5. Parity Shines Through
If there has been one thing that was persistent this season it was parity throughout the league. While the Phoenix Suns ran away from the rest of the league in terms of win-loss record, the rest of the league had some congestion in the standings.
In the Eastern Conference, the 10th seeded were closer to the fifth-seeded Toronto Raptors than they were to the 11th seeded New York Knicks. In the Western Conference, only three games separated the fifth seed Utah Jazz and seventh-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves.
There are a lot of strong teams in the playoff field this season as there is a chance every team that makes the 16-team field will have a record above the .500 mark. It would be the first time since the 2018 postseason that occurred.
Given the strength of the field, we could see much more competitive first-round matchups than we sometimes see. As a result, the long-running streak of a sweep occurring in the NBA Playoffs will come to an end at 45 years. The last time a sweep didn’t occur was in 1976.
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At the same time, there has been at least one Game 7 in 22 consecutive postseasons. This year will make it 23 as at least one series will go the distance.
