10 Reasons Why the NBA Playoffs Are Better Now Than Ever Before

The First Round of the 2014 NBA Playoffs was electric. An NBA-record five Game 7s, eight overtime games, 23 games decided by five points or fewer, game-winning shots on the daily—do the playoffs in any sport get better than this? The remaining rounds have a hell of an act to follow. Last night's opening conference Semi-Finals were tame relative to the madness of the previous round, making for the first boring night of NBA action in like a month. We've been spoiled.

There is, however, plenty to look forward to. Does a LeBron-KD Final whet your appetite? Or do you want to see a member of the NBA's Old Guard like Tim Duncan or Paul Pierce make a deep run? Actually, it's hard to not root for the Clippers in the wake of Donald Sterling's mess. Get excited for the next two months with 10 Reasons Why the NBA Playoffs Are Better Now Than Ever Before.

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It's a shame that it's happened under these deplorable circumstances, but empathy and rooting interests for the Clippers are at all-time highs right now. Donald Sterling may be banned for life from the NBA, but his words have left a massive shadow of social injustice and pigheaded behavior over these Clippers. This is a franchise in turmoil that's been able to battle past the Warriors so far. Watching them overcome all of the emotions and instability around the team is a story worth wanting to continue.

These are the kinds of moments that get capitalized on championship-levels in the short-term, and what movies are made of years down the line. The NBA has rallied around the Clippers for literally the first time ever, which isn't something Chris Paul and Doc Rivers will lose anytime soon.

There are some great basketball cities getting a chance to resurface and really show out for the fans. The environment in citites like OKC is college-like. Every fan isn't too cool to wear the free t-shirt, and they actually show up on time. Miami and Brooklyn crowds know nothing of this behavior.

This postseason, Portland and Toronto have seen their fanbases mobilized for the first time in years. Rip City and T-Dot are back, and the world's noticing. Toronto's raucous crowd earned the praise of TD Garden veterans Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett after Game 7. Pierce called the Air Canada Centre, "one of the best environments in basketball," and Garnett added that "our ears were ringing." Having great basketball towns get excited about their teams after years of lethargic play brings out the most passionate fans, providing an atmosphere that can be felt through the TV.

So far, so good this postseason. There haven't been any catastrophic injuries to our league's superstars... yet *knock on wood*. Like, we all know that the 2012 and 2013 playoffs don't even count because Derrick Rose and Russell Westbrook both went down in the First Round, sapping two title contenders of their destructive point guard maestros. That Bulls team and last year's Thunder could have definitely taken LeBron's rings had they been at 100 percent.

The 2014 NBA playoff's best players have all stayed on the court thus far, keeping interest levels and the quality of play high in this star-driven league.

It's quiet for both Lakers and Celtics fans. For the second time since 1949—before the professional basketball in the United States even existed as the National Basketball Association—the Lakers and the Celtics have both missed the playoffs. 1994 was the first time it happened, when Vlade Divac and Dee Brown were the Lakers' and Celtics' respective stars.

It is nice, that for the first time in the Twitter Era, the fan bases for these two teams are shut and silent. Although Celtics fans have been more worried about baseball and hockey for months now, and Lakers fans are dealing being a lottery for the first time in years.

This one's obvious, but it can't be understated. 10 years ago, if you wanted to follow the NBA playoffs, you had five options: Sports websites, the newspaper (yes, that thing), TV news, your VCR tape recorder (if you couldn't watch it live), or catching the game live. Now, there's an unlimited amount of screens and ways you can stay updated. Don't have a TV? Stream it online. Need to watch it on-the-go? ESPN has an app for that. For a dedicated fan, it's impossible to not stay on-top of the action. Even for someone who could care less about the NBA, they're likely gaining a SportsCenter-level of knowledge just from seeing their friend's NBA-related posts on social media.

In particular, Twitter has totally changed the sports viewing experience. Instead of listening to your friend's armchair analysis and lame jokes during games, you can follow whatever combination of sports experts and slander technicians you want. There are few things better in life than Twitter after a monumental sporting event. The LeBron slander after the 2011 Finals? Please. In a decade, technology has made the at-home NBA playoffs experience better.

