A Tribe Called West: SPAB NBA Playoff Preview

Now that we've seen the first game of every match up, it's time to look at the NBA's Western Conference.

The West is much more competitive than the East. The Phoenix Suns, who just missed the playoffs in the West, would have been the 4 seed in the East. There are five teams I can see making it out of the West: The Spurs, Thunder, Clippers, Rockets and Warriors. Of those five however, I only see the Spurs and Thunder as legitimate contenders. They are my picks for the Western Conference Finals (I know big surprise, but hey this is the NBA.) The other three teams have upset potential but it is hard to see them going through both top teams in a 7 game series.

It seems like for the past 5-6 years, The Spurs have been counted out because of their age. That kind of thing can be expected when the man who leads their team, Tim Duncan, is so old that his social security number is 1! However to go along with that old age The Spurs have great young talent, and one of the best coaches ever. The Thunder’s hopes at their first championship in OKC were crushed when Russell Westbrook went down last year. This year Westbrook and MVP favorite, Kevin Durant, are determined to get back to the NBA Finals. Durant is on a mission this year, he led the NBA in scoring for the 4th time in 5 years at 32 ppg and he will lead the Thunder to the NBA Finals.

In a repeat of the 2012 NBA Finals which seems so long ago, the Heat square off against the Thunder. Lets take a trip down memory lane at some of the events waaaaay back in 2012.

• Gangnam Style became a mega hit
• The Dark Knight Trilogy came to an end
• Tim Tebow led the Broncos to an OT win in the playoffs over the Steelers
• The world did not end on December 21st (I was really wrong on that one)

What do these things have to do with this year’s NBA Finals? Well not much, its just fun to take a trip down memory lane. This year’s NBA Finals will come down to LeBron vs Durant. While Durant won the regular season battle, LeBron will win the battle when it matters most. Picking the Heat to win it all this year is not as easy as it was the past two years, but they still have the best player, and the best team.

In two years we can only hope that when the SPAB playoff preview comes out it will involve the Andrew Wiggins led 76ers winning it all.