NBA begins highly competitive playoff

Bruce Smith Staff Writer

The NBA regular season came to an end on April 9. This season was one to remember, and with the playoffs starting on April 15, fans are sure to have even more excitement over the next two months.

The playoffs are divided into two sides, the Eastern and Western Conferences.

The East is headlined by the 2021 champions, the Milwaukee Bucks.

The Bucks went an impressive 58-24 in the regular season and are led by star forward and former MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Although the Bucks are the clear favorite in the East, the two-seed Boston Celtics have had an impressive year so far and are backed by superstar talent in Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.

“The Celtics are, for sure, winning the championship this year,” said Joshua Hammond. “I’ve been a Celtics fan for most of my life, and I feel very confident in this year’s team and know we will make some noise in June.”

After losing in the championship last year, the Celtics are out for revenge and are definitely a team looking to make a long run.

In the West, the Denver Nuggets are the headline team after going 5329 in the regular season.

The Nuggets are a large team backed by last year’s MVP, Nikola Jokić.

Jokić had another impressive year this season, averaging 24.5 points, 11.8 rebounds and 9.8 assists per game.

Even though the Nuggets are the one-seed, everyone is talking about last year’s champions, the Golden State Warriors.

The six-seed Warriors had a quiet season, going 44-38.

However, star guards Steph Curry and Klay Thompson have some of the most experience in the playoffs and are sure to have their squad ready for whoever they are matched up against.

“I feel like the Warriors could be the oneseed or the eight-seed and everyone would pick them to win,” said sophomore Austin Sloan, a GC basketball player. “I guess it’s just the Steph Curry effect, and no matter what team he is on, you always have to give them a chance.”

The Western Conference is packed with star teams and star players and has the potential for some crazy upsets.

Another team to look out for is Georgia’s own Atlanta Hawks.

The senior craves competition, wins and success, which she displays with her play.

These qualities made her the X-factor against Augusta and are sure to lead to more impressive performances.

The Hawks are the seven-seed in the Eastern Conference and have a really tough road if they want to make it to the NBA Finals this year.

“I would love nothing more than for the Hawks to win the championship this year,” said Will Thomas. “However, I think we stand little to no chance of even making it out of the first round, but I will still cheer them on proudly.”

The Hawks will most likely be the underdog in every game they play in these playoffs, so if they do make it far, it would be one great Cinderella story for the city of Atlanta.

The NBA Playoffs officially kicked off on April 15. Games are broadcast on ABC, ESPN, NBA TV and TNT.

Drag Show

Continued from page 1 Rogers, who is also known as the drag queen “Tina,” has become a crowd favorite at the past two shows.

“The name ‘Tina’ came from my first day of college,” Rogers said. “There was a hypnotist show the first night that I was here, and I volunteered to go on stage. One of the things the hypnotist made us do was make our own superhero. The first name I thought of was ‘Tina.’”

Through drag, Rogers has developed a sense of community along with more con- fidence within his abilities as a performer.

“The other queens were helpful when I had to change costumes for the show,” Rogers said. “They helped me out when I needed help. At the end, there was that whole thing when we all got up on stage, and I liked the support that everyone gave. I needed it. I needed some motivation and inspiration.”

The preparation for these types of shows is quite extensive for the queens, with them having to focus on perfecting not only their dance moves but also their hair, makeup, costumes and nails.

“From start to finish, for rigorously planning, three weeks ahead of time, planning out when I was going to practice with nails on,” Rogers said. “The actual day of, it took me three hours: two for makeup and one to get dressed and do my hair. It took me about 10 minutes to take off later that night.”

Although this show has been a GC tradition since the early 2000s, it did not always take place in Buffingtons.

“It was changed over to Buffingtons in either 2010 or 2012,” Murphy said. “It was usually at Russell or Peabody Auditorium or Magnolia.

But a student that had already been performing drag outside of GC thought it would be cool to do a community show, and the drag queens can actually go into the crowd at Buffs. We’ve held it there ever since.”