IN late July the NBA returned amid a backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Live Matter movement, albeit in a bubble.

There were a lot of naysayers but, while we wait with bated breath on the admission of family members and close friends inside the bubble, the success cannot be overstated.

They have now progressed to the first round of the play-offs and, true to form, the Eastern Conference has displayed its lack of competitiveness where three sweeps were witnessed in the four match-ups.

The Miami Heat, Boston Celtics and defending champions Toronto Raptors quickly dispatched the Indiana Pacers, Philadelphia 76ers and Brooklyn Nets, respectively.

In the shadow of their first-round loss, the Pacers fired Head Coach Nate McMillan who took the team to the play-offs in all four seasons under his watch but never advanced past the first round (getting swept in three of those four years).

The highly competitive Western Conference is a completely different ball game and include the JustBet joint favourites to win, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers. All eight teams contesting have won games and the action in this conference has been significantly superior.

On August 24 the Los Angeles Lakers entered game 4 of their first-round match against the Portland Trail Blazers wearing special “Black Mamba” jerseys to honour Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna – this was one day after Kobe would have celebrated his 42nd birthday. They opened the game on a 15-0 run and never looked back, cruising to a massive 135-115 win to take a 3-1 series lead.

LeBron James put up 30 points in the win and in the process, added to his illustrious accolades.

In his 17-year NBA career LeBron has played in 13 NBA play-offs (14th now running), 243 games in total. In those many games, he now has accumulated 7,000+ career points, an all-time record. No one even comes close to challenge this as Michael Jordan had 5,987 points and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had 5,762.

LeBron (34,241 points and counting) surpassed Kobe Bryant’s record (33,643) of third-most all-time points earlier this year.

He now trails against Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387) and Karl Malone (36,928). LeBron has also played the greatest number of play-offs minutes (10,151) followed by Tim Duncan (9,370), and has averaged north of 28 playoff points.

If LeBron can play a minimum of three more seasons and average 24 points per game, he can add another 5,040 points and take his total above 39,000, so there is no reason why he can’t accomplish this and set a new challenge for the next generation.

Speaking of which, point guard/small forward for the Dallas Mavericks and the 2018-19 NBA Rookie of the Year Luka Doncic is just 21 years old and barely old enough to drink legally.

Last Friday night during the first round Game 3 against the Clippers, he severely sprained his left ankle and limped to the locker room.

A few minutes later, he returned and stayed in the game just long enough to finish off a triple-double (13 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists) in a Dallas loss.

However, on Sunday in game 4 Doncic, sprained ankle and all, turned in one of the great performances in recent play-off history.

The Clippers, leading the two games to one in the series, opened up a 21-point lead and appeared to be heading for victory. But then Doncic took his game to another level and dropped 43 points, 17 rebounds and 13 assists. This included a buzzer-beating, all-or-nothing, three-pointer that gave Dallas a 135-133 victory, squaring the series at two apiece.

He could only muster 22 points in a game 5 loss on Tuesday night but it took a monster effort from Paul George (35 points), Kawhi Leonard (32 points) and a record effort for the Clippers to better their opponents. The Clippers had a 76-point first half, leading to their largest-ever play-off point total (154) while the Mavericks, assembling only 111 points, saw the most points allowed in the history of the franchise.

Doncic will have to work hard to top the game 4 performance but he’s got plenty of time and, based on his body of work since his rookie season, he’s got plenty of talent.

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28-Aug-2020 ODDSTime Game HOME AWAY

TBA Orlando Magic vs Milwaukee Bucks (Game 6) TBA TBA *If necessary

TBA Portland Trail Blazers vs LA Lakers (Game 6) TBA TBA *If necessary

TBA OKC Thunder vs Houston Rockets (Game 6) TBA TBA

29-Aug-2020

Time Game

TBA LA Clippers vs Dallas Mavericks (Game 7) TBA TBA *If necessary

TBA Denver Nuggets vs Utah Jazz (Game 7) TBA TBA *If necessary

TBA Toronto Raptors vs Boston Celtics (Game 2) TBA TBA

30-Aug-2020

Time Game

TBA Milwaukee Bucks vs Orlando Magic (Game 7) TBA TBA *If necessary

TBA Portland Trail Blazers vs LA Lakers (Game 7) TBA TBA *If necessary

TBA Houston Rockets vs OKC Thunder (Game 7) TBA TBA *If necessary

31-Aug-2020

Time Game

TBA Toronto Raptors vs Boston Celtics (Game 3) TBA TBA