Houston's media and fans were still clamoring that the Rockets could rally, while Bill Simmons, as always, threw himself into the war of words and argued with them until all hell broke loose.
Although the first game between the Grizzlies and Rockets had ended, the verbal battles between both sides' fans and media only grew more intense.
But no matter how fiercely they argued, the Grizzlies and Rockets' second game would not begin anytime soon.
On the night following the Grizzlies-Rockets showdown, the spotlight belonged to the Spurs and Warriors!
Come to think of it, the Western Conference had already reached a fever pitch starting from the second round.
The Grizzlies and Rockets, two bitter enemies, were already fighting with such intensity, while the clash between the Warriors and Spurs, two sixty-win teams, was practically a battle between immortals!
Never in NBA history had two sixty-win teams met as early as the conference semifinals!
Therefore, the Warriors-Spurs series was also considered a Finals-level matchup!
Link truly hoped Silver would do one thing right: eliminate the Eastern and Western Conference split in the playoffs.
The NBA had originally established the East-West Conference structure mainly because having players constantly travel long distances back and forth across the country during the playoffs was simply too exhausting.
So the league had teams from the East and West play among themselves first, then determine the final two teams for the Finals.
But now, long-distance travel was no longer a problem for players at all. Private charter flights were standard for every team, and people like Cuban had even bought a private plane directly for their team.
In that case, even if teams had to travel across the country during the playoffs, it would not be much of an issue.
Simply determining playoff matchups by regular-season