Examining the NBA’s greatest playoff rivalries of the modern era

ah,

playoff

rivalries

, the first thing that comes to mind when you hear this is that you know the old classics, the Lakers and the Celtics, the Bulls and the pistons, the Lakers and the Spurs, the Warriors and the Cavs. These are iconic

rivalries

that captivated fans around the world and expanded beyond. The sport of basketball has become ingrained in popular culture and there have been many dynasty-defining rivalries over the years, but what about now what are the biggest

playoff

rivalries in this current era? Rivalries that are highly anticipated, although like the Warriors and the Rockets. Back then, some rivalries could be one-sided, but we still want to see these teams play against each other.

How are you doing? My name is Andy. In this video, let's examine the biggest NBA rivalries of the

modern

generation: the Celtics and the Sixers. Watch the Celtics several times in this video, but for good reason they have been a very competent playoff team for so many years, although this one is pretty one-sided since Joel Embiid was drafted, they have never beaten the Celtics in a playoff series . in fact, the Sixers haven't beaten the Celtics in a playoff series since 1982, when Dr. J was there. That being said, as of this video, the Sixers have faced the Celtics three different times, with the first two meetings not really close and the third. one was to game seven, a series in which James Harden led the team to two of its three wins, so a recurring theme of these Celtic Sixers Series has always been a story of the Sixers' frontcourt talent versus the more top team. balanced.

There are three main advantages the Celtics have always had over the Sixers and their balanced offense in the 2023 playoffs, the Sixers had by far the highest isolation rate. Among all playoff teams, a staggering 16.5% of their possessions were isos compared to just 99.6% for the Celtics. Not only was their iso efficiency terrible, but they were also very predictable and when you rely too much on one or two players, the result stagnates. complete offense because there is no ball movement a year earlier in the 2022 playoffs, the Sixers also led all playoff teams in isolation frequency and were once again very inefficient.

The Celtics have a much superior team defense in the 2022 season than the Sixers. he had the number four offense, but against the Celtics in the playoffs his offensive rating dropped almost eight points. It's a combination of their superior individual defenders but also a much more coherent team defense, from Derek White to Al Horford and now Drew Holiday and Christs Porzingis. who added a new dimension to their protection of Rim. People like to make fun of the Celtics for lacking mental toughness, but the Sixers are even worse when it comes down to it, when things don't go their way, the entire team becomes discouraged.

I've never seen a fan base boo their own team as often as Sixers fans saw their lead shrink to two, the Sixers are getting booed here at home and three, the Celtics are simply more talented from top to bottom , they are so loaded with talent that there is a reason they have had prolonged success, from better management to better draft picks, they have always had an advantage over the Sixers and this probably won't change, at least not during this era of the Mavs and Clippers before the 2012 playoffs, the Mavs and Clippers have met twice and are now about to meet for the third time in the previous two meetings.

It was a matchup that favored the LA Clippers, they were equipped with superstar talent in the prime of their careers. races while Luca was alone I would like to compare this to Michael Jordan's first playoff appearances, as the Bulls were a lower seed, he put up ridiculous numbers but still lost to the Boston Celtics, a far superior team. Luca was only 20 years old and 21 years old when he faced the Clippers in back-to-back playoff series and still managed to take them to six and seven games while having one of the best series I've ever seen at his age, which is unfathomable in the playoffs. of 2021 in Notably, the Mavs even managed to steal the first two games on the Clippers' home courts before turning the ball over in the series.

Still, Luca averaged a tremendous 36 points per game, eight rebounds and 10 assists in comparison, similar to what LeBron scored in the 2009 playoffs against the Magic. series that many considered to be one of his and Luca's best individual performances at the age of 21 basically matched his numbers for the Mavs they unfortunately ran into. Kawai over the years missed a lot of time in the playoffs as a Clipper, but for these series against the Mavs he was completely healthy at the peak of his prime Leonard receives the inbound pass and scores Leonard's jump shot with his hand in the face and pierces him back to back Jackson picks him up the Clippers win Leonard connects a triple Jackson not that time Leonard and some Clippers in this streak of 12 to two, Kawhai matched Luca almost point for point and, most importantly, the The rest of the Clippers roster was far better than anything the Mavs could muster to advance quickly to the 2024 playoffs at the time of this video.

They haven't started yet, but the Mavs and Clippers will play each other once again this time. However, the field is a little more even as the Clippers spent several years dealing with early injuries. They have been the biggest question mark in the entire NBA. The Clippers' healthy team competes with the best of the best, of course, but they are very rarely completely healthy by the end of the season. Kawai's knee problems resurfaced as a dark cloud looms over his postseason run once again. On the other hand, this is the best MAV. team since they drafted Luca for years there was always something missing, they were missing a good big man or a secondary playmaker, there was always something holding this team back and for years they struggled to build around their superstar here's a nifty stat since Gafford became a full-time Starter, the Mavs ranked number one in offensive and defensive rating in the second half of the season.

They are entering the playoffs as the hottest team in the league, while the Clippers are the exact opposite after a spectacular start that saw them compete close. the top of the West has fallen drastically for Luca the Clippers have been a thorn in his side they are the obstacle he needs to overcome the Celtics and the Bucks from 2017 until now the Boston Celtics have reached the Conference Finals four times unlike the Bucks two, they also beat the Bucks two out of every three times they met, but it was the Bucks who found success on the biggest stage capturing the championship, the first of the Giannis era, which the Celtics do better than anyone else. team is defending Giannis in their last matchup in 2022.

