NBA playoffs: historical dud

After the first round of the NBA playoffs, I wrote about what a dud they were. Now we’re 11/2 rounds past that, and nothing has changed. These playoffs are historically bad.

We had three four-game sweeps in the conference semifinals, and now both conference finals are driving down 4-0 Boulevard. The four-and-counting playoff sweeps are historic.

The NBA had just three sweeps combined the previous two seasons. Since the advent of the seven-game first round, the most four-game sweeps in the playoffs has been four, in 2007. These playoffs have a chance to house the most sweeps since 1999, when six series went the minimum, including two 3-0 decisions in the first round.

Phoenix Suns center Robin Lopez, right, and Los Angeles Lakers center Andrew Bynum go after a rebound during the first half of Game 2 of the NBA basketball Western Conference finals, Wednesday, May 19, 2010, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill) ORG XMIT: LAS303

The sweeps in the conference semifinals are most alarming. One-sided basketball can happen in the first round. But in the conference semifinals? Against teams that already have dispatched a foe? Yet the Lakers swept Utah, Phoenix swept San Antonio and Orlando swept Atlanta. Now Boston has won twice in Orlando, setting up a possible (likely?) Celtic sweep. And the Suns, down 2-0, don’t figure to grow in stature or figure out how to play defense just because they’re in Phoenix.