The parity era continues in the NBA.
The New York Knicks haven't won an NBA championship since 1973. The Indiana Pacers won their most recent title that year — in the ABA. The Oklahoma City Thunder franchise has one title in its history, that coming in 1979 when the team called Seattle home. And the Minnesota Timberwolves have never even been to the NBA Finals.
Meet the NBA's final four.
When Commissioner Adam Silver hands one of those teams the Larry O'Brien Trophy next month, it'll mark a league first — seven championship franchises in a seven-year span.
There hasn't been a back-to-back NBA champion since Golden State in 2017 and 2018. From there, the list of champions goes like this: Toronto in 2019, the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020, Milwaukee in 2021, Golden State in 2022, Denver in 2023 and Boston last season.
It's the longest such run of different champions in NBA history; Major League Baseball, the NHL and the NFL have all had longer ones, and not too long ago, either.
But for the NBA, this is different. The league wanted unpredictability, especially after four consecutive Cleveland-vs.-Golden State title matchups from 2015 through 2018.
And things have been highly unpredictable since. No matter what the Finals matchup is this year, the NBA will be seeing 11 conference-champion franchises in the span of seven seasons.
“We've still got eight more wins to achieve our ultimate goal,” Minnesota coach Chris Finch said. “We've still got two more series. We're only halfway there.”
The season is over for 26 of the NBA's 30 clubs. But the fun stuff is just starting.
Conference finals start Tuesday
The Western Conference finals — No. 6 seed Minnesota vs. No. 1 seed Oklahoma City — begin Tuesday night in Oklahoma. The Eastern Conference finals — No. 4 seed Indiana vs. No. 3 seed New York — begin Wednesday night in Manhattan. The Wolves lost the West finals last year; the Pacers lost the East finals a year ago.
“You've got to have big dreams,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “You don't know how often you're going to be in this position.”
Indeed, the championship window for teams doesn't seem to be staying open as long as it did in the past.
Boston was a huge favorite to win its second straight title; the Celtics didn't get out of Round 2, in part because they couldn't hold onto big leads and in part because Jayson Tatum ruptured his right Achilles tendon in that series with the Knicks.
“Upset or not, whatever it is, we beat a great team,” Knicks guard Jalen Brunson said. “They obviously lost a huge piece ... but they're still a great team.”
Damian Lillard tore an Achilles tendon in Round 1, ending Milwaukee's hopes. Cleveland, the top seed in the East, bowed out in Round 2 against Indiana after a slew of Cavs were dealing with health issues. Stephen Curry strained his hamstring; that was all it took to doom Golden State's chances in Round 2 against Minnesota.
“He's our sun,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr said. “This is a solar system. He's our sun.”
And now, the NBA solar system is about to see new star holding the trophy.
The next one
There is nobody left in these playoffs who has been an NBA Finals MVP. Not even close.
In fact, there are only seven players left — Indiana’s Pascal Siakam, Aaron Nesmith and Thomas Bryant; Knicks teammates P.J. Tucker, Cam Payne and Mikal Bridges; and Oklahoma City’s Alex Caruso — who have appeared in a Finals game. And most of those appearances didn't add up to much; Siakam is the only player left in these playoffs with more than 100 Finals points.
So, who will the next Finals MVP be? Maybe Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the Canadian guard and likely MVP from the Thunder? The “Mr. Clutch” award winner, Brunson from the Knicks? Anthony Edwards, the presumed next face of the league from the Timberwolves? Tyrese Haliburton, the dazzling guard and Olympic gold medalist who keeps getting overlooked by everyone outside of Indiana?
None of them would be surprise choices.
“Our ultimate goal isn't just the Western Conference finals," Gilgeous-Alexander said. “You've got to go through there to get there.”
Who has the edge?
If the NBA’s final four was its own league this season, taking just the head-to-head results between those four clubs would suggest the Thunder are the clear favorite.
Oklahoma City went 6-2 against the other three conference finalists, while New York and Indiana both went 3-4 and Minnesota went 3-5.
The Thunder swept the Pacers and Knicks, and the Pacers swept the Timberwolves.
As far as the head-to-heads going into the conference finals, Oklahoma City and Minnesota split four meetings — with the Timberwolves outscoring the Thunder 475-472 — while the Knicks went 2-1 against Indiana, with all three games decided by at least 11 points.
“You can feel good about it, feel however you want to feel about it,” Haliburton said of getting to this point. “But at the end of the day, we’re not done. We know we all have a bigger goal at mind. Our goal wasn’t just to get to the Eastern Conference finals and be done. Our goal is to win a championship.”
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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba
Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press
