For the 2017-18 season, the N.B.A. made some obvious choices to kick off the season on opening night: The rebuilt Houston Rockets would face the defending champion Golden State Warriors, and the former Cavaliers star Kyrie Irving would lead the Boston Celtics against his former teammates in Cleveland.
If you failed to watch how the regular season played out, the league’s final four makes perfect sense. But during a season in which Golden State and Cleveland were at times very beatable and in which Boston lost its two biggest stars to injury, only Houston’s presence in the conference finals was seldom in doubt.