Somewhere James Worthy’s beard is smiling. Why? Because modern NBA players have stumbled upon a secret he patented years ago while winning titles in the 80’s. Want to successfully advance through the NBA Playoffs? Then grow a beard; the data came back from the lab and the science can’t be disputed.

More players are rocking full beards than any time in recent memory. In the Mavericks vs. Thunder series the Mavs DeShawn Stevenson’s “Neck Forest” is only rivaled by the Thunder’s James Harden who we covered earlier in the week. On the other side of the bracket, the Bulls double trouble bearded combo of Carlos Boozer and Joakim Noah are outnumbering LeBron’s “mane” two to one but the series is even. No matter who wins either Conference Final, we’re bound to see some serious beard on beard action in the Finals.