The NBA playoffs tend to be the chalky-ist of all the postseasons in professional sports, with the higher seeds finding ways to prevail and proceed. Yes, there's the very occasional seventh or eighth seed that shocks everyone, but the reason we remember them -- think of Denver's Dikembe Mutombo in ecstasy after swatting away now-defunct Seattle or Jimmy Butler and the 2023 play-in Heat going first round nuclear against the top-seeded Bucks on the way to the Finals -- is that it happens so infrequently. The 2026 postseason has been a little wonky in the sense that the lower seeds have gotten off to a decent start in the Eastern Conference, which isn't a huge surprise since there wasn't all that much separation between many of the squads during the regular season.…