NBA PLAYOFF SOAP OPERA POWER RANKINGS

Welcome to the wonderful world of the NBA's second season, or, as I like to say, this is the time of year when watching the NBA Playoffs is like getting hooked on a soap opera.

Like sand through the hourglass, so are the days of our NBA Playoff lives.

For a minute, just think about how the 16 teams in the first round of the playoffs have to react to what happened in their last game. For example, the Miami Heat, who are missing Jimmy Butler and Terry Rozier, are facing the Boston Celtics, who are clearly the regular-season favorites to win an NBA title this year. The Heat found themselves only down by 32 points at the end of the 3rd quarter but forced the Celtics to put their starters back in the game in the 4th when they pulled too within 12 points. Sure, the Celtics ended up winning the game by 20, but the Heat proved despite being shorthanded, they would not go quietly into the night.

To be clear, I’m not saying Heat Culture will prevail in a surprising series win, but there will certainly be some drama in the most mismatched round-one series. That’s what makes the NBA’s second season so intriguing and even more challenging to predict, as things can change overnight.

So here goes my attempt at the first installment of our NBA Playoff Soap Opera Power Rankings.  

1. Boston Celtics 

2. Denver Nuggets

3. Minnesota Timberwolves 

4. New York Knicks

5. OKC Thunder

6. Milwaukee Bucks 

7. Los Angeles Clippers 

8. Cleveland Cavs 

9. New Orleans Pelicans 

10. Dallas Mavericks 

11. Phoenix Suns 

12. Philadelphia 76ers

13. Los Angeles Lakers

14. Indiana Pacers

15. Orlando Magic

16. Miami Heat

Keep in mind that these rankings were given after every team played one game in the playoffs. It will certainly be entertaining to watch the drama unfold over the coming weeks and interesting to see if any teams that lost their first games move up the rankings over the next couple of weeks.