Welcome to The Lab, FiveThirtyEight’s basketball podcast. On Thursday’s show (May 10, 2018), Neil and Kyle preview both conference finals matchups. They discuss how the Celtics overcame injury after injury to make the Eastern Conference finals, revel in the Cleveland Cavaliers’ remarkable play against the Toronto Raptors, and wonder whether the Western Conference finals are […]
Even with home-court advantage, there was little reason to think the Boston Celtics should be favored in their conference semifinal series against the Philadelphia 76ers. As Boston was struggling to grind out a seven-game first-round victory over the Milwaukee Bucks, Philly was resting up, having dispatched the Miami Heat with relative ease. And while the […]
The Cleveland Cavaliers that swept the top-seeded Toronto Raptors out of the postseason in dominant fashion looked completely different from the Cavs team that eked out 50 wins in the regular season. And with good reason: The bulk of Cleveland’s postseason minutes have gone to, quite literally, a different team. Through the first two rounds […]
Welcome to The Lab, FiveThirtyEight’s basketball podcast. On Thursday’s show (May 3, 2018), Neil and Kyle discuss Utah’s impressive win in Houston to even up the series, replay the Raptors’ terrible fourth quarter against the Cavs in Game 1 of their series, and touch on Stephen Curry’s return for the Golden State Warriors. The Lab […]
Welcome to The Lab, FiveThirtyEight’s basketball podcast. On Monday’s show (April 30, 2018), Neil and Kyle preview the conference semifinals. They’re skeptical of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ chances against the Toronto Raptors, they’re in awe of the Houston Rockets’ offense, and they wonder whether the Sixers are the favorite in the Eastern Conference. The Lab will […]