New-look playoffs pose still-deadly Durant against historically-hungry Spurs.

With Karl-Anthony Towns winning MVP honors, and deservingly so after leading the Minnesota Timberwolves to not only the playoffs but the #2 seed in the Western Conference, Giannis Antetokounmpo winning Defensive Player of the Year, and Cade Cunningham winning Rookie of the Year as the brightest of the N'awlins bunch (as they also enter the post-season), the NBA Playoffs are underway!

Only one arch-nemesis on the other side of the bracket will meet the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals, as both the Los Angeles Lakers & Philadelphia 76ers will have to devour each other first to get there, if Coach Pop's squad has its way with three opponents first. With the top 16 teams judging from win/loss records making the cut, the Lakers became the #6 seed with Philadelphia becoming the #2 seed, with Philly & San Antonio leading each's side of the bracket, respectively.

The initial challenge for the Spurs comes from a resurgent Brooklyn Nets team led by Kevin Durant & Kyrie Irving, boosted by rookie point guard lottery pick Daishen Nix chose to forego the college experience and opt for the G-League's enticing path instead. Ex-Warrior, Kevon Looney, has had a quality year as a starting center given his prior health issues and Latvian talent, Rodion Kurucs, has come into his own alongside an also healthy Caris LeVert.

Meanwhile, the Lakers will have their hands full with the Boston Celtics in the first round, whereas the Nets earned the #16 seed, sporting one of the cut's only .500 records.

For San Antonio, Kevin Durant poses an always deadly threat as the Spurs begin a historic quest to tie the Celtics & Lakers for 17 championships as a basketball organization. The Spurs have won 11 consecutive NBA Titles leading up to this point, with 5 more championship runs in the team's past history. Just three seasons ago, the Spurs made history by winning the most consecutive titles at nine, passing the Celtics previous mark of 8 straight championship runs. But to win this year's title would align San Antonio with LA & Boston as the winningest franchise in NBA history--ever, period.

And to, then, win another one potentially? One can dream, but first the Spurs will have to win sixteen games, and with the new bracket design, they will likely come across and must defeat the Nets, Warriors & Timberwolves before meeting most likely the Lakers or 76ers (if Vegas odds come to fruition) from the other side in the final match. The Spurs were able to avoid the Lakers last time around after a Game 7 spectacle for the Western Conference crown two seasons ago, and the 76ers have met San Antonio there for the last two years. Only this time, they've added James Harden (who hit 7-9 3PT shots in a Game 1 rout for Philly earlier today). It will be very tough title run.

"Nothing's gonna stop us," Brandon Ingram, the reigning consecutive Finals MVP, stated at practice today before tomorrow night's Game 1.

With eye on new-look playoffs, Spurs finish strong at the top.

To cap their season, the Spurs were met with four mini-wars against the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers. In the first game, the Spurs downed the Warriors, 108-99, ending the game on a 13-4 scoring punch. Golden State led by 7 after one, but the Spurs won the 2nd Quarter, 35-20. Giannis Antetokounmpo had 28 points & 20 rebounds, but Steph Curry shot 4-12 from 3PT range (22 points). For the Spurs, KCP had 18 points, hitting 4 threes. Dejounte Murray had 17 points, as did VanVleet. Andre Drummond commanded 17 rebounds, scored 16 points, and swatted The Greek Freak at the rim in a highlight chase-down sequence. Ingram & Fournier combined for 27 points in the win.

The next time around, the stat sheet would deceive you because Brandon Ingram had 29 points, shot almost 50%, but was hounded all game long by Giannis, who is up for Defensive Player of the Year honors this season and showed everyone why, saddening the home crowd as the Spurs failed to pull out the win. Antetokounmpo had 31 points, 17 rebounds with 2 blocks on a night where Steph Curry only scored 13 points. Kevin Knox, II, had 17 points. The Warriors came on strong in the 2nd Quarter, 28-16, then kept scorching the Spurs, 29-24 in the 3rd. San Antonio shot just 38%, losing 94-102 at home. Andre Drummond had 25 rebounds, with VanVleet scoring 19 on five threes.

For the Lakers, San Antonio came out determined to get revenge after a bitter loss last time around. Fred VanVleet scored 17 points in the 1st Quarter alone, bombing four 3PT shots on LeBron & co. The Lakers went cold after the 1st Quarter, en route to a 105-91 home loss as San Antonio never let up. Brandon Ingram scored 16 points. Luka Samanic looked good for 14 points. Andre Drummond had 20 rebounds, and Alex Caruso got the best of Derrick Rose, scoring 8 points with 3 assists (2 steals on Rose). In the loss, James had 23 points & 12 assists. Anthony Davis had 19 points, 10 rebounds. Both Holiday & Rose shot 3-14 from the field.

In the season finale, the other four Spurs players on the court mauled Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who made a buzzer-beating 3PT winner, to countless flash bulbs in front of the AT&T Center crowd, downing the Lakers who'd made a fiery comeback. It was his only 3PTer made in the game, tallying 13 points with 3 defensive steals. The point spread in all four quarters epitomized this bitter rivalry: 21-21, 27-25 (LA), 20-23 (SA) & 26-26 for a 94-95 victory to end the season. The Spurs finished 70-12, overall, after a game that saw LeBron & AD strong-arm their way into the lead. But it was Andre Drummond (22 rebounds, 8 points, 4 blocks) that dunked it home after Fred VanVleet's shot fell short. LeBron James (23 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists) would seemingly put the nail in the coffin with 4.4s left, hitting the go-ahead jumper in the clutch. But 1.2s was all the time KCP needed to become a hero!

The Rest: Anthony Davis won player of the game honors, scoring 32 points & 8 rebounds with 3 blocks. Steven Adams had 19 rebounds. A blight on the night was an 0-5 stroke by J.J. Redick, and the Lakers definitely needed more from the Duke sniper, totaling only 3 made 3PT shots as a team.

The Spurs were led by Brandon Ingram's 27 points & 12 rebounds (4 steals). Fred VanVleet had 16 points, hitting four threes including one in the final minutes that kept the Spurs in the mix. Dejounte Murray had 15 points, coming back into the game after the Lakers took a 10-PT lead (57-47), stole the inbound pass and jammed the ball home. Murray had 4 steals. The Spurs, despite KCP's stellar dagger, got lucky, as Evan Fournier had a rough time shooting the ball, going 2-11 & 0-7 from 3PT range.