The Denver Nuggets hold a 3-0 lead over the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. They'll have a chance to complete the sweep Monday night. Nikola Jokic has proven to be far too much for anyone to handle so there's a very good chance it's a four-game breeze. The Miami Heat, somehow, hold a 3-0 lead over the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals with the chance to give Joe Mazzulla more time to screen The Town beginning tomorrow night. Jimmy Butler is flirting with the line that seperates mortals from gods and the Gabe Vincent-Caleb Martin duo is suddenly incredible, so there's a good chance that one could be done and dusted before you show for work on Wednesday.
And all credit to those teams. But you're probably asking how does any of this affect me?
Well, because the NBA Finals will not begin until June 1, no matter what happens in either series. So it's likely the world will have to find something else to do with eight full days without any playoff basketball. Which would be a tremendous withdrawal from waking up most mornings over the past month to an episode of Charmed already in progress.
The NBA Finals are now a big enough event that forcing everyone to rebook their travel dates and for ESPN/ABC to deviate from its carefully constructed schedule. No amount of complaining or bellyaching online is going to change that, so you'll just have to sit through an aggravating fait accompli for over a week. Not great, Bob.
On the bright side there is a long Memorial Day weekend that could potentially make half of the wait go by a bit quicker. Stuff your face with enough bratwurst and guzzle enough domestic beer and no NBA Finals to watch becomes the least of your concerns.
Perhaps the most interesting thing to monitor here are the NBA-centric shows, which will be forced into a tough spot. There are only so many ways to preview the matchup or debate legacies or anything that might whet the appetite. Producers will have to be judicious in how hard they hit the topic for fear of fatigue. Hell, things might get so bad that one of them will actually talk baseball or hockey or golf or something else.
Could be strange times ahead.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news if you didn't know that this was looming on the horizon. We just want you to start to make whatever peace you can with the situation.
This article was originally published on thebiglead as Hope You Like Waiting a Long Time for the NBA Finals to Start.