The NBA season begins on tonight, with a double header as the Philadelphia 76ers visit Boston to play their arch rivals the Celtics. The defending back-back champions, the Golden State Warriors start their quest of a three peat when they play the Oklahoma City Thunder without Russell Westbrook (Recovering from arthroscopic knee surgery) and there's no timetable for his return; Dennis Schroder will start in his place at point-guard. 

Welcome NBA fans to Philly Sports Passion Power Rankings, where I will be ranking all 30 teams every Sunday. The 2018/19 NBA season, starts this week as I will attempt to rank all 30 teams basic off what happen during the off season and what moves each team had made. As the season moves along it will be basic on how each team plays every week and the rosters they have at the time but for now it's just how I feel about each team. Also my buddy, Ryan Kowalec will be doing his own Rankings but it will be just his top ten each week and his thoughts. So let's get started with the first Rankings of the season.

By Eric Jacinto, Chris Larson and Ryan Waterman 

Tonight, is Game one of the 2018 NBA Finals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the defending Champions, Golden State Warriors. This will be the fourth straight year that these two teams play each other. 

The Cavaliers, beat the Indiana Pacers in seven games, swept the number one team in the East this season the Toronto Raptors and beat the Boston Celtics in seven games to get to the NBA Finals. 

The Warriors, beat the San Antonio Spurs in five games, beat the New Orleans Pelicans in five games and beat the number one seeded Houston Rockets (had best record in NBA this season)  in seven games on the road to the NBA Finals.   

The 2018 NBA Finals Schedule:

Game 2: Sunday, June 3 (@ GSW) 

Game 3: Wednesday, June 6 (@ Cleveland) 

Game 4: Friday, June 8 (@ Cleveland) 

*Game 5: Monday, June 11 (@ GSW) 

*Game 6: Thursday, June 14 (@ Cleveland) 

*Game 7: Sunday, June 17 (@ GSW) 

*If Necessary 

The 2018 NBA Conference Finals, start this afternoon, as the Cleveland Cavaliers battle the Boston Celtics for the second straight consecutive season in the Eastern Conference Finals. The Cavaliers will be looking to win their four straight Eastern Conference championship and LeBron James will be looking to win his eighth straight East titles. The Western Conference championship begin tomorrow night as the defending NBA Champions, the Golden State Warriors face the Houston Rockets; the Warriors will be looking to win their fourth straight Western Conference championship.  

The 2018 Semifinals of the NBA playoffs, have started as the Golden State Warriors are playing the New Orleans Pelicans tonight. The Houston Rockets and Utah Jazz will play game one tomorrow afternoon. The Boston Celtics will play the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday night in game one after beating the Milwaukee Bucks tonight in game 7 of their first round match.  The Toronto Raptors will host game one on Tuesday night versus the winner of the Cleveland/Indiana game 7 tomorrow afternoon.