The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

THE NBA playoffs are officially underway, with all eight of the first-round series through two games.

As much as I hate to rush to any conclusion, the top four teams in both conferences are clearly better than the lower four seeds. More telling is the idea that we may not see compelling basketball until the conference finals.

Once playoff seedings were finalised last Thursday, out west we got Golden State Warriors (1) v Houston Rockets (8), San Antonio Spurs (2) v Memphis Grizzles (7), Oklahoma Thunder (3) v Dallas Mavericks (6) and Los Angeles Clippers (4) v Portland Trailblazers.

In the east things balanced out with Cleveland Cavaliers (1) v Detroit Pistons (8), Toronto Raptors (2) v Indiana Pacers (7), Miami Heat (3) v New Orleans Hornets (6) and Atlanta Hawks (4) v Boston Celtics (5).

From my standpoint, of the eight match-ups in the first round, only two merited serious interest. After all, anyone with a brain, much less basketball knowledge could have pre-determined that the Warriors, Spurs, Cavaliers and Heat would make quick work of their opponents. Additionally, the Thunder and the Clippers, while not expected to sweep their respective series, were certainly expected to get out of the first round with ease.

That leaves us with two interesting match-ups, Toronto v Indiana and Atlanta v Boston.

Despite being a second seed, the Raptors have done little this season to convince the wider basketball world that they were ready to take that step forward. The reality is, in a conference as weak as the east is and has been over the last five years - a Lebron James-led team has been the conference representative in the finals since 2011 - everyone is pandering for a worthy competitor to dethrone the ‘King’.

This year, the Raptors, again playing the role of the ‘all-energy, all-effort’ squad, concluded the season with a 56-26 record; one game behind the Cavaliers. However, despite the success, the team never really gave the perception in my eyes that the team had the talent to go beyond the second round.

The all-star back court of Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan fit well together, the perfect in-season tandem to put up points just as much as it marvelled the crowd. But, it’s their style of play that always raised questions for me. Scoring points is always good, but at some point, to win a title, a team has to find a way to produce points in an efficient and effective way.

Lowry and DeRozan never presented that ability. Where does the defensive intensity come from? Neither guy as that built-in motor to make stops. In fact, Toronto doesn’t have a player on the roster that you can look at and say “he’s the guy” that will set the pace on the defensive end.

The addition of defensive standout DeMarre Carrol last July was supposed to address this deficiency. The Raptors signed Carrol to a four-year, $60million contract in hope that the versatile forward could bring the effort and energy that made him famous in Atlanta.That hasn’t been the case this year, especially in the games that matter.

The Raptors are up against an Indiana Pacers team that seem all too content with spoiling the ‘big year’ for Toronto. Over the weekend, Pacers guard Paul George took to the Raptors in the fourth quarter and no one could slow him down.

That’s the defensive ineptitude that makes you question exactly how effective the Raptors can be against a top-tier offensive player like Lebron James. I expect the Raptors to advance in this series, but I don’t expect them to get beyond the second-round.

A fully committed basketball team, one with players that play hard in their individual roles and work extremely hard for every loose ball and rebound. There is no better style of team to watch in the league. That is what the Boston Celtics offered this year: a team similar to the 2010 Orlando Magic, a group of guys that fit so perfectly together on court that the plays almost constructed themselves.

Brad Stevens has managed to get the best out of a collection of men that, otherwise, would be commendable role players.

Evan Turner is there, so is Kelly Olynyk and Jared Sullinger. But respectively, none possesses the skill set to carry a team.

One of the plethora of talented guards in Boston, Avery Bradley, went down in Saturday’s game one with a hamstring injury and is unlikely to return in this series. The loss of the guard shut the door on any chances Boston had of winning this series.

The Hawks have the league’s second best defence behind San Antonio. Between Paul Millsap and Al Horford, scoring in the post is next to impossible.

That interior presence is only strengthened by the teams work on the perimeter - the league’s top team in that category. Juxtapose that against the fact that Celtics are one of the league’s worst shooting teams.

I don’t see the Celtics winning this series, but I do see them testing the Hawks to the point that we look at them as a serious team heading into the 2016-2017 season.

Fingers crossed, as we push through this lacklustre first round, the top-tier teams can fine tune their skills to the point where we can feel comfortable that round two would be something to write home about.

• Ricardo Wells writes every Thursday on the NBA. Comments to rwells@tribunemedia.net