The NBA playoffs and the Lost Underdog Factor...

UMDuluth took the NCAA Frozen Four Championship
in dramatic fashion with a Golden Goal against Michigan.

So we’re done with the NFL, College Football, Hoops, and Hockey Championships, and now it’s finally time for the NBA Playoffs; or as it’s known around here, the best time of the year.  (Also because of the NHL playoffs though... the Hockey Golden Goal is the coolest thing in sports!...  but we’ll have to get to that another day.)  Now, obviously we love the NBA and their playoffs, but this time of year has also admittedly become something of a buzz-kill to Underdog aficionados around the world.  Why?  Well because, historically, in the NBA the Underdogs rarely pull through.   

Unlike the amazing one-game matchups that captivate the nation for three weeks in March, the NCAA’s bigger basketball brothers engage in a much more drawn-out and calculated championship tournament.  Each round consists of a best of seven-game series so the drama is gradual, and inevitably the more talented/experienced team always seems to win.  Yes, there can be some thrilling upsets in individual games but almost never in a series.  The intensity of a one-game-win-or-go-home scenario only simultaneously occurs for both teams in the event of a seventh game, and that just doesn’t happen very often.  

But that won’t stop us from pulling for our mighty Underdog brethren in the face of the longest odds.  It is as Theoden says in the Lord of the Rings, when he is told that his army can't possibly defeat the enemy, “Yes.  But we will meet them in battle none-the-less!”

So who are our great Underdogs in shining armor/armour this year?

In the East it is hard to think of any of the Underdogs as having a chance in any round.  But the most compelling matchup has to be the offensively-potent New York Knickerbockers against the suddenly-defensively-mortal Boston Celtics, in the 3-6 matchup.  What an incredible turn of events!  The Celtics were looking unbeatable in the East for most of the season, but Danny Ainge hurled a major roll of the dice on trade deadline-day by trading the C’s big defensive anchor Kendrick Perkins to the Oklahoma City Thunder, and shocking everyone who follows the NBA in the process.  Finally back from injury, Perkins was poised to reclaim his position and solidify the Celtics defensive identity, and with it their status as a legit championship contender.  But instead, in a blink of his eye, Perk found himself wearing a Thunder jersey in the NBA’s newest city.  It was unprecedented.  A core member of a championship team, dealt just before the most crucial point of the season.  What a gamble!

Perkins still looks strange in blue.

On the face of it, Ainge’s thinking seemed perfectly defensible.  He didn’t think they could afford to re-sign Perkins in the off-season, and he didn’t think they had enough depth at the wing behind Ray Allen and Paul Pierce, in potential matchups against Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James, and Dwayne Wade, so bringing back young swing-man Jeff Green in the trade made some sense.  But what he didn’t foresee was the damage the trade would inflict on the guys that stayed behind.  Unquestionably, the Celtics are not the same team anymore.  If you’re looking for an argument proving a player’s worth beyond statistical numbers, look no further.  It’s right here.  The Celtics are lost right now without Perk, and if the Knicks can somehow make some magic happen in this first round series, Danny Ainge may end up looking like the Dope of the young Century.  How could you purposefully hamstring your own team that way?  I guess, sometimes when you swing for the fences, you miss.

When we look to the Western Conference matchups, the Underdog picture gets quite a bit more interesting.  Big Kendrick Perkins’ arrival in Oklahoma City has sadly once-and-for-all pushed the Thunder (2010 Underdogs of the year, Honorable Mention) from true Underdog Status, at least in the first round.  But they could still prove to be quite a bit of a nuisance to the defending champion Lakers in the later rounds, which at least preserves them some partial-underdog status.  

In the Western first round, the Memphis Grizzlies and Portland Trailblazers look to be the major players in the upset category with compelling matchups against the Spurs and Mavericks respectively, but the most unlikely of all the Underdogs this year has to be those scrappy and resilient Denver Nuggets.  What an incredible story this is!  Their trade of Carmelo Anthony has had the "reverse Kendrick Perkins effect!"  As we all know the Nuggets were all but forced to trade their best player (ever?) to the Knicks at the trade-deadline, and all of the experts predicted their inevitable demise, slipping out of the playoff picture.  But what has happened has been something quite miraculous.  They’ve played far better without Melo than they did with him!  They move the ball beautifully.  The offense is actually allowed to move fluidly, without a “superstar” ball-stopper to disrupt it, forcing his own shot.  And most importantly, they play ten deep in their rotation, something unheard of in the NBA.  

The Nuggets lead the NBA in the unofficial stat, most tattoos.

Since the days of Jordan and Pippen, the formula for winning in the NBA has always been “you need two superstars.”  And lately that has morphed to, “you need three superstars… or at least 2.5 (Chris Bosh.)”  The Nuggets have NONE!   J.R. Smith, Raymond Felton, Danilo Gallinari, Nene?  No “house-hold names” in the bunch!  And it makes the Denver Nuggets the only real possibility of a Cinderella Story in the NBA playoffs.  They are the Butler Bulldogs, just a little bigger, and taller, with more tattoos (Kenyon Martin and Chris Anderson alone must have 100.)  Everyone counted them out, but now the have a real chance to silence the doubters and prove that Underdogs aren’t dead in the NBA.  The favorites have had their day.  Now it’s time to mix it up!!!  :)

Well, at least the Underdogs will have their chance.  C'mon Nuggs!

Thanks for reading.

Underdogs out!