Conference finals have become interesting

All of a sudden, the invincible are not so invincible anymore.
A week ago, just about anyone would have agreed that the Golden State Warriors were the favorite to win the NBA’s Western Conference title. It seemed obvious, given that they won a record 73 games this year and lost just once at home.
As recently as Saturday evening, anyone following the playoffs thought the Cleveland Cavaliers were going to walk easily to the NBA Finals. They had blown through the first two rounds of the playoffs with eight straight wins and had clobbered their seemingly undermanned conference finals opponent twice to extend their playoff winning streak to 10.
Fifty hours later, the playoffs have a much different outlook.
All of a sudden, Golden State looks like the underdog and Cleveland seems headed for a seven-game throwdown.
Though Oklahoma City and Toronto had nearly identical records during the regular season — 55 and 56 wins respectively — their playoff ascendancies couldn’t be more different.
For Oklahoma City, the regular season had to be looked at as something of a disappointment. For a team with two stars the caliber of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, it would seem the 60-win mark would be a clear goal.
Instead, the Thunder played in the shadows of the Western Conference this year. The defending champion Warriors and the San Antonio Spurs, who also had one of the great regular-season campaigns in NBA history with 67 wins, took most of the attention.
It seemed Oklahoma City was just not in a position to compete this year. Perhaps though, the Thunder was lurking the whole time, just waiting for its chance to strike.
The team located in the third-smallest NBA city stole game one in Oakland, where Golden State had lost just once all season. After the Warriors pulled even in game two, Oklahoma City made a statement Sunday night.
Behind a combined 63 points from Durant and Westbrook, the Thunder struck a punch that may well have their opponent reeling. They won by 28 in game three, and were leading by 37 heading into the final period.
Toronto hasn’t really been considered a title contender all year, despite finishing with just one fewer win than the Cavaliers. It was assumed that Cleveland would represent the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals again, and that belief was only bolstered when the Cavaliers seemed to take their game to another level in dispatching Detroit and Atlanta in back-to-back sweeps.
Wins by 31 and 19 points in the first two games of the conference finals had Cleveland fans already contemplating whether their team could beat the Warriors this year with a healthy Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. (Or if they could beat the Thunder, if an upset happened out West.)
Then on Saturday night, Bismack Biyombo grabbed a team-record 26 rebounds and scored six straight points in a key stretch late in a game-three Raptors win. And Monday, the Raptors overcame an early Cleveland onslaught to control most of a game-four win that saw Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan combine for 67 points.
Let’s be clear, Lowry and DeRozan are good players. But they are not Westbrook and Durant.
Bismack Biyombo? He’s been thrust into the starting role only because starting forward Jonas Valanciunas is injured.
So here we are. The Eastern Conference Finals are tied at two games apiece. In the West, the best regular-season team in league history must win tonight to avoid falling behind 3-1.
This is what makes playoff basketball so interesting. What happened during the regular season is meaningless. Reputation doesn’t matter. It all comes down to how each team plays in each game.
These last few days could all end up being much ado about nothing. Cleveland could bounce back for a big win at home Wednesday and then close out its series Friday. Golden State could catch fire and win each of the next three games by double digits.
After all, an injury-depleted Cavaliers squad led the Warriors 2-1 in last season’s NBA Finals before dropping the next three in a row.
But let the current landscape serve as a reminder.
There is no such thing as an invincible team. Every squad has its Kryptonite.