Giannis put up incredible counting stats, but in terms of efficiency he fell off a cliff: a true shooting percentage from 63.3% in the regular season to just 51.6% against the Celtics. Al Horford always has. He has been the best player to put on Giannis and Embiid, in addition to the two biggest threats in the Eastern Conference, like the Sixers, the Bucks have had problems against the Celtics team defense over the years. Both teams have gone through several roster changes with the Buck acquiring Damen Ard and Malik Beasley to bolster their offense, but the Celtics acquiring Drew Holiday and Porzingis to make them even more threatening in terms of playing style.

The Bucks used to be a suffocating defensive team with an inconsistent offense behind Giannis, now their defense fell but their offense kept them afloat during times of misfortune, for example, in the span of a single offseason they went from 12th in offense and fourth in defense to sixth in offense and 18th in defense, we may not be sure if the Bucks and Celtics will face each other. The 2024 playoffs, regardless of the money fights, still have the best player in the Eastern Conference, this rivalry points to two opposite ends of the spectrum, a one-man wrecking crew, two-time MVP, a defensive player of the year and it will remain as such.

One of the best to ever play the game, the Celtics, on the other hand, are built to withstand the impact of a single superstar and are also the ultimate obstacle for Giannis the Bucks and speaking of obstacles, there is no other team than the Bucks hate to see. more than the ever so resilient Miami Heat, a team led by arguably the best coach in the NBA, a team that has been accused of slipping in the regular season because they simply don't care until the playoffs start and when the playoffs start, the heat changes. To a level few other teams could reach in three matchups during Giannis' career, the Bucks lost two of three.

The biggest surprise occurred in the 2020 bubble playoffs, after being back-to-back MVPs and winning Defensive Player of the Year. This was supposed to be Giannis' year to win the title. The Bucks were destined to reach the finals and face LeBron and the Lakers. This was the matchup we all expected but we never got it. Their plans took a different turn. The Miami Heat, a team. that Rec recently acquired Jimmy Butler went under the radar and dismantled the ball, it wasn't even close a few years later, they did it again both times as underdogs en route to the NBA Finals.

Granted that Giannis struggled with injuries in both series they lost, but even when playing the Heat kept him in substantially worse numbers than usual, like the Celtics, the Heat are equipped with players capable of stopping him, particularly bam adabo in the head-to-head matchups of his career. Giannis is averaging just 21 points per game against him, significantly less than his averages since 2018, then there are Jimmy's buckets in addition to that series where they were swept by Milwaukee in the two series they won. He's gone, it's a well-known fact that Jimmy Butler is substantially better in the playoffs and his numbers back it up.

I'm not sure how much longer this rivalry will last, as the Heat's best player has a limited amount of time. Still, they have been an obstacle that the Bucks have had difficulty overcoming for the Nuggets and Lakers, although this may not be a typical Nuggets-Lakers rivalry. They represent two different eras: the era of the current most dominant player in the NBA, Nicola Yic, facing the former best player of the previous generation, LeBron James, at almost 40 years of age, means a change in the landscape of the NBA as the Former Legend tries desperately. to hold on to their final seasons as the Nuggets became the team to beat, you could see this in their two playoff matchups when the Nuggets were still a young, promising team with a bright future ahead of them and a roster that is not yet able to compete with the best, the playoffs were tested, the Lakers got the best of them, they had no answer for LeBron, they had no answer for Davis, hell yic was struggling to score against an old Dwight Howard, he wasn't the MVP either , finally quickly advanced to the 2023 playoffs and the roles were reversed it was the Lakers who had no answer for yic now a full fledged MVP at the peak of his prime before his run to the championship there was a decent amount of critics of yic people didn't believe the Nuggets had what it took to not believe they had the answer for LeBron or the ad, but what they should have been talking about was how the Lakers didn't have an answer for the Nuggets offense to As LeBron's Twilight years fade, this rivalry won't last long. longer, but that's how it should be, as one Titan knocked another Rose to the top, the Celtics and the heat.

When you think about playoff rivalries from this era, I can't think of anything that fits this better than the Celtics and the Heat, it's a classic case. of an underdog fighting and fighting against the team most would agree has much more talent even though the Heat beat them in 2020 and 2023 and lost in 2022, even though they also had a good chance of winning that one, while the Celtics for everyone. metrics offensive rating defensive open shooting quality looks better Shooters better athletes have always had the better team on paper, but the Heat are much stronger mentally unlike many Eastern Conference teams, they don't fall apart very often in comparison with the other contenders in this conference the Sixers Bucks the Celtics the Heat have done more with less this was quite evident in their 2023 matchup the Celtics almost made history becoming the first team to come back and win the series from three games down to zero The thing is, they never should have been down 3-0 in the first place, while the Heat role players stood out, it was their flexibility on defense that makes them such a prominent contender in the playoffs zone defense. heat race for21% of their possessions are first by a huge margin unlike other teams that eschew run zone defense, the Heat have the personnel to do it with their long athletic bodies, quick feet and most importantly communication , their defense was built on the foundation laid by Eric Spola over the last two decades, every player that comes to Miami if they have the work ethic and drive to succeed can find a role in their system and culture that has been their motto for a long time and that's why this rivalry is so captivating to watch.

I'm excited to see another series between these two teams anyway. They were some of the biggest rivalries of this current generation. One curious thing I've noticed is that Giannis and Embiid, despite being in the same conference their entire careers, have never met in the playoffs, but that's something I want to see which teams they are. You are very excited to see it. Thank you all so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed the video and of course, as always, see you next time.