5 team matchups fans want to see in the 2022 NBA Playoffs
The schedule for the highly anticipated 2021-22 NBA season has been published recently. The release of next campaign's calendar has put up many interesting matchups in the NBA's 75th regular season that will catch a lot of attention.
Apart from some great duels between elite teams on the Opening Night on October 19th, Christmas Day or MLK Day, the NBA Playoffs will be particularly interesting, as usual.
We will look past the Milwaukee Bucks' duel with the Brooklyn Nets on Opening Night, and the LA Lakers' Christmas Day duel with the Nets to dive into the possible series we could get in the NBA Playoffs.
On that note, here are five matchups everyone would like to see in the 2022 NBA Playoffs. Without further ado, let's get started:
#5 LA Lakers vs LA Clippers
The LA Lakers and the LA Clippers' rivalry has been solid in the last two seasons, but it has not materialized for fans in the NBA Playoffs.
Both teams geared up to contend for the NBA championship before the 2019-20 season, and were expected to meet in the late stages of the Western Conference Playoffs.
While the LA Lakers rolled to the NBA championship in 2020, the LA Clippers were a disappointment, and fell in the second round of the 2020 postseason after having a 3-1 lead over the Denver Nuggets.
Last season, the LA Clippers made it to the Western Conference Finals, even after a rocky start to the postseason against the Dallas Mavericks and Kawhi Leonard's season-ending injury in the second round.
Meanwhile, injuries derailed the LA Lakers' 2020-21 NBA campaign, as LeBron James and Anthony Davis were not healthy during the regular season, and Davis also got hurt in the postseason.
The only reason why this LA rivalry isn't rated higher is because of Kawhi Leonard's knee injury and his chances of missing most of the season, if not the whole year.
The LA Clippers could still be a postseason team without Leonard, so their elusive duel with the LA Lakers in the postseason could definitely be interesting.
#4 New York Knicks vs Brooklyn Nets
New York City will again be one of the cities to look out for during the NBA season, and far from what we have seen in recent seasons, both the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets will have solid squads.
Calling the Brooklyn Nets a solid squad is definitely an understatement. The Nets' super team with Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving is an elite contender for the 2022 NBA championship and will be the team to beat in the Eastern Conference if they play up to expectations.
Meanwhile, the New York Knicks are coming off an NBA Playoffs appearance in their first year under Tom Thibodeau. The Knicks put up a 41-31 regular-season record before falling in the first round to Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks (in another duel that had the makeup of a rivalry).
Crosstown rivalries are always fun in the NBA, and the story between Brooklyn's super team and the Knicks, who hope to be great, can only be interesting. Both teams will meet three times in the regular season. But a postseason clash could be on the cards, with the Knicks likely to fight for the 5-8 seeds and Brooklyn battling at the top.