Over the last few years, the seeming inevitability of an NBA Finals matchup between the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers (and realistically, of a title for Golden State) has sapped the fun out of chatting about championship contenders and betting on potential underdogs.
This year, things have changed. Perennial Finals contenders like the Warriors and Cavaliers have lost a step, the Houston Rockets and Toronto Raptors had such good regular seasons that you can’t help but at least consider them, and teams like the Philadelphia 76ers and Utah Jazz finished the year so hot that you can’t quite count them out, either.