The NBA playoffs have a very simple way of determining winners and losers. If you can’t come out on top four times in seven tries, you don’t get to play anymore.
Pretty straightforward, right?
To get a deeper sense of the postseason and its potential fallout, we need to go beyond who advanced and who didn’t. To do that, we’ll look at the players who used the second round to either establish or damage their reputations. Sure, the regular season still matters. But everyone knows playoff performance gives a much clearer picture of who’s really up for competition at the highest level.
One note: Nobody from the Los Angeles Lakers deserves to be labeled a loser.
They entered their second-round matchup with multiple injuries and ran up against a juggernaut. There’s no shame in being swept by the Oklahoma City Thunder. If you walk out of a matchup with that team with all four limbs intact, you’re a winner by definition.
