1984 NBA Playoffs sim

The NBA has gone through many iterations of popularity. In 1984, the NBA was growing in popularity. Magic and Kareem's Lakers were batting with Larry Bird's Celtics for league supremacy, and there were many stories throughout the league that made it more interesting. However, only twelve teams made the playoffs.

In 1983, the 45 win Kansas City Kings did not make the playoffs in the Western Conference, while 43 win Atlanta did. A new commissioner by the name of David Stern wants to increase interest in the league. The NBA has increased the amount of playoff teams from twelve to sixteen. This will increase the interest in four more cities during April, a time when the league's playoffs often has been forgotten with baseball and hockey playoffs going on.

The NBA hopes that better television coverage will occur as well. CBS has tape-delayed many playoff games over the past few seasons, including several championship games, which have irritated fans to no end. Other games have been aired at 11:30 at night on the East Coast, causing young fans to be unable to watch many of these games.

The Eastern and Western Conference will only be a regular-season deal this season. The top 16 teams, regardless of conference, will play in the NBA playoffs. The race for the 16 spots has been tight all season. All but 3 teams were in the running at the All-Star break.

However, the Western Conference proved to be the dominant league over the rest of the season. 10 of the conference's 12 teams made the playoffs. The Spurs and the Warriors clinched playoff spots. San Antonio hadn't missed the playoffs since they joined the NBA; on the other hand, the Bay Area hadn't tasted playoff basketball since 1977.

The playoffs will begin April 17 and 18 with eight five game first round series, a first in the NBA, wanting to emulate the NHL who has had this since the 1979-80 season.

Here are the pairings:

(16) Golden State vs. (1) Boston
(9) Utah vs. (8) New Jersey
(15) Kansas City vs. (2) LA Lakers
(10) Dallas vs. (7) New York
(14) Denver vs. (3) Philadelphia
(11) Seattle vs. (6) Portland
(13) Atlanta vs. (4) Milwaukee
(12) Phoenix vs. (5) Detroit

Golden State won the tiebreak over the San Antonio Spurs to make the playoffs by winning the season series over the Spurs. Two of these series happened in real life (Kings-Lakers and Hawks-Bucks), but the rest of the series will be played out.

Here is the schedule:

4/17. All games will air with local announcers, all times Eastern- Golden State Warriors at Boston Celtics, 8:05pm, ESPN, Jim Simpson, Dick Vitale. Also on WBZ, Boston (Gil Santos, Bob Cousy) and KICU San Jose/San Francisco with local announcers. '
 

Phoenix Suns at Detroit Pistons, 8:10pm, KNXV Phoenix, blacked out in Detroit.
Atlanta Hawks at Milwaukee Bucks, 8:10pm, Sportsvue (Milwaukee)
Dallas Mavericks at New York Knicks, 8:20pm, MSG Network, KTVT Fort Worth.
Seattle Supersonics at Portland Trail Blazers, 10:30pm, KSTW Seattle, KOIN Portland.

The four early-evening games will be covered like the NCAA Tournament is on ESPN. Coverage will be hosted in the studio by Bob Ley, who will send viewers across the country getting viewers to the most compelling game. The other 3 game 1s will be Wednesday night, also covered by ESPN.

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