Finally, NBA playoffs begin

There seem to be fewer players fishing at Walt Disney World these days. Getting a tee time or streaming video games might not be as much of a priority as it was a few weeks ago, either.

Summer vacation is over. The restart gets real now. The NBA playoffs start Monday, the beginning of a two-month journey to see which team will be able to say it won a championship. It would come in the most unusual, most trying season the league has ever seen because of a shutdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic and 22 teams eventually moving into a so-called bubble at the Disney complex to salvage the season.

“This is why we got here, why we worked so hard, why everyone put their egos aside and put their effort into this, so we could get to that point where we could crown a champion,” said guard Kyle Lowry of the defending champion Raptors. “The best part of the NBA season is the playoffs.”

The Raptors are back, with realistic aspirations to repeat their title. The Eastern Conference field also includes the Milwaukee Bucks, who posted the best regular-season record for the second consecutive year and have a likely backto-back MVP in Giannis Antetokounmpo.

In the Western Conference, for the first time since 2015, the Golden State Warriors won’t be going to the NBA Finals — their gap year, so to speak, meant they fell to the bottom of the West as they look to reset with a healthy Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson next season, possibly with the No. 1 overall draft pick as well.

LeBron James is back in the playoffs, after taking the Los Angeles Lakers — who couldn’t get to the postseason in his injurymarred first year in Hollywood — to the best record in the West. He’s gone to the NBA Finals in each of his last eight postseason trips; four with Miami, then four more with Cleveland.