NBA Playoff Notes

• Both of the teams that played in last year's Finals—the Heat and the Mavericks—failed to make the second round of the Playoffs this year. This has never happened under the current 16-team playoff format (1984–present). The last time neither NBA Finals contender won a playoff series in the following year was 1957, when neither the 1956 champion Philadelphia Warriors nor the 1956 runner-up Fort Wayne Pistons won a series.


• I'm trying to decide whether Golden State's 4-2 series victory over Dallas is the greatest playoff upset ever. On paper it is. Eighth seed Golden State finished the regular season 25 games behind top seed Dallas. The 1994 Denver Nuggets, the first eight seed to defeat a one seed, finished that season 21 games behind number one Seattle. The 1999 Knicks, the only other eight seed to pull a first-round upset, finished only six games behind top seed Miami in a lockout-shortened season.
  
  On the other hand, Golden State spent most of the regular season looking for the right mix of players—the January 17 trade with the Pacers substantially altered the team's chemistry. The Warriors finally seemed to figure things out in late March, and they won nine of their last ten games, including wins against Phoenix and Dallas and at Houston. The team that went 9-1 in the season's final three weeks was substantially better than the team that went 33-39 in the first five months.
  
  Still, when you consider that the Mavericks advanced to the NBA Finals last year and ended the season with the sixth best record in NBA history and that the Warriors hadn't made the Playoffs since 1994, it's hard to find a bigger upset.


• While I don't care for the Detroit Pistons, Chauncey Billups and Rip Hamilton are one of the greatest backcourt duos of all time. Aside from Isaiah Thomas/Joe Dumars and Walt Frazier/Earl Monroe, I can't think of a better two-guard combination.


• Today's performance against the Pistons notwithstanding, Luol Deng is about two years away from being an upper-tier superstar.


• Game 7 between Houston and Utah is unreal. I'll be up late tonight watching the rest of it.