The teams left are the Los Angeles Lakers (knocking out the defending champions, and winners of four of the previous eight NBA finals: the San Fransisco Golden State Warriors), the Miami Heat (besting the New York Nicks), the Denver Nuggets (trumping the Phoenix Suns), the Philadelphia 76'ers and the Boston Celtics who will face off this Sunday, May 14.
The 2022/23 season began its 77th season on October 18, 2022, with the conference finals beginning this May in the dramatic run-up to the June finals.
The Eastern and Western Conference finals will be played next week, as each of the teams seek to secure three-pointers and run down the clock. The outcome from these two games will see who will be in the grand finale.
The Western Conference final will see Heat against either the Celtics or 76'ers, and the Eastern Conference final will witness a Lakers-Nuggets head-to-head.
The Celtics are the bookies new play-off favourites, hitting harder and faster than the 76'ers in their sixth game that saw a 96-86 Boston win.
Celtics' Jayson Tatum has also come back ever fiercer this season — proving to his fans he does not want another NBA finals loss like the Celtics saw in 2022 against Golden State — with a 30.6 points per game average blowing away the Boston records.
Despite this, other teams have stepped on the gas as Nuggets' Nikola Jokic has been rated the best offensive player this season, and the Nuggets were the top seed at the end of the NBA season.
But with last year's winners (Golden State) bowing out so soon, it seems like anyone's guess as to who will lift the Larry O'Brien Championship trophy.