Basketball fans excited about NBA play-offs on Dstv

Basketball fans can look forward to thrills and spills from the world's best basketball league, as ESPN 2 (on DStv) brings live action from the 2019-20 National Basketball Association (NBA) season play-offs, September 4-10.

The first live match available to viewers this week between Celtics and Raptors arrived on  September 4, followed by the Clippers versus Nuggets match.

The NBA Playoffs were hit by delays last week when the Milwaukee Bucks sparked a boycott in protest against the police shooting of Jacob Blake in their home state of Wisconsin.

The NBA has a long and proud history of protests in favour of civil and social justice, and this was yet another example of basketball players, teams, and administrators leading by example. The action resumed over this past weekend.

"I told coach I'm not playing this game," said Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo of their clash against Orlando Magic last midweek.

"I can't leave my teammates behind. They felt a type of way about all the frustration that was going on, it wasn't in the right space to play the game. A hundred percent fully support them.

"Win or lose, I support them. Going out there or not going out there, staying in the locker room, I support them. So, we decided as a team not to go out there, and that's how it happened."

"The key to this thing is we all needed to take a breath," said LA Clippers coach Doc Rivers of the hiatus. "We needed a moment to breathe. It's not lost on me that George Floyd [whose death at the hands of police sparked Black Lives Matter protests earlier in the year] didn't get that moment. But we did. And we took it. And the players took it. And they got to refocus on the things they wanted to focus on outside of their jobs."

On Saturday, the Heats will entertain the Bucks in Game-3 while Game-4 between the Celtics and Raptors and Game-2 between the Clippers and Nuggets will be on Sunday to round out the weekend's basketball action.

One team which has most ominously (as far as the rest of the league is concerned) progressed into the Conference semi-finals is the LA Lakers, who defeated the Portland Trail Blazers 5-1.

"We got better throughout the series," said star man LeBron James.

"We knew we were coming into a series versus a hot Portland team that was playing the best basketball inside the bubble along with Phoenix. So we wanted to just come in and try to work our game, get better and better as the games went on, as the series went on. And I believe we did that." James stated.