ONLY the Oklahoma City Thunder (OKC) made use of the broom in the just ended NBA first round playoffs.
Well, they are the defending champions, right?
They ought to do well.
The rest of the second-round advancers either struggled or had tiptoed somewhat into the semifinals of both Conferences.
If only for the record, OKC scored a stunning 4-0 sweep against hapless Phoenix in the Western Conference first round — thanks mainly, again, to Shai Gildeous-Alexander aka SGA.
The best performer after the Thunder blowout were the San Antonio Spurs, who scored a 4-1 rout of the Portland Trail Blazers behind the sky-high Victor “Wemby” Wembanyama.
And then wrapping up the Western Conference initial skirmishes with identical 4-2 win-loss records in the protracted best-of-seven series were the Minnesota Timberwolves over Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets, and the ever popular Los Angeles Lakers over the Houston Rockets.
Drama was written all over the Western front, with Laker LeBron James authoring the pivotal script to it in tandem with his son, Bronny.
In building an impossible-to-overhaul 3-0 lead, LeBron made an incredible alley-oop to Bronny along the way as the duo made the first ever father-and-son alley-oop caper in NBA history.
“I just seized the opportunity when it presented itself,” said James of the milestone feat — another addition to his unmatchable treasure trove of firsts.
He is 41 years old and he has not stopped learning new tricks?
Well, we ain’t seen nothing yet?
Mayo R. Mendoza III is, therefore, telling us that the LA-OKC matchup in the Western Conference Round 2 playoffs should be a blast to watch as it will surely highlight the much-awaited duel between James and SGA.
They begin their race-to-four series on Wednesday (May 6, PH time) and, like the Pacquiao fights of old, the world stops to keep it glued on TV.
Meanwhile, in the Eastern playoffs, it was virtually neck-and-neck battles for the majority of the pairings, with Detroit, Cleveland and Philadelphia scoring identical 4-3 victories over Orlando, Toronto and Boston in that order, and New York eliminating Atlanta 4-2.
Other Round 2 matchups pit San Antonio against Minnesota in the West, and Philadelphia versus New York and Cleveland against No. 1 seed Detroit in the East.
Getting to be interesting. Don’t blink.
