Who Are the Left in the NBA Playoffs?
The NBA Playoffs are in full swing and the field is slowly being whittled down to the final four. So far, the playoffs have been defined by parity and close games.
The Left in the NBA
The Left in the NBA are teams that have been fortunate enough to make the playoffs. These teams have worked hard throughout the regular season and deserve to be in the playoffs. The Left in the NBA are the teams that have the best record in their respective conferences.
The teams
The eight teams that make up the NBA playoffs’ left bracket are the Milwaukee Bucks, Toronto Raptors, Houston Rockets, Golden State Warriors, Portland Trail Blazers, Utah Jazz, Denver Nuggets, and Oklahoma City Thunder. The top-seeded Bucks and Raptors will each have home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.
The Warriors are the defending champions, having won three of the past four NBA Finals. The Rockets are led by perennial MVP candidate James Harden, while the Trail Blazers feature All-Star point guard Damian Lillard. The Jazz and Nuggets are each coming off of breakout seasons in which they vastly outperformed expectations. The Thunder are led by Russell Westbrook, one of the most explosive players in the league.
The players
There are a handful of players in the NBA who have become known for their political activism, most notably LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony. However, there are many other players who have taken stances on social and political issues, and a number of them are left-leaning.
In the 2017-2018 season, 11 players on the Golden State Warriors made headlines when they refused to visit the White House to celebrate their championship. Among those players were veterans like Stephen Curry and Andre Iguodala, as well as younger players like Kevin Durant and Draymond Green. All of them cited President Trump’s divisive rhetoric as their reason for skipping the trip.
Other active NBA players who have been outspoken about their politics include Portland Trail Blazers guard CJ McCollum, who has been critical of Trump on Twitter, and Minnesota Timberwolvescenter Karl-Anthony Towns, who tweeted his support for Colin Kaepernick’s protests against racial injustice.
During the 2018 off-season, a number of NBA players spoke out against the separation of families at the U.S.-Mexico border. Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker and Miami Heat forward Kelly Olynyk were among those who denounced the policy.
Many former NBA stars have also been vocal about their politics. One of the most outspoken is Scottie Pippen, who has said that he would vote for Bernie Sanders if he could. Other notable names include Magic Johnson, Charles Barkley, and Shaquille O’Neal.
The Left in the Playoffs
The Left in the NBA Playoffs are the teams that have been seeded one through eight in the Western and Eastern Conference respectively. The Left teams have to play each other in the first rounds of the playoffs.
The teams
There are four teams remaining in the NBA playoffs, and they are all from the Western Conference. The Golden State Warriors, who have the best record in the league, are the top seed. They will face the fifth-seeded Houston Rockets in the first round. The second-seeded San Antonio Spurs will take on the seventh-seeded Dallas Mavericks. In the other first-round series, the third-seeded Los Angeles Clippers will battle the sixth-seeded Portland Trail Blazers.
The players
In the NBA, the playoffs are a best-of-seven series played between the eight teams that qualified from each conference. These teams are seeded according to their regular-season record. The team with the better record has home-court advantage, meaning they will host Games 1, 2, and 5 (if necessary). The first round of the playoffs is known as the Conference Semifinals, followed by the Conference Finals. Finally, the winners of each conference will face off in the NBA Finals.
There are a total of 16 teams remaining in the playoffs, 8 from the Western Conference and 8 from the Eastern Conference. From the West, we have:
The Golden State Warriors (1)
The Houston Rockets (2)
The Portland Trail Blazers (3)
The Denver Nuggets (4)
The Oklahoma City Thunder (5)
The San Antonio Spurs (6)
The Los Angeles Clippers (7)
And the Utah Jazz (8).
From the East, we have:
The Milwaukee Bucks (1)
The Toronto Raptors (2)
The Philadelphia 76ers (3)
The Boston Celtics (4)
The Indiana Pacers (5)
The Detroit Pistons (6)
The Brooklyn Nets (7)
And finally, the Orlando Magic (8).
