The NBA Playoffs 2013 brackets have been shrinking week after week. We are now down to only four teams combined in the playoffs. This means, the Conference Finals arrived. The San Antonio Spurs and Memphis Grizzlies took their shots first and will continue their series before the Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers take a crack at the Eastern Conference Finals. Here's how all four teams have gotten this far into the playoffs and where they currently stand.
For the third straight year, the Heat are in the Conference Finals. They swept the Milwaukee Bucks and almost needed boxing gloves to settle their series with the Chicago Bulls, who they eventually defeated in five games.
The Pacers took out the Atlanta Hawks after looking incapable of winning a game on the road. They eventually won that series in six games and then gave the New York Knicks a hard time, eventually winning that series in six games also. The Pacers have yet to lose a game at home, forcing their opponents to play well in their homes. The Knicks didn't play well at the Garden and the Pacers proceeded to steal Game 1 while winning three games at home.
The Pacers did a great job stopping the three and looking forward to Shane Battier, Mario Chalmers and especially Ray Allen, Indiana will have to put twice as much effort into their game if they expect to defeat the defending NBA Champions.
Here's what the Eastern Conference playoff bracket looks like:
(1) Miami Heat
vs. ........................Second Round
(8) Milwaukee Bucks---- Heat...........CONFERENCE FINALS
(4) Brooklyn Nets .................................. HEAT
vs.
(5) Chicago Bulls-------- Bulls
(2) New York Knicks
vs.
(7) Boston Celtics------- Knicks
(3) Indiana Pacers............................... PACERS
vs.
(6) Atlanta Hawks------- Pacers
OVER IN THE WEST the San Antonio Spurs had an easy time in the first round getting by the Los Angeles Lakers. It was almost a no-brainer that they would have a successful series being that the Lakers were without Kobe Bryant and the Spurs were with their squad of veterans. The Lakers were gone in four and then the Spurs had to play tougher basketball in the second round.
The Golden State Warriors were not going to exit the playoffs without fighting. They could have easily taken a 2-0 series lead had they won Game 1, but the Spurs capped off a tremendous comeback as Manu Ginobili won it in overtime.
For the Grizzlies, it was an interesting run and so far, losing Game 1 against the Spurs doesn't seem like a road block to their NBA Finals' hopes. Memphis lost Game 1 against the Los Angeles Clippers, but lost Game 2 despite their brilliant effort. However, they sensed they were still in the fight and this was the case as they went on to win the next four games.
They had to be confident in the second round as they were facing an Oklahoma City Thunder team that was without one of their major pieces, Russell Westbrook. They lost Game 1 because there is only so much a team can do to stop Kevin Durant, but they went on to win the next four games, eliminating the defending Western Conference champions.
The Grizzlies are down 0-1 and could possibly go down 0-2 in the series, but they know that they can play well in front of their home crowd.
Here's the Western Conference bracket through the completion of the first two rounds of the 2013 NBA Playoffs.
(1) Oklahoma City Thunder
vs. ......................................SECOND ROUND
(8) Houston Rockets--------- Thunder
(4) Los Angeles Clippers......................................CONFERNCE FINALS
vs.
(5) Memphis Grizzlies--------- Grizzlies------------------ GRIZZLIES
(2) San Antonio Spurs
vs.
(7) Los Angeles Lakers------- Spurs----------------------SPURS
(3) Denver Nuggets
vs.
(6) Golden State Warriors----- Warriors