NBA Playoffs: One thing to watch for each Game 7 participant

With two Game 7s concluding the Conference Semi-Finals of the NBA Playoffs, here is one thing to watch for each team partaking in the Game 7s.

There’s nothing like a do-or-die scenario in sports. It’s why people love the NCAA March Madness Tournament. The unpredictability of a one-off game to decide who advances to the next round creates a level of excitement that is tough to find during a seven-game series in the NBA Playoffs. But on Mother’s Day this year, we get a pair of Game 7s that will put a cap on this year’s Conference Semi-Finals.

Since the halfway point of the NBA season, the conference semis has been much anticipated. With LeBron James out of the Eastern Conference, a non-LeBron team would represent the conference in the NBA Finals, and four teams separated themselves from the rest. In the Western Conference, it was the Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets, and then a number of teams that could fill out the final four.

Both one seeds are into the Conference Finals, with the Milwaukee Bucks dismantling the Boston Celtics in five games and the Warriors overcoming an injury to Kevin Durant to beat the Rockets in six games. These two are the favorites in their respective conferences, but that doesn’t matter on May 12 with two Game 7s at the forefront of the NBA landscape.

There are multiple factors that go into deciding one game, let alone a Game 7 to advance to the Conference Finals. But there’s always one area of the game that stands out. Here is one thing to watch for each of the four teams.