NBA Playoffs 2nd Round Preview: Wants vs. Needs

Allow me to get philosophical for a moment.

A famous person (or 2, or 10, or a 1000 of them) once said that life is pretty much about ‘wants’ vs. ‘needs’. We go through our motions in life going after the things we ‘want’ and surviving because of the things we ‘need’. I need to have a certain amount of nutrition each day to survive, but I really want some of that nutrition to be butter chicken from Ludhiana.

In the hallowed halls of the NBA, where the world’s finest basketball players live and breathe, where they win and lose, create or destroy their legacies, where they fight and make peace, where they celebrate in joy or cry in despair, there also exists an alternate reality and definition of ‘wants’ vs. ‘needs’. Sure, no human being, for his or her survival, needs to earns millions of dollars a year, jet around the country playing the sport he loves, score points in bucket-loads and lead his group, his team, to sporting glory through a championship. But in the alternate reality of NBA Superstardom, where survival is only achieved via excellence, the needs and the wants are starkly different.

In the competitive world of the NBA, everyone WANTS to be a winner, everyone WANTS to raise that MVP Award, and more than anything, everyone WANTS to be with his team – those 11 other men standing beside him – at the end of the season on a podium with Commissioner David Stern, being announced as a champion and laying his hands on the biggest prize in basketball: the Larry O’Brien Trophy. Whether it’s Kobe Bryant, star of the Los Angeles Lakers, who hunts for his sixth championship and his team’s 18th, or if it’s Cory Higgins, a relatively-unknown bench player for the Charlotte Bobcats, hunting for a first championship for himself and his team, the dream is the same. Some just dream about it far more than others do.

But where they differ is in their need. The Lakers – and Kobe – have been hungry for an NBA championship year-in and year-out, needing it like a bee needs pollen. It is this insatiable desire to win that marks some of the NBA’s most successful franchises – Celtics, Lakers, Spurs, Bulls – from the rest. They don’t want the Trophy like I want butter chicken, they need it like I need nutrition.

The NBA Playoffs have now moved on to the Second Round, the Conference Semi-Finals. Only eight teams remain, and only one of them will win an NBA trophy: 76ers, Celtics, Clippers, Heat, Lakers, Pacers, Spurs, and Thunder. In a season shortened by the lockout and maligned by injuries, the ‘want vs. need’ factor rises more than ever. Sure, some teams are far more talented than the others, but on any given night, one team’s hunger can eclipse another team’s wastefulness. With 8 teams remaining, we have reached a time of the year when each possession counts heavily, each mistake is more costly, and each heroic surge is far more epic.

All of the remaining teams want to win the title, but who needs it the most? Let’s preview the four matchups in the second round: while pure talent and team chemistry will continue to be the biggest reasons for winning or losing games, it will be the need for a championship – and not just the want for one – that will carry a squad over the hump.

Heat vs. Pacers

The Indiana Pacers have taken major steps forward already this season. Despite having a perennial All Star player on their roster and finishing 8th in the East last year, they climbed up to the 3rd stop this time around, won home-court advantage, and won their first playoff series in seven years after defeating the hobbled Magic in four games. It will be safe to say that they have already achieved their realistic season objective. But beyond that? Are they a team that dares to dream ahead? An exciting nucleus of Danny Granger, David West, Roy Hibbert Jr, Paul George, George Hill, Darren Collison and Tyler Hansbrough motors this team every night. They’re young, athletic, and play hard. But can they really go up against the mighty Miami Heat and survive to reach the Conference Finals?

The favourites for this series, and the favourites pretty much each time in any given game in the NBA, are the Miami Heat. Miami have the league’s MVP LeBron James, who has won the award for the third time in four years, joining an exclusive list of some of the greatest players ever to have won the award thrice. James completed a historic season and is the most complete player in basketball today. Miami also feature Dwyane Wade, a top five player in his own right, a player who alone could win a series, and in times of trouble, one of the NBA’s most dangerous finishers. Miami have Chris Bosh, too, another multiple time All Star, Olympian, and one of the best power forwards in the NBA. Factor in some of their other contributors and their top defense and it’s easy to think that Miami could win this series on talent alone.

But Miami will win this series also because they need to win it more. For all his brilliance, LeBron James remains an enigma simply because he has never been able to get over that last championship hump. The Pacers have pride, too, and will not make it easy for him, but his need – the need to solidify his greatness with a ring – will overcome their pride. On his side is Dwyane Wade, another player with a hunger for victory, and you have a duo that will help the Heat win this series, with or without Bosh. I predict Heat win 4-1.

