocking off #1 New York to make their first Finals since 2016. Unfortunately, the Bull Sharks were a shell of themselves once they got there, losing Sabonis, De’Aaron Fox, and Jarrett Allen. They were throttled by the Warriors. This is year 6 in the KAT-Sabonis era. Other guys have come and gone, but these two bigs have been the pillar of one of the most successful runs in franchise history. They’ve done everything you can do… except win a title. The Bull Sharks have a chance to reclaim that title AND take out the team that has been the biggest thorn in their side since the era began.