It's hardly a certainty that the No. 1 seeds in the conference playoffs will reach the NBA Finals. It's happened that way only 11 times in the last 35 years.

These playoffs might be about parity as well.

It's probably wouldn't come as overly surprising if No. 6 Brooklyn advanced from the Eastern Conference, or if a seventh-seeded Memphis team got hot and escaped from the Western Conference. Or if eighth-seeded Atlanta knocked off top-seeded Indiana, considering the Hawks blew the Pacers out earlier this month already.

There was a poll of NBA general managers before the season, in which 76 percent of them picked Miami as the eventual 2014 champion. Things seem a lot more open now.

Courtesy of (AP)

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