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There’s almost so much focus being placed on the series between the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Lakers that I’m not sure that everyone realizes it’s not for the NBA championship.

Stephen Curry and Lebron James are probably the two biggest names left in the playoffs, but Curry is 35 years old while James is older at 38 years old. While they’re both definitely Hall of Famers when they decide to hang it up you have to wonder how long before the NBA realizes that they’re going to need new stars to replace these two and this is the time to try and build them.

Joel Embiid just won his first MVP award and is just 29 years old. Maybe instead of spending the majority of the time reporting on Game 5 between the Lakers and the Warriors maybe someone should be talking about the performance Embiid had last night.

In Game 5 of the Philadelphia 76ers series with the Boston Celtics Embiid scored 33 points grabbed 7 rebounds and blocked 4 shots as he led the 76ers to a 115-103 victory over the Celtics. Philadelphia now has three games to two lead in the series and they’ll have a chance to close the series out and advance to the Eastern conference finals tomorrow night at home.

Boston was the #2 seed in the Eastern conference, so it would be considered a slight upset if they lost this series to the 76ers who were the 3rd seed.

Embiid did have some help in Game 5 from his teammates. Tyrese Maxey scored 30 points while17 points and 10 assists while Harris had James Harden and Tobias Harris each had a double-double in the game. Harden had 16 points and 11 rebounds.

Can the 76ers get one more big effort out of the MVP Embiid and send the Celtics home? Or will Boston be able to bounce back and find a way to win both games 6 and 7 to take the series?

In the other Western conference series, the Denver Nuggets won Game 5 118-102 over the Phoenix Suns. The win gives Denver a three to two lead in the series, and they’ll have a chance to close out the Suns Thursday night in Phoenix.

Tonight, the Miami Heat have a chance to wrap up their series against the New York Knicks. Miami leads this series three games to one and they’ll try to end the Knicks season tonight in New York.

After the Heat/Knicks game will get the game, everybody wants to talk about as the Warriors try to keep their season alive as they host the Lakers in Game 5 of that series.

So what do you think happens tonight. Can the Knicks and the warriors keep their seasons alive? Or will the Heat and the Lakers be able to wrap up those series tonight?

Another thing that we haven’t heard much about is how well the Heat are doing. They entered the playoffs as the 8th seed in the Eastern conference because of a loss in the play-in tournament. Miami then sent the #1 seeded Milwaukee Bucks home in five games and probably cost now former Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer his job. Budenholzer was fired after the Bucks lost their series to the Heat.

Don’t forget that Miami is making this run without Tyler Herro who played in just one playoff game before breaking his wrist. Miami is also missing Victir Oladipo who appeared in just two playoff games before injuring his knee. Neither player will return for the remainder of the Heat’s playoff run. Jimmy Butler also missed a game with a ankle sprain.

Butler has really stepped up his game in the playoffs. Butler is averaging 33.5 points per game in the eight games he played in. Butler is also leading the team in assists per game at 5.1. Bam Adebayo has added 17.6 points per game and is the team’s leading rebounder averaging 9.3 rebounds per game.

Miami is also getting contribution from some players whose names you might not know. Gabe Vincent, Caleb Martin and Max Strus have appeared in all nine of Miami’s playoffs games and are all averaging double figures in scoring. All three are playing close to 30 minutes a game for the Heat.

Well, that wraps it up for the day. Don’t forget to look me up on Twitter, I’m @Burketime.