Drake and Jay Z created their own stories by just being at the Nets-Raptors games, even trading barbs at each other in interviews and diss tracks. Every Raptors home game was even more of an event because of Drake's court side presence. His dusty pants, custom Raptors gear, OVO lint rollers, and OVO Jordans—the fact that we noticed, recorded, and talked about everything he wore and did while at an NBA playoff game only enhances the scope of basketball and hip-hop culture intertwining.

It was a good look for all parties involved—a prime showcase of celebrity influence gaining traction within the NBA periphery.

Any of the top nine teams in the Western Conference this season would've at least been a No. 3 seed in the East. Now that the Warriors, Grizzlies, and Mavericks have been sent home, the West's Semi-Finals will feature four teams with 54-plus regular season wins, which is absurd. Since the 2003 playoffs, that's only happened twice (2004 and 2008), with both instances coming from the West.

Three of the four First Round series out West went the distance, and all four would've had Game 7s had Chandler Parsons kept up with Damian Lillard in Portland. The strength and parity out West all but guarantees amazing basketball being played every night. These teams are throwing their scouting, film, and analytics departments out at each other in full force, combining the league's best talent on the court with the best front offices. It's at the point where any of the remaining four teams out West could make the Finals, and nobody would be all that surprised.

Seeing any conference be played out so tightly doesn't happen too often, making these playoffs a true treat for NBA fans.

For Tim Duncan, (38) Tony Parker (31), Manu Ginobili (36), Kevin Garnett (37), and Paul Pierce (36), their championship windows should've been closed like three years ago. And yet, year after year, their teams make the playoffs and put up a fight. The Nets were regarded as a dark horse to come out of the East before the playoffs, and they've got the series against the Heat that everyone wanted. The Nets have no room to make wholesale improvements next season, so for KG and Pierce, this is it. Watching two future Hall of Famers—guys who are not only held together with Tiger Balm and trainer's tape at this point, but also underdogs—leave their last ounces of star NBA talent out on the floor is compelling as fuck.

Duncan and Co. have a more realistic shot at a title. They're on a mission to avenge the wrongs of last year's Finals. Ask Gregg Poppovich about Game 6 today, and he'd likely give the same response that he gave back in September: "I think about Game 6 every day. Without exception. I think about every play."

Best believe that the rest of the Spurs are still dwelling on those lost rings, using that as motivation to do right come June and take back what should've been theirs.

It's been quite some time since there was even the potential for a decade-long rivalry between two transcendent players. The '80s had Larry Bird and Magic Johnson take seven titles between them, and since then, there hasn't been anything close to that. The '90s were spent seeing Michael Jordan spill most of the available championship champagne, with media and fans alike trying in vain to assign Jordan a rival. The Lakers and Spurs dominated the 2000s, winning seven titles total, not leaving any room for any East-West rivalry between players.

At this point, trying to compare LeBron James vs. Kevin Durant to Bird-Magic feels forced—they've squared off in exactly one Final, which was decided rather quickly in favor of LeBron—but there's no denying that there's the potential for a rivalry that great. When was the last time the league's two best players were in opposite conferences and were as evenly talented and capable of providing a compelling series as LeBron and Durant are?

For a neutral observer—someone who just wants the most exciting NBA product possible—rooting against six straight years of these two heavyweights duking it out in the Finals would be foolish.

Out of the remaining eight playoff teams, four are too close to call over a best-of-seven series, one is a No. 1 seed that may or may not be able to return to championship form, one is a team that could ride its offense into the Finals, and two teams are just Eastern Conference fodder. For the first time since 2008, there's no clear-cut favorite out of either Conference (in the East, it really rests on how much you believe in the Nets and if you still believe in the Pacers—otherwise, it's all Miami).

From 2008-2013, either the Lakers or the Heat had title expectations above the rest of the pack. Now? It's a toss-up. Between the Spurs, Thunder, Clippers, Heat, Pacers, and Trail Blazers, a legitimate Finals argument could be made for each. When match-ups provide more questions than surefire answers, the games are bound to be thrilling.