NBA Playoff Bracket 2022: Complete Guide to Matchups and Championship Predictions

Looking back at the 2022 NBA playoffs, I still get that familiar thrill thinking about how the bracket unfolded. As someone who's been analyzing basketball for over fifteen years, I've learned that playoff brackets tell stories beyond mere matchups—they reveal team psychology, coaching adjustments, and those magical moments when role players become legends. What struck me most about the 2022 bracket was how it defied conventional wisdom from the very beginning, reminding me that regular season performance often means very little when the real pressure begins.

I remember studying the Eastern Conference first-round matchups and thinking how the Miami-Atlanta series would demonstrate this perfectly. The Heat had just posted a 53-29 record while the Hawks barely scraped into the playoffs at 43-39, yet something about Atlanta's late-season surge under Nate McMillan made me hesitant to predict a straightforward Miami victory. The numbers showed Miami's defensive rating was historically good at 108.4, but my gut told me Trae Young's playoff experience from the previous year's conference finals run would matter more than people anticipated. Watching that series unfold, I found myself thinking about how teams handle playoff pressure differently—it reminded me of that La Salle situation from their recent season where they experienced their worst opening three-game stretch in nearly two decades after losing two of their three openers. That kind of early adversity either breaks a team or forges incredible resilience, and we saw both outcomes across different playoff series.

The Western Conference first round presented what I considered the most fascinating analytical challenge—the Golden State versus Denver matchup. Having followed Steph Curry's career since his Davidson days, I had a personal bias toward wanting to see him succeed in his return from injury, but the numbers concerned me. Denver's offensive rating with Nikola Jokić on the floor during the regular season was 116.8, and I worried Golden State's small-ball lineups might struggle against his unique skill set. Yet what we witnessed was a masterclass in playoff adaptation—Steve Kerr's decision to start Jordan Poole changed everything, proving that sometimes coaching intuition trumps regular season analytics. This series demonstrated why I love playoff basketball—the adjustments between games, the strategic chess matches, and the emergence of unexpected heroes.

When we reached the conference semifinals, the Boston-Milwaukee showdown became what I'd consider the actual championship series in terms of intensity and quality. I've always been fascinated by Giannis Antetokounmpo's evolution, having watched him grow from a raw prospect into arguably the most dominant force in basketball. The way Boston defended him—using Grant Williams as the primary defender for stretches—was either brilliant or foolish depending on which game you watched. That series went the full seven games, with the Celtics ultimately winning by an average margin of just 4.3 points across those games. The statistical depth of that matchup still fascinates me—Milwaukee's defensive efficiency rating of 106.9 versus Boston's 107.6 shows how evenly matched they were.

The championship round between Golden State and Boston presented what I saw as a clash of basketball philosophies—the established dynasty against the rising powerhouse. Having covered the Warriors since their "We Believe" era, I had tremendous appreciation for their core's journey, yet Boston's physicality and defensive versatility concerned me. What ultimately decided the series, in my view, was Golden State's championship experience—they'd been there before, knew how to handle the pressure, and understood how to win even when not playing their best basketball. Steph Curry's 34-point performance in Game 4, when the Warriors were down 2-1, was the turning point that demonstrated why experience matters in these moments.

Reflecting on the complete 2022 playoff bracket, what stands out most isn't just the championship outcome but the narrative threads that connected each round. The way teams responded to adversity—like that La Salle team facing their worst start in decades—separated the contenders from the pretenders. The Warriors' victory reinforced my long-held belief that playoff success requires both superstar talent and institutional knowledge of winning. While my predictions weren't perfect—I had Phoenix beating Dallas in the Western Conference finals—the 2022 bracket reminded me why basketball remains the most beautifully unpredictable sport to analyze. The numbers provide the framework, but the human elements of resilience, adjustment, and sheer will ultimately write the stories we remember.