2016 All-Playoff Teams: LeBron James, Klay Thompson shine brightest

Our experts reward the cream of the playoff crop from each conference.

The NBA Finals begin Thursday at Oracle Arena as the Golden State Warriors look to repeat vs. the Cleveland Cavaliers. But before our last playoff series tips off, we wanted to take a look back at the best performances from the playoffs. So we got together and made our picks for the five best players from each conference and a MVP to go along with it.

Our selections were fairly uniform, with a few interesting twists. Zach Harper left Russell Westbrook off his list in favor of Draymond Green. I excluded Stephen Curry based on his injury absence, while most of the others have him in, and two of our writers selected him as MVP.

The most interesting is how much respect we as a group had for what Paul George did in a round-one loss to Toronto. George was phenomenal, a reminder that he is a top-level player in this league.

Here's a look at our All-NBA-Playoff Teams and MVPs for both conferences.

EASTERN CONFERENCE ALL-PLAYOFFS TEAM

Bill Reiter @sportsreiter	Ken Berger @KBergCBS	Matt Moore @MattMooreCBS
Zach Harper @TalkHoops	James Herbert @outsidethenba	Ananth Pandian @AnanthPandian

WESTERN CONFERENCE ALL-PLAYOFFS TEAM

Bill Reiter @sportsreiter	Ken Berger @KBergCBS	Matt Moore @MattMooreCBS
Zach Harper @TalkHoops	James Herbert @outsidethenba	Ananth Pandian @AnanthPandian

EASTERN CONFERENCE PLAYOFFS MVP

Bill Reiter @sportsreiter	Ken Berger @KBergCBS	Matt Moore @MattMooreCBS
LeBron James	LeBron James	LeBron James
Zach Harper @TalkHoops	James Herbert @outsidethenba	Ananth Pandian @AnanthPandian
LeBron James	LeBron James	LeBron James

WESTERN CONFERENCE PLAYOFFS MVP

Bill Reiter @sportsreiter	Ken Berger @KBergCBS	Matt Moore @MattMooreCBS
Stephen Curry	Klay Thompson	Klay Thompson
Zach Harper @TalkHoops	James Herbert @outsidethenba	Ananth Pandian @AnanthPandian
Stephen Curry	Klay Thompson	Klay Thompson

Klay Thompson has been wild in the playoffs USATSI