By: JJ Lanier

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

Watching the NBA Playoffs recently has reminded me a lot of the “Twilight” movies; you sit through an awful lot of predictable scenarios and boredom, just praying that the end will justify the means.

The last three years haven’t felt much like the playoffs as much as a long, drawn out coronation to the inevitable; a Cleveland/Golden State finals. This year, for a variety reasons, has been different.

For one, a Cavs/Warriors finals matchup for the fourth year in a row seems about as likely as Bella ever choosing Jacob over Edward.

Golden State has looked great so far but with Houston waiting in the wings, the Warriors are anything but a sure thing to make it to the finals.

Meanwhile, Eastern Conference is completely wide open and out of the four remaining teams, Cleveland is probably the least likely team to win the conference.

Not only has the open field added a little more excitement to the playoffs, but there are a plethora of storylines that are just as intriguing as the next.

You have a young Philadelphia team, that may have the most talent remaining in the East, and they are enjoyable to watch, both on and off the court. For the love of God, I think they’ve even made JJ Redick….likeable.

There’s Brad Stevens and the job he’s doing with Boston. He has the Celtics winning with Al Horford and bunch of talented players that aren’t old enough to rent a car. Stevens is showing not only is he one of the best young coaches in the league, but he’s one of the best, period. (On a side note, I’m not sure I’ve ever been more excited about a second round matchup than I am about this Boston/Philadelphia one.)

The Utah Jazz’s Donovan Mitchell is putting up numbers for a rookie that literally have not been seen in 30 years. This is a guy who just last year was told by his college coach, Rick Pitino, that he wasn’t ready for the NBA. I guess Pitino didn’t like that Mitchell was more of a Nike guy? I don’t know.

Oklahoma City, Utah’s first round opponent, was even fun to watch, but for a completely different reason.

Then, of course, you have LeBron playing some of the best basketball of his career. People joke around about how far LeBron could make it in the playoffs if it was just him and four guys from the local YMCA. I had no idea Cleveland would take it to heart and actually see what would happen.

And don’t forget whether or not Toronto can overcome the mental hurdle of getting past Cleveland, or if Houston’s style of play can sustain itself throughout the course of the playoffs.

Like I said, it’s one great storyline after another.

Then again, all the great headlines and Finals possibilities don’t mean a thing if the games aren’t good. Up to this point, most of the games have been extremely compelling. Even the ones that haven’t necessarily been great have at least had something else happen that added a little extra excitement to the night.

If you haven’t watched the NBA playoffs for the past few years, I don’t blame you. However, if you haven’t been watching them this year, you need to. They’ve been everything the NBA could possibly have hoped they would be.

Basically, they’ve been the equivalent of “Twilight”, you know, if they took out everything but the Anna Kendrick scenes.