There is a 64-win team in Boston that dominated the league's best record. The defending champions in Denver, a group that won 57 games. A bold young group in Oklahoma City, whose top seed was no accident. A trio of Villanova graduates in New York, who transformed the Knicks into a real contender.
And, once again, there's LeBron James, too.
The NBA playoffs are about to start with the Celtics and Nuggets the strong favorites — according to BetMGM Sportsbook — to face off in the Finals, and many teams believe they can win the whole thing. After a seven-month buildup through training camp, a preseason, the regular season, the inaugural NBA Cup, and a play-in tournament, the league finally wakes up on Saturday with 16 teams remaining in the chase for the Larry O'Brien Trophy.
"Come Saturday, 15 other teams want what we have," Denver coach Michael Malone said. "We have the world championship trophy and everybody's trying to take it from us."
Let the games begin. The Nuggets — with most of last season's core back this year, including likely NBA MVP Nikola Jokic — are attempting to become the eighth franchise to win back-to-back titles. They'll start that quest against the Lakers and James, who is pursuing a fifth title and has never hidden that this is the time of year that matters most to him.
"There ain't no more pace," said the 39-year-old James, the league's oldest active player and all-time scoring leader who is seeking a fifth NBA title. "Pace yourself for what? Now it's the sprint. It's a sprint now. We already went through the marathon."
Round 1 begins on Saturday with four games: Orlando at Cleveland, Phoenix at Minnesota, Philadelphia at New York and the Los Angeles Lakers at Denver. On Sunday, four more Game 1s await: Chicago or Miami at Boston, Dallas at the Los Angeles Clippers, Indiana at Milwaukee and Sacramento or New Orleans at Oklahoma City.
The Thunder won 22 games three seasons ago, then 24 games the year after that. Those days are long gone already: 40 wins last season showed the potential, and 57 wins this season — with no full-time starter over age 25 — suggest that OKC's time may be now.
"It means a little more, how we got here, for sure," said Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the Thunder guard who is a legitimate MVP candidate after averaging 30.1 points this season. "But at the end of the day, it's home-court advantage, I guess, until the Finals. And that's always a plus when your home court is like ours."
They are young, they might be bold, and they definitely are enjoyable. Thunder guard Jalen Williams was asked why he wasn't wearing his division title T-shirt when the Thunder clinched the No. 1 seed: "This leather jacket cost a lot," he said, drawing laughs.
The Thunder weren't expected to be in this position; they were given 100-1 odds to win the NBA title when the season started. Boston is a very different story; much was expected from the Celtics, and they delivered.
All Boston did this season was put up the fifth-best record in franchise history, which is a big deal for any team and an even bigger deal when a team is as storied as the Celtics franchise. Of the four Boston teams that had better regular season records, three went on to win NBA titles.
Celtics President Brad Stevens said it's really tough to expect to win 64 games, no matter how good the team is or how well organized they are from a coaching standpoint, or how many playing options they have. It's just a difficult thing to accomplish.
The Celtics have no obvious weaknesses, finishing the season as the top-ranked team in offensive rating, second in points per game, third in defensive rating, and fifth in points allowed per game. Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Kristaps Porzingis all averaged at least 20 points per game, making them only the third Celtics team to have three 20-point scorers in a season. They also added Jrue Holiday in the offseason to strengthen their defense for the playoffs.
Celtics guard Derrick White said that everyone has the right mindset and is looking forward to the playoffs.
The Knicks lost Julius Randle but have continued to climb in the rankings, led by their Villanova trio — Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, and Donte DiVincenzo. They now face the 76ers in a first-round series, a team that was competing for a top-2 seed before Joel Embiid's injury.
Brunson said they focus on getting better every single day.
There are some new teams in the playoffs this year: the Thunder, Indiana — the highest scoring team in the league this season — and Orlando. Indiana will play against a Milwaukee team without star Giannis Antetokounmpo, and the Magic will face a Cleveland team that hasn't won a playoff series without James in uniform since 1993.
Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said they are going to enjoy this because the team deserves it.
Likely contenders for the NBA title are Boston, Oklahoma City, Denver, New York, Milwaukee, or Minnesota. In the past 40 years, 39 NBA champions have been seeded 1, 2, or 3 in their conference.
However, this year has been unpredictable, and the playoffs are sure to bring surprises.
Stevens said that they need to play well on Sunday and beyond.
