The NBA season has now ended, and that means the start of the NBA playoffs have now began. Last year, the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers battled out a 7 game series, where the Warriors choked, blowing a 3-1 lead, giving the Cavs the win.

This year, the teams from the East that have made the playoffs, and are officially past the first round, are the Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers, Toronto Raptors, and Washington Wizards. This year, the two teams who did not return to the second round of the NBA playoffs are the Miami Heat, who did not make this year’s playoffs, and the Atlanta Hawks, who were knocked out in the first round by the Washington Wizards. The teams who were able to come back stronger this year to battle out for a spot in the second round are the Boston Celtics and the Washington Wizards.

In the West, the teams that have battled into second round of this year’s playoffs are: the Golden State Warriors, San Antonio Spurs, Houston Rockets, and Utah Jazz. In the West, the teams not returning to the second round are the Portland Trailblazers and the Oklahoma City Warriors. Their spots were taken by the Houston Rockets  and the Utah Jazz.

Last year, the two teams who were able to fight throughout the season and make it all the way through the playoffs to the finals were the Golden State Warriors with Stephen Curry and the Cleveland Cavaliers with Lebron James. These two teams battled their way with a forced game 7 with a record breaking comeback from being down 3-1 in the series for the win.

This year, after the end of the first round in the playoffs, almost all of the students at ISB believe that the Golden State Warriors will be back to claim the title this year. Kevin Irwin(11) and Tj Wilson (11) both believe that the Warriors and Cavs will both make it to the finals again this year for a desirable rematch between the two.

On the other hand,  Dulguun Bold-Erdene (11) and Alex Wang (10) are the two believers that feel the Cavaliers will not make it to the finals to play the Warriors. Alex believes that the Warriors will still be in the finals and thinks that San Antonio Spurs will make it to the finals as well. Dulguun Bold-Erdene believes that the NBA finals will be a new pair of the Toronto Raptors and the Houston Rockets.

Who will make it to the NBA finals? Who will win the NBA finals? The only way to find out is to stay tuned and watch the biggest games in the NBA season from Thursday June 1 to Sunday, June 18.

By Lucas Wilson