Celtics vs. 76ers

Philadelphia may not have won an NBA title for 29 years or been to the Finals 11, but there is no doubt that they are a basketball city. The 76ers have historically boasted of teams who play tough, never-say-die basketball every year (even in the bad ones), and this year is no different. After nearly missing out on the playoffs after an end-of-season collapse and getting the league’s best Bulls in the first round, some good karma finally shined on the team when Chicago lost Derrick Rose after Game 1 and Joakim Noah for three games. The 76ers upset the Bulls in the last seconds of Game 6 and now, unexpectedly, find themselves in the 2nd round. This team relies on their defense to get victories, and they use a balanced core of Jrue Holiday, Luo Williams, Andre Iguodala, Elton Brand, Spencer Hawes, and Evan Turner to put up points on the board. After not reaching their former expectations, these playoffs may finally be a time to shine for the veterans Iguodala and Brand. They have behind them an athletic, ultra-young team, and they know what is needed to win: outrunning the older, slower, creakier Celtics.

But with age comes savvy and experience, and the current Boston squad is drenched in it. Names like Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen are already part of basketball myth, and the current most valuable name on their team – Rajon Rondo – is carving out a myth of his own. The Celtics ‘Big 4’ have already won a championship and been to the Finals another time, and their need is different from the others: this may be the team’s last run together, and their last chance as basketball greats to hold the trophy one more time. That is why Kevin Garnett is playing some of the best basketball in four years. That is why Paul Pierce will continue to be a game-changer every time a game comes down to the wire. That is why Ray Allen will keep hitting big threes. And the youngest member of the crew, Rondo, will be the unstoppable of them all, orchestrating the offense brilliantly like he has already done several times in the playoffs.

Celtics need is achieving immortality, and the 76ers need is to earn respect. Immortality will win. I predict Celtics in 4-2.

Spurs vs. Clippers

A week ago, I wrote in my column for NBA.com/India about how, if the Spurs win a title this year, it will be their fifth in the last 13 years, an era where they have had the same coach (Gregg Popovich) and the same star player (Tim Duncan). The Spurs have never missed the playoffs in 14 years since Duncan joined the team. Even as his skills deteriorate, Popovich continues to find ways to make the Spurs the most efficient offense in the league. In Tony Parker, he has a legit superstar who was one of the top five most valuable players in the league this year. He has Ginobili, and then, a host of lesser-names who fill their role perfectly. They are the favourite to win this series and one of the favourites to lift the trophy.

And then there are the Clippers. For as successful the Spurs have been, the Clippers have been mostly unsuccessful in the same era, and of course, far beyond it. While the Spurs are looked at as the model organisation, the Clippers have mostly been a mess for majority of their existence. Bringing in Chris Paul this year finally brought them a star not only to win games for them but to be the type of leader that the franchise hasn’t had on any level. Paul helped the Clippers survive a 7-game ordeal against the Grizzlies in the First Round, but a much bigger challenge awaits them now.

Despite Paul, the Clippers are still a team in need of direction. They know what they want, but still aren’t sure of the exact blueprint of getting it. The Spurs, meanwhile, continue to win because in their squad they have professionals who need victories to survive. Maybe the likes of Blake Griffin will excite more, but it will be likes of Parker, Duncan, and co who will settle for the blowout victories. I predict Spurs win 4-1.

Lakers vs. Thunder

The Lakers have won 18 titles and feature a player in Kobe who has been responsible for five of them. As I said earlier, Kobe needs that championship, it is the only way he can quench for glory. By his side is young, and sometimes troubled Andrew Bynum, who on any given day is the biggest commodity of any in these playoffs. And another winner in Pau Gasol, who may be slowed at his age but knows how to win in every league or competition at every level, from Spain to Los Angeles. The series will of course focus on a certain Metta World Peace, who will make his return after elbowing James Harden the last time these two teams faced each other. Despite his antics, World Peace is a game-changer in the playoffs: he has been a major force for the Lakers in the past, won a championship with them, and will come out hungry to defend the world’s most undefendable scoring machine: Kevin Durant. The Lakers love glory, and anything lesser than glory is considered a disappointment for this storied, veteran side.

And then there is the side that stands opposite them. A team that wasn’t known by its current name – Oklahoma City Thunder – even half a decade ago. A team that not only shed its Seattle Supersonics image but refreshed itself almost entirely by rebuilding over the last four years. And now, from young pups, they have grown to become big dogs. So big that they swept out the reigning champions in four games in the last series. Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden will cause all types of troubles for the Lakers. This is a youthful team who may not have the heritage and experience of the Lakers, but they make up for it in athleticism, speed, and intensity.

This has the makings of the perfect clash. The drama of Derek Fisher’s reunion with his former team. The tension between World Peace and Harden. The one-on-one scoring battle between two unstoppable superstars – Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant. The Lakers’ length versus the Thunder’s quickness. One team needs the title because it always needs it, and the other needs it because it has never had it before (unless you count the Sonics winning it in 1979). It will take seven games to decide, and I think it will be the young guns, who thirst their first sip of the championship champagne, who will reign. I predict Thunder win 4-3.

My predictions from the last round were off for two teams – Bulls and Grizzlies – who were both defeated. Let’s see how right (or wrong) I am this time around. Give me your picks and let me know who’ll have the ‘need’ to eclipse someone else’s ‘want’.